UNITED NATIONS A General Assembly Distr. GENERAL A/HRC/7/NGO/5 21 February 2008 ENGLISH ONLY HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Seventh session Agenda item 3 PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF ALL HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT Written statement* submitted by Interfaith International, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31. [17 February 2008] • This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s). GE.08-10755 A/HRC/7/NGO/5 page 2 China Implements new Measures to control the recognition of Tibetan Reincarnation Lineages In July 2007, the China's State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) issued the 14 article legal measures on reincarnation, which came into effect on 1 September, clearly demonstrating the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) adamant attempt to undermine and tarnish the centuries-old Tibetan tradition of Buddhist reincarnate lineages. The new measure forbids any Tibetan Buddhist reincarnate-spiritual master living outside the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) from either being enthroned or exercising the religious right to recognize or confirm new reincarnations (Tibetan: Tulkus) thus effectively attempting to end the centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist lineages of spiritual masters and its practices. In August 2007, senior officials, including Liu Yandong, Head of the Communist Party United Front Work Department (UFWD), and Ye Xiaowen, Director of SARA, convened a national seminar in Beijing on ‘‘Tibetan Buddhism work,’’ and stressed that in the matter of seating Tibetan Buddhist reincarnated teachers, ‘‘our own come first.’’[1] The phrase underscores Party resolve to ensure that candidates for reincarnated teachers will from now on fulfil the Party’s political expectations, and that the Dalai Lama and other senior Tibetan Buddhist teachers living in exile will have no religious rights or influence on the process. Chinese officials at the above seminar emphasized that the Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism (MMR) must be implemented fully throughout the Tibetan areas of China and in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where many Mongols believe in Tibetan Buddhism. At an August 17–18 UFWD work forum in Lhasa, Director of the Tibet Autonomous Region UFWD, Lobsang Gyaltsen (Luosang Jiangcun), relayed the national guidelines to regional officials, and Zhang Yijiong, Deputy Secretary of the TAR Party Committee, called on attendees to ‘‘thoroughly implement the policy of the [Party] on religious work’’ and ‘‘energetically unite the religious and patriotic forces.’’ According to the official statement issued by the China's SARA, "All the reincarnations of living Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism must get government approval through submitting application; otherwise they are 'illegal or invalid'". It is obvious from this new measure that the centuries-old traditional Tibetan system of recognizing reincarnate lamas is made irrelevant with atheist Chinese government making itself the final authority on whether a potential reincarnation is a legitimate religious figure or not. The measures reflect the mindset of the present Chinese state, which has translated its ability to ensure control over the Tibetan areas to maintaining control over key religious leaders, such as Panchen Lama. Recognizing the authority and influence accorded to reincarnated lamas, on both the religious and social levels, the Chinese state’s religious policy in Tibet is focused on inserting its own power into this Buddhist hierarchy and preventing the influence of the Tibetan monasteries in exile. [1] ‘‘Our Own Come First’ in the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas,’’ Singtao Daily, 23 August 07 (Open Source Center, 13 September 07). The report does not state the date when the forum took place A/HRC/7/NGO/5 page 3 China’s latest move to undermine the core practices of Tibetan Buddhism’s reincarnation lineages has met with hostile global reaction. On 1 September last year, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy urged the Chinese authorities to conform to international human rights obligations, commitments that were reaffirmed on the occasion of China’s election as a member of the new United Nations Human Rights Council.[2] On 2nd September 2007, the Central Tibetan Administration in India denounced the MMR as 'ludicrous and unwarranted', 'replete with contradictory statements and wild claims, the document reflects the ulterior or true motives of the Chinese leadership.' [3] Freedom House said the new rules issued by the Chinese government were “both deeply offensive and [a] violation of basic religious principles.”[4] Indeed, the measures are antithetical to the ICCPR Article 18(1), (3)[ 5 ] and the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Rights or Belief, Article 6(g), which protect within the freedom to practice one’s religion – the freedom “to appoint, elect or designate by succession appropriate leaders”. The US Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated that China’s actions was: “In violation of international human rights standards, China continues to use its National Regulations on Religious Affairs and specious security claims to curtail the religious freedom of tens of millions of its citizen.”[6] Since September 1, the party and its 'religious department' will have the monopoly over the selection: 'No group or individual may without authorisation carry out any activities related to searching for or recognising reincarnating living Buddha soul children.' It practically means that the Communist Party of China forbids the Dalai Lama and other senior lamas living in exile to perform their centuries-old religious duties to preserve the lineages of great spiritual masters of Tibetan Buddhism. They are even threatened: 'Persons and units who are responsible for being in contravention of these measures and who, without authority, carry out living Buddha reincarnation affairs, shall be dealt administrative sanction by the people's government religious affairs departments... when a crime has been constituted, criminal responsibility shall be pursued. Mr. Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama's special envoy declared that 'These stringent new measures strike at the heart of Tibetan religious identity. They will only create further resentment among the Tibetan people and cannot override the Party's lack of legitimacy in the sphere of religion.'[7] With regard to reincarnation of next Dalai Lama, on 27 November at a gathering of religious leaders in Amritsar, India, the Dalai Lama clarified his position that 'The Tibetan nation is 2,000 years old. The Dalai Lama institution is relatively recent -- only a few centuries old. If I die, it will be a setback for the Tibetan people for some time. But then, the struggle will continue.' He added: 'If the Tibetan people decide that the Dalai Lama [2] http://www.tchrd.org/press/2007/pr20070901.html [3] http://www.tibet.net/en/prelease/2007/020907.html [4] http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=538 [5] See General Comment 22, par.4 [6] http://www.uscirf.gov/mediaroom/press/2007/August/USCIRF_concerned_over_New_Regs_for_Tibet.html [7] http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1159 A/HRC/7/NGO/5 page 4 institution is no longer relevant, then it will automatically cease to exist. If people feel that the institution of the Dalai Lama is still necessary, it will continue.' The Dalai Lama even spoke of the possibility of a referendum: 'When my physical condition becomes weak, then serious preparations (for a referendum) should happen.' He further elaborated: 'The very purpose of reincarnation is to carry out the tasks of the previous life that are not yet achieved. If I die while we are still refugees, my reincarnation, logically, will come outside Tibet, who will carry out the work I started.' A week earlier, in Japan, the Dalai Lama aired the possibility of naming the next Dalai Lama while he was still alive. Reacting to the Dalai Lama's comment that he was looking at "different methods or ways" of selecting a successor, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that the process would "violate religious rituals and historical conventions of Tibetan Buddhism" (Xinhua, November 22). The Dalai Lama's Special Envoy, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, said: "Such an uninformed response from Beijing betrays its own lack of legitimacy in this area. His Holiness was referring to options that exist in the future and that are deeply rooted in Tibetan Buddhist practice." Tibetan Buddhists believe that all enlightened beings have the ability to choose the mode, the nature, and the timing of their rebirth, and/or succession. Historically, the 'rule by incarnation' has not always been prevalent in Tibet; it was only established during the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617- 1682). In the 14th and 15th centuries for example, the hierarchs of the Sakya monastery ruled over the Land of Snows (as Tibet is also known to Tibetans); their succession was set up by way of 'transmission' from uncle to nephew. Contrary to what the present regime in Beijing may think, there are no rules fixed for eternity for the succession of Tibetan spiritual teachers. Some historians (one of them was Michael Aris, the late husband of Burmese leader Aug San Suu Kyi) believed that, at the beginning of the 17th century, two Dalai Lamas were alive at the same time (the sixth and the seventh reincarnations respectively). There was no fixed place either as to where a Dalai Lama should be reborn - - the fourth one, Yonten Gyatso was born in Mongolia while the 6th one, Tsangyang Gyatso, took birth in India (in Tawang district of today's Arunachal Pradesh). Since this is a religious matter, the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhist leaders are far more authorised and competent to interpret Buddhist traditions than atheist Communist China.