A/HRC/7/10/Add.1 page 17 56. In a letter dated 7 September 2005 (E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.1, paras. 96-98), the Chinese Government indicated that Mr. Gedhum Choekyi Nyima “is leading a normal, happy life and receiving a good cultural education” and that his family and he do not want their “normal routine to be disturbed”. Given the fact that Mr. Gedhum Choekyi Nyima has most recently turned 18, there have been calls that he should have the right to speak on his own behalf. The Special Rapporteur requested further information on measures envisaged by the Government to ensure that the Tibetan Buddhists may exercise the freedom to train, appoint, elect or designate by succession their religious leaders. Furthermore, she asked what measures the Government has taken to implement the concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, adopted on 30 September 2005, where the Committee recommended that your Government should “[a]llow an independent expert to visit and confirm the well-being of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima while respecting his right to privacy, and that of his parents.” (CRC/C/CHN/CO/2, para. 45). Response from the Government dated 17 July 2007 57. The Chinese Government informed that respect for and the safeguarding of citizens’ freedom of religion and belief has been a long standing and fundamental policy of the Chinese Government. The Chinese Government has invariably attached utmost importance to and respected the distinguishing features of traditional Tibetan Buddhism, the religious rites and historical precepts of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Furthermore, it has respected the traditional method whereby the living Buddha is reincarnated from generation to generation and has formulated the necessary safeguards and standards in the country’s regulations on religious matters and other legal instruments. 58. The titles of Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism have been conferred since the time of the Qing dynasty. Since 1792, when the Chinese central government promulgated the system of “drawing lots from the golden urn”, the process of finding the Dalai and Panchen reincarnated soul boys must always, in accordance with religious rites, start with the identification of a number of candidate soul boys, then the chosen soul boys are confirmed by the ritual of drawing lots from the golden urn before the statue of Sakyamuni, and finally a report is submitted to the central government for ratification. This historical convention and established practice has already lasted for more than 200 years and constitutes the sole method of finding and confirming the Dalai and Panchen soul boys. The eleventh Panchen Lama Erdeni Qoigyi Gyaibo was sought out and confirmed in full compliance with precisely this historical convention and established practice. 59. Following the enthronement rite for the reincarnated living Buddha, a training plan was drawn up by the temple’s management organization, in accordance with its own teaching methods, and a Buddhist teacher carefully selected, then the training was administered. Thus, in accordance with historical precepts and established religious rites, the eleventh Panchen Lama Erdeni Qoigyi Gyaibo was duly confirmed before the statue of Sakyamuni in the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, by the ceremony of drawing lots from the golden urn, and is now, in full compliance with religious tradition, being educated in religious tradition and initiated to Buddhist monastic life. 60. In accordance with the historical precepts and religious rites of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Dalai emphatically does not have the authority to appoint the Panchen reincarnated