On Monday, 31 March activists will be gathering in Brussels for a demonstration demanding human rights in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The protest coincides with the meetings of Chinese president Xi Jinping with the European leaders Herman Van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso and Martin Schulz as well as with the King of the Belgians and members of the Belgian government during his first official visit to Europe.
European citizens, human rights activists, members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities, Chinese activists, and Falun Gong practitioners will be demonstrating on the streets of Brussels to voice their concerns about the human rights situation in China, Xinjiang and Tibet, which has very much deteriorated over the past year, and call upon the EU leaders to put human rights at the core of their talks with president Xi.
“The European Union has failed to define an efficient strategy to foster human rights in its relations with China. Its efforts are mainly focused on a dialogue that has shown its inability to lead to significant results. Now that the European Union is negotiating new agreements with China including an investment agreement, we fear that human rights do not receive due attention, and we want to recall the commitment taken by the European Union to effectively place human rights in the heart of its external policies” said Karim Lahidji, President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
The EU Policy Director of International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Vincent Metten pointed out that Xi Jinping’s presidency has so far failed to bring about any significant change from his predecessors’ policy on Tibet. “On the contrary, president Xi has presided over a more systematic and deepening crackdown in Tibet and a deteriorating human rights environment across the PRC,” Vincent Metten remarked. “Those concerns must be addressed by the European leaders, when meeting president Xi.”
The Secretary General of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), Marino Busdachin, has marked the occasion by affirming that “UNPO strongly urges EU leaders to raise the question of ongoing human rights abuses and severe marginalization faced by ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in their talks with the Chinese leadership. President Xi’s visit is a unique opportunity for EU leadership to bring attention to the peoples’ struggle to exercise self-determination – a right guaranteed by international law-, particularly as Tibetans, Inner Mongolians and Uyghurs have been systematically denied adequate education, employment opportunities and healthcare, and have been victims of forced evictions, arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings on an alarming scale.”
“Fresh off telling the Human Rights Council that it agrees to ensure lawyers and individuals working to advance human rights can practice their profession freely, four prominent human rights lawyers are currently under detention in northeastern China without access to counsel for simply investigating arbitrary detention. Less than a week after telling the UN that no one in China suffers reprisal for taking part in international mechanisms, no credible investigation has been initiated into the death of rights defender Cao Shunli two weeks ago after a six-month detention following her attempt to participate in UN processes. 25 years after the Tiananmen Democracy Movement, EU leaders should relay to Xi Jinping the long-standing question of the Chinese people: where are our human rights?”, said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China.
Participants will be gathering on Monday, 31 March at 12:00 on Place du Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament. Civil society organisations, the EU officials and representatives of the Chinese, Tibetan as well as Uyghur communities will hold speeches until 14:00. On Tuesday, 1 April a demonstration is planned in Bruges due to President Xi’s visit to the College of Europe. It will start at 13:30 at Minnewaterpark.
The demonstration is jointly organised by FIDH, ICT, UNPO, the Tibetan Community in Belgium and the Tibetan Youth Congress.
Further information:
Catherine Absalom
EU Liaison Officer
International Federation for Human Rights
cabsalom@fidh.org
+ 32 (0) 2 6094423
Vincent Metten
EU Policy Director
International Campaign for Tibet
Vincent.metten@savetibet.eu
+32 (0) 473990440
+ 32 (0) 2 6094410
Iva Petkovic
Project Assistant
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
iva@unpo.org
Tel: +32 (0) 251 314 59