Madam Chair, Distinguished members of the Forum,
My name is Namulun Togochog, and I represent the Southern Mongolian Human Rights
Information Center. I would like to bring to your attention some of the issues and challenges
the ethnic Mongolians are facing in China. Starting last September, the Central Government of
China implemented a new set of educational policy called the “Second Generation Bilingual
Education” in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, switching the medium of instruction
from Mongolian to Chinese in all Mongolian schools across the region. As a result, a large-scale
protest took place. More than 300,000 Mongolian students took to the streets and carried out a
total school boycott. The local government arrested more than 8,000 protestors, and many of
them are still under detention and imprisonment without legal due process. Following this mass
arrest, what is happening in the region now is a new campaign for “Firm Inculcation of Chinese
Nationality Common Identity”, targeting the entire Mongolian population. Not only the
Mongolian language, but also everything in Mongolian characteristics is subjected to removal.
Mongolian signs are removed from buildings; Mongolian sculptures are taken down; Mongolian
books are banned. We urge the Government of China to deliver what it promised in its
constitution: “All ethnic minorities have the right to use and develop their language and written
system.”
Thank you.