ARRESTS IN TIBET

Early day motion 1434, tabled 9 February 2011 by Fabian Hamilton (Labour). Signed by 58 members.

That this House notes the deepening crackdown inside Tibet that is curtailing basic freedoms of expression through arbitrary arrest and torture of Tibetans, both intellectuals and ordinary citizens, who have publicly expressed their views and communicated news on local issues via emails, text messages, blogs, magazine articles and songs; further notes that the level of penalties being meted out to those Tibetans arrested and charged for such low-level information sharing are among the most severe in the world and that this crackdown on freedom of speech and opinion is being used by the Chinese government as a mechanism to silence any criticism of their policies in Tibet; therefore calls on the Government to make strong and direct representations to the Chinese government to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to uphold the principles of freedom of expression and opinion and to develop a timeframe of adherence; and further calls on the Government to urge the Chinese government immediately to release these Tibetan prisoners of conscience.

Signatures by party: Labour 20, Liberal Democrat 20, Conservative 6, DUP 3, Plaid Cymru 3, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Alliance 1, Green 1, Independent 1, Scottish National Party 1.