SFT SOAS report on the recent visit to the UK by the force behind the Spanish Court genocide case against ex-Chinese leaders.

 On Tuesday 27th February, The School of Oriental and African Studies was proud to host a talk given by Dr Jose Esteve and Alan Cantos regarding their case against 5 high ranking Chinese officials for pursuit of genocidal policies against the Tibetan Population. The event, organised by the SOAS Law Society and SOAS Students For a Free Tibet, provided a useful insight into the international legal institutions currently being used to promote the cause of Tibet and its people. Whilst the case brings valuable international attention to the numerous injustices suffered by the Tibetan people at the hands of the Chinese Authorities, the prospective outcomes of this legal battle are admittedly and inevitably modest. Chinese officials are adept at painting international efforts to advocate the Tibetan cause as Western interference into what it considers its sovereign territory and it will remain difficult for international legal regimes to prove their legitimacy to policy makers in Beijing and Lhasa. This is, in this writer’s view, indicative of the failure of wider Tibetan advocacy movements to engage with the Chinese population in regard to policy in Tibet. At university level we must take advantage of contact with the ever-growing number of Chinese Students studying in British Institutions as they represent a potential (but often over-looked) source of pressure that can be applied back in China towards equitable policy in Tibet. This should not, of course, undermine the work of activists and legal professionals like Dr Jose Esteve and Alan Cantos and they are due thanks for their informative lecture and admirable legal campaign.