Workshop
in New Delhi
Academia
Nr: 21 (Dezember – März / dicembre – marzo 2000)
by
Jens Woelk
Much
work has been done and many studies have been carried out on the
right
of the Tibetan people to self-determination and there are plenty good
legal
arguments for the support of the Tibetan quest for independence. The
reality,
however, is that even though Tibet continues to be occupied by
China
and despite the suffering of Tibetan people and culture, the
international
community does not exercise the same pressure on China as
it
has recently applied in other cases.
In
the Workshop, organised by the Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research
Center
(TPPRC), autonomy and self-government for Tibetans were analysed and
discussed
as “internal” application of the right of self-determination which is the
essence
of the Dalai Lama’s Strasbourg Proposal. The scope was to examine
the
various options of autonomy for Tibet under various aspects: first under
international
law, second under a practical and comparative view and third in the
context
of Chinese law and the actual situation in China, taking into account also
history
and future developments. Besides Tibetan scholars and politicians, a
number
of scholars from all over the world participated and contributed to give a
very
rich and complete overall picture which should help the Tibetans imagine
how
an autonomy arrangement might look like.
Autonomy
and Self-Government in International Law
