Sources & Reports

Where the information on these pages comes from

Public education · Tibetan Events Worldwide · Last reviewed August 2026

Everything in the Understand Tibet section is drawn from published, checkable sources. This page lists them so you can read the originals rather than take our word for it, and so that anyone using these pages for teaching, journalism or advocacy has the primary material to hand.

How to use this list. UN documents and the reports of established human rights organisations are the strongest material to cite if you are writing to a government or a newspaper. Tibetan organisations hold the case-level detail. News outlets covering Tibet in Tibetan and English carry what is happening now. Links are checked periodically; if one has moved, the organisation name will find it.

United Nations and intergovernmental

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: special procedures communications, press statements, and treaty body documents, including the joint statement of Special Rapporteurs on Tibetan residential schools (February 2023) and the report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues (February 2026).
UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: concluding observations on China (2023), available through the OHCHR treaty body database.
Universal Periodic Review of China, fourth cycle (January 2024): state recommendations and China’s responses, on the UPR pages of the OHCHR site.
Congressional-Executive Commission on China: annual reports, special reports on Tibet, and a searchable political prisoner database.

International human rights organisations

Human Rights Watch: investigations on mass DNA collection, passport denial, school consolidation, relocation and the Kamtok dam.
Amnesty International: annual reports, urgent actions and prisoner of conscience case work.
Freedom House: Freedom in the World country reports on Tibet, and Freedom on the Net.

Tibetan institutions and organisations

Central Tibetan Administration (tibet.net): official statements of the Kashag and Sikyong, fact sheets, and texts of the Middle Way Approach.
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy: the principal Tibetan documentation body; annual human rights situation reports and individual case files.
International Campaign for Tibet: policy analysis, congressional and parliamentary work, and the standing record of Tibetan self-immolations.
Tibet Action Institute: Separated from Their Families, Hidden from the World (2021) and When They Came to Take Our Children (2025), the core research on colonial boarding schools.
Free Tibet and its research partner Tibet Watch: field reporting and campaigns.
International Tibet Network: global coalition of Tibet groups; petitions and coordinated campaigns.
Students for a Free Tibet: youth-led campaigning for Tibetan independence.
Tibet Policy Institute: the CTA’s research arm; papers on environment, economy and law.

News from and about Tibet

Radio Free Asia, Tibetan service: case-level reporting, often the first to confirm events inside Tibet.
Phayul: exile community news in English.
Voice of Tibet: independent Tibetan-language radio and news.
Tibet Times: Tibetan-language exile newspaper.

Language, culture and scholarship

Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala: manuscripts, publications and language courses.
Buddhist Digital Resource Center: the largest digital archive of Tibetan literature.
Men-Tsee-Khang: Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute; publisher of the authoritative Tibetan almanac.
Tibet Museum, Dharamsala: exhibitions and historical documentation.

Switzerland and Europe

Tibet Institute Rikon: founded 1968, the only Tibetan monastic institute in Europe; teachings, library and cultural programme.
Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein: the umbrella body for local Tibetan associations.
Gesellschaft Schweizerisch-Tibetische Freundschaft (GSTF): Swiss-Tibetan friendship association; advocacy and events.
Verein Tibeter Jugend in Europa: Tibetan youth organisation in Europe.

Switzerland hosts the oldest and one of the largest Tibetan communities in Europe. If you are looking for something to attend rather than something to read, the events listings on this site are the place to start.

Reading the sources critically

Three habits are worth keeping.

Distinguish documentation from advocacy. Most organisations here do both. A TCHRD case file and a campaign page are different kinds of text, and the first is what you cite.

Treat every number as a minimum. Because access is restricted, counts of prisoners, protests and self-immolations are floors. Cases have surfaced years late.

Read the Chinese position in the original. State media and the texts of laws such as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law are public. In several instances the policy documents state the assimilation objective more plainly than any critic paraphrases it.

Corrections

These pages are maintained by Tibetan Events Worldwide as a free public education resource. If you find an error, a broken link, or a figure that has been superseded, please tell us through the contact form and we will correct it and note the change.