Tibet Action Institute – Witness Statement

Thank you, Chair.

Almost five years ago, we released our first report on residential boarding schools in Tibet, showing that schooling in Tibet today is almost entirely residential, with approximately 1 million Tibetan children – at least 78% of students – living separated from their parents and families in the state-run boarding system.

But what we did not know with any certainty – due to China’s near-total information blackout on Tibet – was the actual conditions in the schools.

Sadly, our second report reveals new evidence of: children facing serious abuse and neglect; loss of language to the extent that one person describes Tibetan children as ‘kids raised in a foreign country’; parents unable to parent or protect their children … prevented from helping them when they are sick, unable to intervene to stop abuse. and not even allowed to decide what they can do when they are home on vacation.

These children are experiencing alienation that is leading to deep psychological and emotional harm

Recently, we received an account from a former student that speaks to the extent of both routine abuse and extreme violence children can face:

A child, until his parents were forced to send him to boarding school, describes how difficult it was to be away from home, especially in grades one and two–constantly missing parents and home, while having to be responsible for everything on his own.

When it came to bullying and punishment, the environment was quite severe. Injuries such as broken hands, fractured fingers, and bruised backs were common. Over time, students began to normalize this treatment and rarely told their parents. It was so widespread that no single incident stood out; there were simply too many.

Eventually, the child and several others tried to escape from boarding school to return to the monastery, but they were caught by police, taken to a police station, beaten, and even tortured with an electric device before being forced to return to school.

Our report highlights many other cases of abuse, including children being beaten for wearing Buddhist protection cords around their necks or for saying prayers. Some became deaf after being hit too many times on their heads and ears.

We have documented multiple cases of suicide, attempted suicide, and death because of abuse or neglect.

The Canadian former UN Special Rapporteur for Minority Rights called this system of schooling ‘an existential threat for Tibetans’ and said he is ‘…not afraid to use the word cultural genocide.’

‘I want to emphasize this is massive…massive [not just] in scale, but massive in terms of the grave violations of the human rights of children and their families, and the individuals involved, to a scale which is actually almost inconceivable.”

Canada should investigate sanctions and visa restrictions on Chinese officials designing or implementing policies intended to erase Tibetan identity and on authorities at schools where physical abuse and negligence is known to be taking place.

With China’s upcoming review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Canada needs to work with like-minded governments to increase the pressure on Beijing to abolish the colonial boarding school system and guarantee access to culturally and linguistically appropriate education for Tibetan children.

Lhadon Tethong is the co-founder and director of the Tibetan Action Institute.