Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown’s motion on Tibet passed through the Senate today without dissent.
“The Tibetans have a right to self-determination,” Senator Brown said. “I call on the Rudd government to take some reasonable action against the repression by China and in support of the seven million Tibetans.”
The motion read: That the Senate:
(a) having regard to:
- (i) the 11th Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue held in Beijing on 30 July 2007,
- (ii) the United Nations (UN) Olympics Truce, as passed by the UN General Assembly on 31 October 2007 (A/RES/62/4),
- (iii) the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising of 10 March 1959,
- (iv) the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with particular attention to Article 9, concerning arbitrary arrest and detention, Article 13 on the right to freedom of movement and Article 18 on the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
- (v) the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and the People’s Republic of China on 21 December 1972 resulting in Australia-China relations developing strongly, politically and economically, and
- (vi) the Australia-China Strategic Dialogue, established on 7 September 2007, which is of great importance for the relationship between Australia and China;
(b) regrets that there have been no further rounds of the Sino