Published by: World Tibet Network News Wednesday, November 26, 1997

November 24, 1997

Vancouver, Canada: In their meeting this week in Vancouver, APEC leaders will discuss trade liberalization and expansion in the Asia/Pacific region. In a parallel summit of non-governmental, human rights, and indigenous people's organizations, delegates have demanded that human rights must form the foundation of any trade policies.

"It is unconscionable that the leaders of countries like China and Indonesia are here cutting trade deals without any mention of their abominable human rights records," said Janice Mantell, Director of the Berkeley, California-based International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet. "APEC is the perfect opportunity for democratic leaders to demand that human rights be respected by APEC Member States as a condition of trade. China's rampant violations of human rights in Tibet is a representative case where economic development and trade have been pursued at the expense of human rights; a situation increasingly aided by transnational corporations and world governments."

In Tibet, the failure to include human rights as the foundation for trade policy, has led to an economy that caters to Chinese settlers and that marginalizes Tibetans within their own country. A recent Canadian Government fact-finding mission found that Tibetans are not participating in their own economy. "For any economic development in Tibet to be successful in the long-term," said Josh Schrei of the San Francisco-based Milarepa Fund, "the support of the Tibetan people will be required. That support, in turn, will require ending human rights abuses and granting the Tibetans genuine self-rule as the fundamental basis of any trade policy."

China has ratified a number of international human rights agreements, which it continues to ignore, including the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which China recently signed, and which guarantees the right to self-determination as recognized in the UN Charter. However, the government of China continues to deny these economic, social and cultural rights to the Tibetan people, whose country they have illegally occupied since 1949.

China, increasingly with the aid of foreign firms, exploits Tibet's natural resources and destroys the environment without the consent or participation of the Tibetan people. Its huge strip-mining and logging operations, and its large-scale hydroelectric projects like that at Yamdrok Tso are poisoning an already fragile environment, do not benefit the Tibetan people, and are a serious violation of the Tibetan's right to self-determination.

Additionally, the negative consequences of trade liberalization on worker's economic and social rights have been well documented. In the effort to open trade barriers, regulations protecting workers' rights are often negotiated away completely or reduced to the lowest common denominator among the participating countries.

A more egregious human rights violation is the use of prison labor as a significant component of China's economy in Tibet. China has used prison labor and conscripted civilian labor to build roads and other infrastructures to gain access to minerals and timber. Such forced labor violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Forced Labour Convention. There are also more than 1000 political prisoners in labor camps in Tibet whose forced labor violates international law.

"The US and Canadian administrations' policy of constructive engagement with China has failed to improve human rights," said Schrei. "Democratic leaders have an obligation not to sacrifice human rights in their desire for increased trade. Without respect for human rights, such economic policies will ultimately fail."

The People's Summit was attended by more than 20 Tibetans and Tibet support groups, including the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, the Washington DC-based International Campaign for Tibet, Canada Tibet Committee, The Milarepa Fund, The Tibetan Women's Association, the Tibetan Cultural Society of BC, and the Australia Tibet Council.

Janice Mantell, Executive Director , International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet 2288 Fulton Street, Suite 312, Berkeley, CA 947045 - e: iclt@igc.apc.org