2nd WPCT, 26-28 March, 1995, Vilnius
2nd World Parliamentarians' Convention on Tibet
26-28 March, 1995 Vilnius
The members of Parliament and their representatives who gathered in Vilnius on behalf of their respective parliamentary groups of over 1,000 parliamentarians worldwide to discuss the threat to the survival of Tibet and the Tibetan people,
Reaffirming their support for the New Delhi statement on Tibetan freedom and the action plan for Tibet adopted at the first Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet in New Delhi held on March 18-20, 1994;
Reaffirming the illegality of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) invasion and occupation of Tibet which was an independent state in 1949 when the People’s Liberation Army first entered Tibet;
Recognizing that under international law, Tibet is today an independent state under illegal occupation and that the PRC has no legal title to sovereignty over Tibet;
Condemning as a serious violation of international law, the large-scale population transfer of Chinese into Tibet, implemented by various methods, including the replacement of responsible Tibetan administrators by Chinese officials at different levels of government; and the recent decision by the Chinese authorities requiring that all Chinese military personnel serving in Tibet must retire and settle or forfeit their pension rights;
Concerned about the destruction of the natural environment on the Tibetan plateau, which has ramifications not only for Tibet itself, but also for the region and the world;
Condemning the discrimination practiced by the Chinese authorities with respect to education by lack of adequate educational facilities for Tibetan children, discrimination against Tibetans wanting to study their own language and culture, and forceful recall of Tibetan children studying outside of Tibet and China;
Condemning other gross and systematic violations of human rights in Tibet, including the arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of Tibetans for political offenses; the violation of rights of women, including the practice of involuntary sterilization and abortion; the prohibition or religious freedom; all of which, together with the destruction of Tibet’s rich culture and the population transfer, threaten the continued existence of the Tibetan people and therefore, amounts to genocide;
Reaffirming the inalienable right of the Tibetan people to self-determination and independence;
Emphasizing that violations of human rights, including the right to self-determination and all other violations of international law are, by definition, the legitimate concern of all the members of the international community and can never be regarded as belonging to the internal affairs of any state.
Therefore,
Call on the PRC to stop immediately all policies and practices which violate the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Tibetans, including, in particular, population transfer and the use of all forms of violence against Tibetans;
Commend His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile’s continuing efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the question of Tibet;
Call on governments of other States to support by all effective means possible the efforts of the Tibetan people and their legitimate representatives, His Holiness Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, to restore the rights and freedoms of the Tibetan people through a peaceful exercise of the right to self-determination;
Propose that the mandate of the United Nations Decolonisation Committee be expanded to include the issue of decolonisation of Tibet;
Resolve to initiate investigations, hearings and enquiries on the legitimacy of the PRC’s claim that Tibet is part of China, in every parliament represented at the convention and the persuade members of other parliaments to do the same as a prelude to according recognition to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile;
Resolve to persuade respective governments to pressure the PRC Government to stop the policy and practice of population transfer;
Commit to undertake efforts to raise the question of Tibet at the coming session of the UN General Assembly and at the Commission of Human Rights;
Commit to undertake efforts to obtain observer-status membership for the Tibetan Parliament at the International Parliamentary Union;
Resolve to send an international delegation of parliamentarians to visit Tibet, Beijing and Dharamsala to investigate and publicly report on the current situation; to meet with the Chinese government, the Tibetan Government-in-Exile; and to call on the UN Secretary General in order to urge and promote a prompt start to substantive negotiations, without preconditions, to seek a peaceful and comprehensive solution to the Sino-Tibetan conflict in accordance with the terms of this resolution;
Resolve to present or forward this resolution to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile; to the President and Government of the PRC; to the Secretary General of the UN; and to the governments and parliaments of all States represented at this Convention.
