Flame of Truth – Press Release

Torch Relay across North America to Highlight Crisis in Tibet

Flame of Truth Relay, September 2 to December 10, 2012

The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, based in Dharamsala, India, launched a worldwide Flame of Truth Relay on July 6, 2012, the birthday of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, to carry the message of the people in Tibet to the world – including the tragedy of 49 Tibetan self-immolations since February 2009 – and to urge an appropriate response from the United Nations to the current crisis situation.

The North America leg of the relay begins in two segments from Washington D.C. and Ottawa on September 2, 2012, the 52nd anniversary of Tibetan Democracy Day, which commemorates the first election of a representative body in Tibet’s history — the Commission of Tibetan People’s Deputies – instituted in exile on September 2, 1960.  The torch will pass through major North American cities.

Participants in the torch relay will speak on behalf of Tibetans in Tibet who are denied by the Chinese government the fundamental rights to which every person is inherently entitled, including freedom of speech, belief, and assembly.
 

As part of the Flame of Truth initiative the Tibetan-Parliament-in-Exile calls for the following:

1. The United Nations must discuss the issue of Tibet based on the resolutions that it has passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965 [see: December 18, 1965: UNGA Resolution 2079 (XX), “Question of Tibet,” 

October 21, 1959: UNGA Resolution 1353 (XIV), “Question of Tibet,” 

December 20, 1961: UNGA Resolution 1723 (XVI), “Question of Tibet,” 

2. http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/167/76/IMG/NR016776.pdf?OpenElement] and continuously make efforts to fulfil the substance of these resolutions;
3. An independent international team should visit Tibet to investigate the situation leading to the ongoing crisis in Tibet;
4. The United Nations must take special responsibility to ensure that the basic aspirations of the Tibetans inside Tibet are fulfilled.   

The Flame of Truth initiative also incorporates the collection of signatures on a public petition to be submitted to U.N. headquarters in New York, the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, and the U.N. Information Office in New Delhi on December 10, 2012, the concluding day of the world-wide relay.

The Flame of Truth is an initiative of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile and the North American relay is being organized in conjunction with the Office of Tibet in New York, the Tibetan Associations of North America, the North American Chapters of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women's Association, International Tibetan Independence Movement, Students for a Free Tibet, and the International Campaign for Tibet.

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