10th session of 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile postponed till March 2021

Dharamshala: The 10th session of the 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile scheduled to take place from 16-24 September 2020 is postponed until March 2021, in accordance with Article 6 and clause 2 of Article 49 of the Charter of Tibetans in exile. This was announced by Speaker Pema Jungney and Deputy Speaker Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok of Tibetan parliament in a press conference in Dharamshala on Monday.

“This decision has been taken considering the rising urgency situation across the world caused by COVID-19 which originated in Wuhan, China,” said the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.

“We were bound to take this decision as we have to take responsibility especially when His Holiness the Dalai Lama resides here in Dharamshala. And even if the session is held supposedly, because of the current international travel ban Tibetan Parliamentarians from outside of India will not be able to attend the session and Tibetan Parliamentarians in India too might find it difficult to travel with the ongoing pandemic,” he said.

The officials said that even though the September session shall not be convened, matters and proceedings related to the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile will execute without any negligence. As such, the annual reports of the Central Tibetan Administration’s main offices as well as of institutions under it for the fiscal year, 2019-2020 is being reviewed by the members of the Standing Committee.