Today, the Tibet NGO delegation continued lobbying governments for our wording on the document and speaking with visitors to our booth. We have begun gathering signatures on the petition to the Special Rapporteur on Housing Rights, Mr. Rajindar Sajar. The text of the petition reads:
PETITION TO THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HOUSING
On Behalf of the Tibetan People
Whereas, state-sanctioned forced evictions and emolitions take place in the cities and rural areas of Tibet, causing homelessness and displacement;
Wherear, approximately 6000 monastic cities in Tibet have been destroyed under the Chinese occupation, depriving Tibetans of their spiritual and cultural heritage;
Whereas, the Tibetan people are living under military occupation by the People's Republic of China and are therefore deprived of their civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights;
Whereas, the Special Rapporteur on Housing Rights, Mr. Rajindar Sajar, has stressed the indivisability and interdependence of all human rights (para 59, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1995/12);
Therefore, we the undersigned, request the Special Rapporteur on Housing, to lead a fact-finding mission to Tibet in order to investigate housing rights violations there and to recommend measure to correct them.
NAME COUNTRY SIGNATURE
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Please return to the Canada Tibet Committee, 4675 Coolbrook, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3X 2K7 before September 1, 1996.
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The Tibet NGO Delegation requests all Tibet supporters to duplicate this petition and collect as many names as possible, in solidarity with our signature campaign in Istanbul. After the World Conference on Women last year, over 35,000 names on a similar petition were forwarded to the office of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.
