HUMAN RIGHTS IN TIBET AND CHINA

This House notes with grave concern that Tibet has been ranked the 208th worst place out of 209 for freedom and human rights in 2015 in a report by the US-based pressure group Freedom House, behind countries with notoriously poor human rights records, such as North Korea, Somalia and Saudi Arabia, and ahead only of Syria; further notes that the report strongly criticises the Chinese state's use of torture, noting it is widespread in practice and is used for the purpose of extracting confessions or forcing political and religious dissidents to recant their beliefs, and reports that conditions in detention are harsh and that the estimated three to five million detainees are subject to regular beatings, inadequate food and the deprivation of medical care; calls on the Government to use its bilateral connections with China and its leverage in international forums to highlight this appalling situation; and regrets that the Government's desire to improve trade and economic links with China has of late resulted in a much more muted response to human rights abuses in China.