The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is a non-profitadvocacy group working to promote democratic freedoms for Tibetans, ensure their human rights, and protect Tibetan culture and the environment. Founded in 1988, ICT is the world's largest Tibet-related NGO, with several thousand members and strong bases of support in North America and Europe. On March 15, 2018, the ICT completed 30 years of service to the Tibetan community and received a video message from the Dalai Lama. ICT also released its new logo.[1] An event was also held in the United States Congress on March 6, 2018 to mark the event with Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jim McGovern, ICT Chairman Richard Gere, Representative Ngodup Tsering and ICT Board Member Tempa Tsering making remarks.[2]
ICT maintains offices in Washington D.C., Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin. ICT's work focuses on three main areas: reporting on the situation inside Tibet, advocating for Tibet with governments, and reaching out to Chinese individuals, organizations, and media entities.
Profile
The International Campaign for Tibet works to promote self-determination, human rights, and democratic freedoms for the Tibetan people, and negotiations between the 14th Dalai Lama and the People's Republic of China. The three main departments of ICT are devoted to reporting and communications, advocacy, and Chinese outreach.
Monitoring and reporting on human rights, environmental and socio-economic conditions in Tibet makes up a significant portion of ICT's activities, with information coming directly from inside Tibet and also from a network of Tibetan researchers based in India and Nepal.
ICT advocacy efforts are focused on securing humanitarian and development assistance for Tibetans, and working with governments to develop policies and programs to help Tibetans. ICT asks its members to petition governments on behalf of Tibet, and organizes activities like the annual Tibet Lobby Day[3] which gives constituents a chance to directly ask their representatives to help Tibet. Additional advocacy efforts are focused on achieving the release of Tibetans imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs.
Through Chinese Outreach, ICT engages Chinese thinkers and the broader Chinese public with the goal of increasing mutual understanding between Chinese and Tibetans. ICT is a member of International Federation for Human Rights.[4][5]
Publications
ICT publishes several major reports each year, such as "A policy alienating Tibetans" – the denial of passports to Tibetans as China intensifies control; Dangers of China's counter-terrorism law for Tibetans and Uyghurs; Dangerous Crossing, report on Tibetan refugees seeking to escape repression in Tibet under Chinese rule; Storm in the Grasslands: Self-immolations in Tibet and Chinese policy; and Nomads in 'no man's land': China's nomination for UNESCO World heritage risks imperilling Tibetans and wildlife. Other reports include one focused on the 2008 Tibetan Uprising and the ensuing Chinese crackdown in Tibet, and a 2012 report entitled "60 Years of Chinese Misrule" which concludes that Chinese policies in Tibet have created elements of cultural genocide.
Periodical publications include the quarterly Tibet Press Watch.
Tsering Jampa, Executive Director of ICT Europe in Amsterdam.
Kai Muller, Executive Director of ICT Germany in Berlin.
Tencho Gyatso, Interim Vice President
Rowell Fund
Following the August 2002 deaths of ICT Co-chair Galen Rowell and his wife, Barbara Rowell, the ICT Board of Directors established the Rowell Fund. The Fund gives small grants to Tibetans whose projects deal with the environment/conservation, photography, humanitarian projects, journalism/literature, and women's projects. In recent years the amount dispensed by the Rowell Fund has ranged from $35,000 to more than $40,000.[7]
Light of Truth Award
ICT presents the Light of Truth Award, a human rightsaward to individuals and institutions who have made significant contributions to the public understanding of Tibet and the fight for human rights and democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people. The award itself is a simple Tibetan butter lamp, symbolizing the extraordinary light that each recipient has drawn to the Tibet issue. On one occasion, in 2001, the award was presented to all the people of India, with president R. Venkataraman accepting delivery of the prize. The majority of the awards have been presented since 1995 by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, to the recipients personally.[8] The recipients are:
ICT derives the vast majority of its funding (81%) from membership contributions, according to the 2010 financial statement.[10] Smaller sources of funding include donations from foundations (3%) and grants (1%).
The Central Tibetan Administration is the Tibetan government in exile based in Dharamshala, India. It is composed of a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch.
The Tibetan independence movement is the political movement advocating for the reversal of the 1950 annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China, and the separation and independence of Greater Tibet from China.
Ngawang Lobsang Thupten Gyatso Jigdral Chokley Namgyal, abbreviated to Thubten Gyatso was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet, enthroned during a turbulent era and the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Referred to as "the Great Thirteenth", he is also known for redeclaring Tibet's national independence, and for his reform and modernization initiatives.
Free Tibet (FT) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, founded in 1987 and based in London, England. According to their mission statement, Free Tibet advocates for "a free Tibet in which Tibetans are able to determine their own future and the human rights of all are respected."
Tibetan Americans are Americans of Tibetan ancestry. As of 2020, more than 26,700 Americans are estimated to have Tibetan ancestry. The majority of Tibetan Americans reside in Queens, New York.
The history of Tibet from 1950 to the present includes the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the Battle of Chamdo. Before then, Tibet had been a de facto independent nation. In 1951, Tibetan representatives in Beijing signed the Seventeen Point Agreement under duress, which affirmed China's sovereignty over Tibet while it simultaneously supported the establishment of an autonomous administration which would be led by Tibet's spiritual leader, and then-political leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when Tibetans attempted to prevent his possible assassination, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet and moved to northern India, where he established the Central Tibetan Administration, which rescinded the Seventeen Point Agreement. The majority of Tibet's land mass, including all of U-Tsang and areas of Kham and Amdo, was officially established as the Tibet Autonomous Region, within China, in 1965.
The Australia Tibet Council (ATC) is an independent, non-profit Australian organisation working to promote the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people. ATC is funded solely by members and supporters. The organisation's headquarters are in Sydney.
The 1959 Tibetan uprising began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and a context of confusion, because Tibetan protesters feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism. At first, the uprising mostly consisted of peaceful protests, but clashes quickly erupted and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) eventually used force to quell the protests. Some of the protesters had captured arms. The last stages of the uprising included heavy fighting, with high civilian and military losses. The 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, while the city was fully retaken by Chinese security forces on 23 March 1959. Thousands of Tibetans were killed during the 1959 uprising, but the exact number of deaths is disputed.
Palden Gyatso was a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Arrested for protesting during the Chinese invasion of Tibet, he spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps, where he was extensively tortured, and served the longest term of any Tibetan political prisoner. After his release in 1992 he fled to Dharamsala in North India, in exile. He was still a practicing monk and became a political activist, traveling the world publicizing the cause of Tibet up until his death in 2018. His autobiography Fire Under the Snow is also known as The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk. He was the subject of the 2008 documentary film Fire Under the Snow.
The Kashag was the governing council of Tibet during the rule of the Qing dynasty and post-Qing period until the 1950s. It was created in 1721, and set by Qianlong Emperor in 1751 for the Ganden Phodrang in the 13-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet. In that year the Tibetan government was reorganized after the riots in Lhasa of the previous year. The civil administration was represented by the Council (Kashag) after the post of Desi was abolished by the Qing imperial court. The Qing imperial court wanted the 7th Dalai Lama to hold both religious and administrative rule, while strengthening the position of the High Commissioners.
The 14th Dalai Lama is, as the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. By the adherents of Tibetan Buddhism, he is considered a living Bodhisattva; specifically, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit, and Chenrezig in Tibetan. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet at the time of his selection, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959.
Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari Rinpoche, Kasur Lodi Gyari or "as he is universally known to the Tibetan-speaking world, Gyari Rinpoche" was a Tibetan politician, and journalist who served as the 14th Dalai Lama's special envoy to the United States. Exiled to India in 1959, he was also the executive chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet.
The Light of Truth Award is a human rights award which is presented nearly annually by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), an NGO aiming for the promotion of democracy and human rights for the Tibetan people. The award is presented since 1995 by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, to the recipients personally.
Human rights in Tibet are a contentious issue. Reported abuses of human rights in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion, belief, and association; arbitrary arrest; maltreatment in custody, including torture; and forced abortion and sterilization. The status of religion, mainly as it relates to figures who are both religious and political, such as the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama, is a regular object of criticism. Additionally, freedom of the press in China is absent, with Tibet's media tightly controlled by the Chinese leadership, making it difficult to accurately determine the scope of human rights abuses.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is a Tibetan non-governmental nonprofit human rights organization.
Protests and uprisings in Tibet against the government of the People's Republic of China have occurred since 1950, and include the 1959 uprising, the 2008 uprising, and the subsequent self-immolation protests.
Dhondup Wangchen is a Tibetan filmmaker imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentary Leaving Fear Behind. Made with senior Tibetan monk Jigme Gyatso, the documentary consists of interviews with ordinary Tibetan people discussing the 14th Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Han Chinese migrants to the region. After smuggling the tapes of the interviews out of Tibet, however, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso were detained during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.
As of May 2022, 160 monks, nuns, and ordinary people have self-immolated in Tibet since 27 February 2009, when Tapey, a young monk from Kirti Monastery, set himself on fire in the marketplace in Ngawa City, Ngawa County, Sichuan. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), "Chinese police have beaten, shot, isolated, and disappeared self-immolators who survived."
Dölma Gyari is a well-known Tibetan politician in exile, a former activist, active since the early 1980s.
Tibet Justice Center, is an American legal association founded in 1989 that advocates human rights and self-determination for the Tibetan people.
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