About us

Tibet Justice Center (TJC) is an independent volunteer committee of lawyers and other experts with a dedicated mission to advocate human rights and self-determination for the Tibetan people. Through independent, expert, legal research, advocacy, and education, TJC works to promote human rights, environmental governance, refugee protection, and self-governance for the people of Tibet. We work independently and in strategic collaboration with non-profit and other organizations to empower the Tibetan movement with an understanding of legal issues, and to engage UN and other international institutions, human rights treaty bodies, governments, parliamentarians, and the Tibetan and general publics to find a peaceful resolution of the situation in Tibet.

For over 20 years, Tibet Justice Center has focused its legal and academic expertise on four key areas to support the human rights and self-determination of the Tibetan people:

• We strive to bring human rights issues in Tibet to international attention. We do this by engaging the UN and other international institutions and treaty bodies, as well as other key stakeholders, with reports, oral advocacy, and publications based on legal and field research that document the grave human rights situation in Tibet. Our research findings challenge the Chinese government’s detrimental policies and actions as they affect the land and people of Tibet, and bring pressure to bear for change in the Tibetan people’s access to civil, political, cultural, social, economic, and environmental rights under international laws and treaties.

• We support Tibetan refugee protection through activities including field research and reports on Tibetans’ legal status in exile, providing expert affidavits in asylum cases and sustaining links with asylum and immigration lawyers in the US.

• We support the cultivation of democratic institutions and a culture of democracy and the rule of law within the Tibetan community in exile – through training and capacity-building workshops, research papers, and meetings on issues related to self-governance with both Tibetan officials and the general Tibetan public in exile in South Asia, and elsewhere.

• We work to protect Tibet’s environment and promote its sustainable development by advocating for the Tibetans’ right to environmental governance – i.e. genuine access to and control over decision-making in the management, restoration, and conservation of Tibet’s natural resources. We believe that these freedoms constitute a powerful – and increasingly vital – form of self-determination to which all Tibetans have a fundamental right.