Several Tibetan organizations, including non-governmental organizations, political parties, student groups, etc., held massive protests in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamsala against China’s repressive policies and illegal occupation of Tibet.

The Tibetan people in the hill state highlighted various incidents of atrocities and oppression by the Chinese government on the people of Tibet through various programs.

Tibetan Women’s Association (a women’s group based in McLeodGanj, Dharamsala), National Democratic Party of Tibet (a major political party in the Tibetan government in exile), Gu Chu Sum Movement Association of Tibet (non-governmental organization in Himachal Pradesh), and Students for a Free Tibet (global grassroots network of students and activists working in solidarity with the Tibetan people) held large-scale demonstrations against Chinese atrocities against the people of Tibet at the Main Square in Mcleodganj, Dharamsala on Sunday.

The International Justice Day was also celebrated on Sunday (June 17) by the Tibetan community living in India, inspiring people across the world to unite together for ensuring justice.

International Justice Day celebrates the importance of ensuring accountability concerning some of the most heinous crimes such as genocide, murder, forced detention, unjustified jail imprisonment, punishing the perpetrators of crime, and bringing justice to the people.

Tsering Dolma, Vice-President of the Tibetan Women’s Association, said it was important to celebrate International Justice Day by acknowledging the human rights violations inside Tibet by the dictatorial Chinese Communist Party.

She added that during the 20th century, the Chinese Communist Party began its invasion of Tibet in 1949 by annexing Tibet’s Amdo and Kham provinces.

After China illegally occupied the entire Tibet in 1959, martial law was imposed to crack down on the Tibetan resistance movement.

As many as six million people died in Tibet due to the invasion and illegal occupation by China, and many Tibetans were also forced to leave their homeland and live in exile, Dolma said.

The people of Tibet were denied justice and are fighting against atrocities committed against them violating basic human rights and freedom, she added.

The evidence of the human rights situation within Tibet is clear when His Holiness, the Panchen Lama, was forcibly abducted by the Chinese government at the age of six, Dolma said.

She added that due to the torture, cruelty, and ill-treatment during his detention by the Chinese government, prominent Tibetan monk Jigme Gyatso had been unrecoverably ill since his release in 2016 after serving a five-year prison sentence when he pleaded guilty to “inciting separatism” in Tibet. Facing further health complications, Gyatso was hospitalized in Xiling in May this year and passed away on July 2.

On June 23, 2022, the Chinese police arrested a Tibetan woman Zumkar, for possessing a picture of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama in her house in Tibet.

She said that many Tibetan people have lost their lives under harsh persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings due to Chinese oppression. China’s dictatorial policies have created a crisis in Tibet and provoked an unprecedented wave of self-immolations by monks, nuns, and Tibetan people.

Tsering Dolma added that over the past decade, Chinese authorities have systematically closed local schools in Tibet and replaced them with colonized boarding schools, including those for primary-age children.

By deliberately separating Tibetan children from their families and culture and keeping them in government boarding schools, Chinese authorities are using one of the most heinous means of colonialism to attack Tibetan identity.