ChinaAid
February 19, 2010
CHINAAID–On behalf of human rights defenders around the world, ChinaAid welcomes the positive exchange between the Dalai Lama and President Barack Obama on February 18, 2010. After the President refused to accept a meeting with the Tibetan religious leader last year, many of us worried that this indicated the Administration’s apathy toward human rights and religious freedom. In the past we have seen a softer side to the President’s pragmatic stance on international policy, but yesterday’s meeting and recent events defending internet freedom and other security issues have shown a new trend in U.S. policy towards human rights in China.
With this new effort to establish human rights and religious freedom as a common goal between the United States and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, we are hopeful for a continued strong stance in support of human rights in China. This meeting sends a signal to the Chinese government, that in spite of economic concerns, the United States will stand firm in our founding principles, including the basic human right to religious freedom.
We thank President Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton for their willingness to meet with the Dalai Lama, and to affirm the long-standing tradition of human rights held by these United States of America.
To reinforce the sincerity of the support for religious freedom, we urge the Obama Administration to fill the Ambassador-at-large position in the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom as soon as possible, and to bolster the department’s efforts to preserve the basic rights to religious freedom for Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, Protestant and Catholic Christians, and other religious minorities in China and around the world. By embracing our role, we can continue to be a beacon of freedom to the persecuted.
