APPENDIX V: PETITION ON BEHALF OF TIBETAN WOMEN, TIBETAN WOMEN'S DELEGATION

Women delegates protesting at the Beijing conference Women delegates gagged to symolize China's silencing of Tibetan women's voices at the Beijing conference

APPENDIX V: PETITION ON BEHALF OF TIBETAN WOMEN

Because the violence suffered by Tibetan women results primarily
from state policy, the TWD determined that assistance for their 
plight could not be found inside Tibet or China and should be 
sought from independent and international offices. The Special 
Rapporteur on Violence Against Women represents the United 
Nations Human Rights Centre. The Rapporteur, Radhika 
Coomaraswamy, is a Harvard educated, Sri Lankan lawyer with 
many years of involvement in the women's movement. She is 
mandated to travel to three different countries each year, 
conducting fact-finding missions. Her report is presented in March 
to the government delegates who form the UN's Commission
on Human Rights. 

The TWD gathered 35,000 signatures on a petition requesting the
Special Rapporteur to visit Tibet and investigate the situation of
Tibetan women living under the occupation.  Representatives of the
TWD met Ms. Coomaraswamy in Beijing, and the signatures were
forwarded to her following the conference.

The petition read as follows:

  Whereas, paragraph 85 of the Draft Platform for Action requests
  the Special Rapporteur to identify situations of violence 
  against women and arrange investigations leading to the
  prosecution of perpetrators,

  Whereas, there are many confirmed cases of female political 
  prisoners in Tibet,

  Whereas, the people's Republic of China has admitted practising
  a coercive family-planning policy in Tibet,

  Whereas, many Tibetan women have testified regarding coerced
  abortions and sterilisation, unjust imprisonment, harsh prison
  conditions, brutal and gender specific torture methods, and 
  gross violations of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms
  in Tibet,

  Therefore, we, the undersigned, request that the UN's Special 
  Rapporteur on Violence Against Women lead a fact-finding mission
  to Tibet in order to investigate the condition of Tibetan women
  and to recommend whatever measures may be deemed necessary to
  correct the injustices perpetrated against women in Tibet.

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