Voicing Stories
by Kritika Tara Deb, BUSL’19, graduate of the International Human Rights Clinic
It is 2014, and a sea of waving protest banners and monks’ red robes caught my attention as I stepped off the tram in front of Palais des Nations in Geneva. The banners informed me that this was a protest against the disappearances of Buddhist religious leaders. Monks were reciting prayers; they were the same prayers I used to hear my mother recite every day when I was a child.

This year, upon returning to the United Nations in March, I saw only country flags waving outside. Meanwhile, my law school colleagues and I were involved in the Tibetan human rights movement from the inside.
As my colleagues Noah and Jacqueline have already describe, we spent our year at the Clinic preparing submissions to various United Nation mechanisms advocating against China’s human rights violations in Tibet. After submitting our reports, we traveled to Geneva to meet with UN Special Procedures representatives and their staff to ensure that the stories of Tibetan suffering were heard and incorporated into the United Nations’ recommendations to China.
The Tibet Advocacy Coalition, one of our partners, held an event alongside the UN Human Rights Council’s session. This event aimed to raise awareness amongst both diplomats and civil society about the atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese government in denying certain minorities the freedom of religion. A Tibetan monk, Golog Jigme, came to speak at the event, telling his story of escape from prison and the torture that he endured whilst in jail.
In an attempt by the government to discredit the event and its speakers, a member of the Chinese delegation raised a comment, defending China as open and tolerant. After his interjection, he left the room where the side event was being held.
I was reminded of a similar “intervention” that had occurred on my earlier visit in 2014, when I observed the Human Rights Council on the day the monks were protesting:
The daughter of a jailed Chinese democracy leader spoke at the Human Rights Council to bring to light problems of human rights in the country. As soon as she began talking about her father, the Chinese delegate interrupted her speech, calling her words “out of order,” and refusing to listen to her plea for reform. The action brought about a chain reaction: Saudi Arabia sided with China, while the U.S. applauded the speaker for her speech. Subsequent countries also began to either object to or defend her words.
I thought of the Tibetans protesting outside. How did a division in diplomatic opinions over this speech relate to the suffering of those protestors and their fellow Tibetans? Would it make a difference to their cause?
I continued to ponder these questions during this visit to Geneva — beneath the smooth diplomatic lingo which permeates international organizations, do we remember the Tibetan who lit himself on fire to resist oppression? The child who lost her language and religion because of cultural eradication? The Tibetan lama (monk) who prayed for days in his prison cell for freedom? Often, we focus too much on the debates of those inside the halls of power and forget to listen to the stories of those who protest on the outside.
On our first day in Geneva, we attended a training on effective human rights advocacy organized by the TAC to equip young Tibetan activists with the means to be their own voice. Most of these activists were born and raised in Europe, but they conveyed, with painful grace, the stories they had inherited from their parents and grandparents of the suffering endured in Tibet. Although we had done the research and drafted the UN reports the Coalition submitted, these activists’ words brought our arguments to life. The facilitators of the training, who were Tibetan civil society leaders later amplified the reach of these personal stories at our meetings with the experts at the Human Rights Council. Together, young and experienced Tibetan activists worked to ensure that their stories would reach the highest level possible at the UN, while we, as students, outlined the context of China’s human rights obligations.

As it turns out, the activity I observed at the Human Rights Council four years ago only scratched the surface of human rights advocacy, much of which happens behind the scenes. The Coalition’s work helped me see the relevance of diplomats’ rhetoric at the Human Rights Council. Through my short exposure to human rights advocacy behind the scenes, I observed the force of many different organizations and individuals coming together for the same cause, to provide the platform needed to create change. Just as importantly, I saw that individuals’ experiences and voices are indispensable at the center of this platform.
