Swiss Parliamentary Group for Tibet Condemns China’s New “Ethnic Unity Law
The Parliamentary Group for Tibet (PGT) in the Swiss Parliament has issued a strong protest against China’s new “Law on Ethnic Unity and Progress,” which was enacted in March 2026 and will take effect on 1 July 2026. The group argues the law entrenches a Han-centred national identity at the expense of Tibetan language, religion, and culture, framing it not as a unifying measure but as a vehicle for forced assimilation and the systematic erosion of Tibetan identity.
The PGT warned that expanded state control over education and public life under the law will worsen conditions for at least one million Tibetan children already separated from their families through China’s boarding school system. The group also cited reports from Chinese state media indicating that Tibetan children as young as kindergarten age are being exposed to propaganda glorifying the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army — a practice the PGT called an attempt to erase Tibetan identity starting with the community’s youngest members.
In its statement, the cross-party group — co-chaired by Council of States member Tiana Moser and National Councillors Léonore Porchet, Nik Gugger, and Fabian Molina, with Council of States member Maya Graf as vice-president — pledged to back Switzerland’s efforts in international bodies and human rights organisations opposing the law. It also noted that UN experts have warned the legislation threatens the linguistic, cultural, and religious autonomy of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other groups under Chinese rule.
The PGT said its representatives will bring the issue before the Swiss Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and press the Federal Council to remind Beijing of its obligation to protect Tibetans’ fundamental rights, including language, religion, and cultural identity. The group cautioned that without intervention, Tibetan identity risks being “wiped out within a single generation.”
Thanking the parliamentarians, Representative Thinlay Chukki noted that “We are deeply grateful to the Swiss Parliamentary Group for Tibet for standing with the Tibetan people at this critical moment. This ‘Ethnic Unity Law’ is not a technical administrative measure — it formally extends Beijing’s assimilation policies into every school, every community, and every household in Tibet. It comes on top of a boarding school system that has already separated more than a million Tibetan children from their families, and propaganda glorifying the Party that now reaches children as young as kindergarten age. The Swiss Parliamentarians willingness to raise this issue and press for action sends a message that the world is watching, and that Tibetan language, religion, and culture are worth defending.”
