The classification of the Tibetans as a people with the right to self-determination

Abstract: Tibet, the land of snows, has always in many people's minds been a mystical land with a deeply rooted religion and a people living in harmony with themselves and nature. Once one step outside this picture, the confrontation with the reality of the enormous problems and suffering that the Tibetan people had gone through during the last fifty years becomes almost to painful. Much of the violations in Tibet have taken place without it being acknowledged in the rest of the world. The promises from China to solve the problems in Tibet together with the fear of offending China have made the nations of the world hesitate to demand freedom and respect for the human rights of the people of Tibet. His holiness the Dalai Lama, receiver of the Nobel Peace Prize, has ever since the escape from Tibet in 1959 been devoting his life to the peaceful struggle against the Chinese suppressers. Together with his closest fellow workers he has created the Tibetan Government in exile which resides in Dharamsala in India. This has become a natural meeting place for the Tibetan refugees and a place where the Tibetan religion and culture can be nourished. Schools have been built for the children to be able to learn the Tibetan language and traditions since these subjects are no longer thought in the schools within Tibet. To support the practice of religion many monasteries have been re-built in India. Although the Tibetans have in many ways have learned to exist outside their own country the independence and self-determination of Tibet is the object of the fifty years of Tibetan struggle. My thesis is devoted to try to find legal ground for the Tibetans to stand on in their request for self-determination. An existing legal ground for self-determination can be an incentive both for the world community to start acting towards this goal and, for the Tibetans not to give up the struggle for a free Tibet.