Six major Tibetan organisations on Friday held a protest march in Dharamsala to honour Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen, who died after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters in New York earlier this month. They also condemned China's newly enforced "Ethnic Unity and Progress Law", describing it as a measure aimed at erasing Tibet's identity through forced assimilation.
The protest was jointly organised by the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the Tibetan Women's Association, the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet, the National Democratic Party of Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet–India and the International Tibet Network.
Marching through the streets of McLeodganj, protesters carried Tibetan national flags and banners calling for international action over what they described as the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet. They urged the United Nations and the international community to recognise Lobga Rangzen's sacrifice, oppose China's assimilation policies and support the Tibetan people's right to freedom.
In a joint statement issued during the protest, the organisations said Rangzen's self-immolation outside the UN headquarters on July 2 was "not an act of personal despair but a conscious sacrifice for Tibet and its people".
According to the statement, Rangzen, in his final video message, warned that Chinese policies were systematically destroying Tibetan identity and urged Tibetans around the world to unite in support of what he described as the common cause of Tibet's independence.
The organisations also strongly criticised China's "Regulations on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress", a 65-article law that came into force on July 1. They alleged that the legislation institutionalised decades of forced assimilation by promoting a single Chinese national identity at the expense of Tibet's distinct language, religion, culture, history and traditions.
"The implementation of this law represents a serious escalation of China's efforts to erase the distinct identity of the Tibetan people," the joint statement said, adding that it sought to transform Tibet into "an inseparable part of a single Chinese national identity".
The organisations urged the United Nations, democratic governments and international human rights bodies to closely monitor the implementation of the law, investigate its impact on Tibetans and hold China accountable under international human rights standards.
They also called for the immediate repeal of the law, recognition of Tibet's historical status, and support for the Tibetan people's right to restore their freedom and independence.
The statement further criticised recent remarks by United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric referring to Tibet as a "minority", calling the description "historically inaccurate and politically incorrect". The organisations asserted that Tibet was "not a minority of China but an occupied nation with its own history, language, culture and national identity".