Press releases 

The Committee on Human Rights of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania,

 

following the universally recognised principles and norms of international law, as stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 135 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, that is, the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, the right to self-determination of peoples and human rights and fundamental freedoms;

 

recognising the right to self-determination of peoples as stipulated in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations adopted by the United Nations General Assembly of 24 October 1970, which allows them to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development;

 

stressing the provisions of Articles 1 and 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and must exercise these rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, including a distinction on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs;

 

approving of the consistent and unchanging position of the United Nations General Assembly claiming that the universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination is a fundamental condition for the effective guarantee of human rights, which has recently been expressed in resolution 62/146 of 18 December 2007 and resolution 63/163 of 18 December 2008 on the right of peoples to self-determination;

 

condemning the use of force seeking to destroy independent states, restrain the right to self-determination of peoples, deny the human rights of an individual, commit any other systematic and gross violations of the rights of peoples and human rights;

 

being aware that such violations of the rights of peoples and human rights may not, under the contemporary international law, be considered the internal affair of a single country;

 

respecting the peoples of China and Tibet, their thousand-year-long history and culture;

 

observing painful similarities between the history of the Baltic States and their peoples and the history of Tibet;

 

recalling that the People’s Republic of China occupied Tibet in 1949 and annexed its territory in 1951 imposing the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet and since then the Tibetan people have been deprived of the possibility to freely live in their own state, and the inborn human rights to life, freedom, protection from torture, freedoms of religion, expression and association have been encroached upon in Tibet;

 

taking into consideration the fact that elimination of violations of the fundamental human rights and freedoms in Tibet has been urged by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolutions 1353(XIV), 1723(XVI) and 2079(XX) regarding Tibet, by the European Parliament in more than 30 various resolutions, by institutions of other international governmental and non-governmental organizations, by national parliaments of the United States of America, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein;

 

noting that the uprising of 10 March 1959 and protests of the Tibetan people in 2008 and 2012 remind that, despite the repressions, the Tibetan people have not reconciled with the forcible restriction of its rights and that the solution of Tibetan problems and the ensuring of human rights are possible in Tibet only by respecting the rights of the Tibetan people;

 

having regard to the statement of the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile, Dr Lobsang Sangay on the 53^rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day, in which the situation in Tibet is described as critical;

 

appreciates the efforts of His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile to seek the solution of the Tibetan problem acceptable for Tibet and China and meeting their interests through peaceful negotiations and without prior conditions;

 

urges the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the Tibetan government in exile to start a genuine dialogue on Tibet’s future and to seek the solution of all the debatable issues in compliance with international law norms, interests of ensuring the rights of peoples and human rights;

 

proposes to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to encourage the dialogue between the representatives of China and Tibet based on the abovementioned principles, to build up support for it at the European Union level and at other international organizations contributing to the consolidation of peace and security, respect for human rights and freedoms around the world.