China: Tibetan Executed, Others Await Trial

World Social Forum: All human rights for all, to make another world possible

Porto Alegre -- As international civil society is debating the challenges of an increasingly globalised economy at the World Social Forum, Amnesty International stressed the need to truly globalise justice, human rights and accountability to counter inequality and the poverty, insecurity and repression in which millions of people worldwide are forced to live. "Greater attention to human rights in processes of global integration would provide a much-needed ethical foundation," said Paul Hoffman, Chair of Amnesty International's International Executive Committee. "Above all else it would remind us that every individual -- whatever their country -- deserves a life in dignity and freedom. Globalisation must be judged a failure unless it brings benefits to the most vulnerable and poor on the planet."

Greater global economic integration, including through foreign investment and an increase in trade, is a powerful force -- leading to migration, the loss of traditional livelihoods, and social and cultural upheaval as employment, patterns of consumption, and cultural preferences change. For human rights, the negative effects of globalization are visible in relation to all rights, but particularly for those people who are already marginalised.

To cite but a few examples, women who go to work in Mexican export assembly plants may do so to get better wages than they could in their villages, but many cases show the move exposes them to new forms of gender-based violence and abuse; street children in Africa, Asia and Latin America are exposed to a high risk of police abuse; the poor and marginalised are over represented in criminal statistics and see their fundamental rights routinely violated. Land activists in countries like Brazil are threatened and killed while indigenous people are expelled from their lands, often then sold to multinational businesses; demands for adequate working rights and conditions are often violently stifled, as was the case in Nigeria in August, when police and soldiers brutally repressed a peaceful demonstration of women at the gates of Shell Petroleum Development and Chevron Nigeria.

"A key to combat these negative trends can be to match the removal of barriers to trade with an equal removal of the barriers that prevent the vast majority of the world's population from fully enjoying the entirety of their rights, and to actively promote all human rights for all," said PaulHoffman. "All human rights for all means challenging the notion that some rights can be enjoyed in isolation, that the right to life can be separated from the right to food, water, work and medical care, or the right to freedom of expression from that to receive an education. It also means countering the argument that the rights of certain groups, individuals, or states can be sacrificed in the name of the security, rights or interests of others."

At the same time, the growing power wielded by private economic actors - including multinational companies - requires stronger legal mechanisms to ensure they can be held accountable for their direct or indirect participation in human rights abuses. "Existing international human rights standards place governments under an obligation to respect and protect human rights. As economic actors can have an impact on human rights, they too must be under an obligation to respect these rights," Paul Hoffman said, stressing that this was one of the main messages Amnesty International was taking to the World Economic Forum.

China: Tibetan Executed, Others Await Trial

(New York, January 28, 2003) -- China's execution of one Tibetan and the
suspended death sentence upheld on appeal of another raise serious
concerns about due process, particularly in politically sensitive cases,
Human Rights Watch said today. On Sunday, January 26, China executed
Lobsang Dhondrup, a Tibetan man charged with a series of bombings in
Sichuan province. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a prominent Tibetan spiritual
leader also accused of the bombings, had his death sentence upheld on
appeal. His sentence is suspended for two years.

"Bombings are serious crimes, and they merit serious investigation,"
said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of Human Rights
Watch. "Instead, China executed Lobsang Dhondrup after a trial that
lacked any semblance of due process, and conducted the execution almost
immediately following the appeal."

Xinhua, China's official news agency, said the death sentences were
applied for "crimes of terror."

"The war on terrorism is increasingly used in politically sensitive
cases," Adams said, noting that a Chinese democracy activist was also
charged with terrorism last week. "We are concerned that a wide range of
speech and activity in China is being grouped together under the banner
of terrorism."

The only evidence made public that linked Lobsang Dhondrup to the
bombings was his alleged confession. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche has been
active on a range of Tibetan social issues and linked with popular
protests against deforestation. In Tenzin Delek's case, the government
provided no public evidence. In a tape smuggled to Radio Free Asia last
week, he insisted on his innocence. Allegations of torture against
Tibetans detained in relation to the bombings have been widespread.
Human Right Watch urged that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture
visit Tibetan areas in order to investigate these reports.

The men were denied representation of their choice at the first trial.
Although the original trial was open, the appeal hearing was closed,
because, the government claimed, "state secrets" were at risk.

A third man, Jortse (Tserang Dhondrup), was sentenced to a five-year
term for soliciting petitions in defense of the men. Others have been
detained and released, and at least four men may still be in custody.

Human Rights Watch urged China to release the names and places of
detention of all those held for the bombings in Sichuan. Human Rights
Watch also urged embassies in Beijing to protest Lobsang Dhondrup's
execution, and to demand that future trials of Tibetans be open to
outside observers and conducted in strict accord with international fair
trial standards.

Human Rights Watch also called for a debate on China's human rights
record at the annual meting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which
will convene in Geneva in mid-March.