Ottawa, March 14th, 2021 – On March 11th, a day after the 62nd Tibetan National Uprising Day, Ms. Tamara Mawhinney – a senior Canadian diplomat representing the Canadian government at the UN raised concerns about arbitrary detention, custodial torture, and deaths of Tibetan activists at the 46th UN Human Rights Council Meeting in Geneva.
Ms. Mawhinney, who serves as Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada’s Mission to the UN, reiterated to the Council that Canada is concerned about the Chinese detention of human rights defenders. “At a time when governments are struggling to contain the virus, far too many states are wrongfully imprisoning individuals in what constitutes a direct assault on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In China, there are deeply concerning reports of deaths in the custody of Tibetans. We are gravely concerned with the treatment of Uyghurs.” said Ms. Tamara Mawhinney at the meeting.
Canada’s intervention on Tibet at this high-level multilateral platform comes after the Canada Tibet Committee wrote a letter to Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau on 19-year old Tibetan monk Tenzin Nyima.
A 19-year old monk Tenzin Nyima and six other Tibetans from the same town of Wonpo in eastern Tibet were arbitrarily detained in 2019 by Chinese authorities for their involvement in peaceful protests calling for Tibet’s independence. After being released and rearrested in 2020, Tenzin Nyima died in January 2021 from injuries sustained under detainment; reports include indications of beatings, malnourishment, and other signs of mistreatment while in custody.