China Forces 1 M Tibetan Children into “Culture-Wiping” Schools

A coalition of over 140 Tibet advocacy groups, supported by more than 350,000 individuals, is calling on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to launch an immediate investigation into China’s colonial boarding school system in Tibet. Rights groups warn that nearly one million Tibetan children have been forcibly enrolled in these institutions, where they face systematic cultural erasure and assimilation into Han Chinese society.

On February 14, the coalition submitted a joint letter urging Türk to publicly condemn China’s policies targeting Tibetan language, culture, and identity. The appeal coincides with the 58th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, beginning on February 24, 2025, and advocates are pressing for Tibet’s human rights crisis to be addressed in Türk’s ‘Global Update’ on March 4.

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Denouncing these schools as “cultural genocide targeting Tibet’s youngest and most vulnerable,” the coalition criticized Türk’s silence on Tibet despite worsening conditions since he assumed office in 2022. UN human rights experts have repeatedly warned about China’s assimilationist policies. UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, has raised alarms over the forced separation of Tibetan children, stating: “I don’t think so many children have ever been kept away from their communities on this scale before.”’

At least 78% of Tibetan students between the ages of 6-18 have been forced into the residential school system.
Devastating psychological harm is being inflicted on a generation of Tibetan children & parents, including total alienation of Tibetans frm their culture & traditions. pic.twitter.com/hvDzdV6HRI

— Stanzin (@stanzinnangmo) February 24, 2025

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The International Tibet Network (ITN), a leading group behind the petition, emphasized the urgency of UN intervention. “Under the pretext of education, China is dismantling Tibetan identity,” said ITN Executive Director Mandie McKeown. “These schools are not places of learning but tools of state-led assimilation.”

“These boarding pre-schools erase the fundamental mindset of Tibetan children from the age of four and replace it with a new Chinese mindset,” Dr Gyal Lo, Tibetan sociologist and Tibet Action’s Tibet Specialisthttps://t.co/n3Du6rlH3H @jltib88

— TibetActionInstitute (@tibetaction) February 19, 2025

The Tibet Action Institute (TAI) has extensively documented the coercive nature of China’s boarding school system. In collaboration with Tibetan education expert Dr. Gyalo, TAI’s 2021 report, Separated from Their Families, Hidden from the World, revealed that around 800,000 Tibetan children between the ages of six and 18 are forcibly separated from their families and subjected to a politicized curriculum taught primarily in Chinese.

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TAI’s Executive Director, Lhadon Tethong, urged Türk to take decisive action. “As the world’s highest human rights official, Türk must break his silence and use every diplomatic tool at his disposal to pressure China into abolishing this policy. Three out of every four Tibetan students have been torn from their families—this is an egregious violation of their rights.”

More than 1M Tibetan children are imprisoned into Chinese colonial boarding school. Apart from political indoctrination&forced erasure of Tibetan language, culture and way of life, Tibetan children are subjected to worse than corporal punishment. pic.twitter.com/jh4T4BgppB

— Ugyen Gyalpo (@UGyalpo_Tibet) February 19, 2025

International media have increasingly drawn attention to the crisis. The BBC described China’s colonial boarding schools as “jails” for Tibetan children, while The New York Times published a front-page exposé titled Erasing a Culture, Child by Child, detailing the psychological, cultural, and physical harm inflicted on Tibetan students.

As global pressure intensifies, Tibet advocacy groups insist that Türk and the UN Human Rights Council must take meaningful action before another generation of Tibetan children is lost to China’s state-led assimilation campaign.