04/23/2026
A Rough Draft: by a Chithus candidate Kelsang Phuntsok Jungney
འོས་བསྡུའི་ལས་རིམ་མཇུག་བསྒྲིལ་ལ་ཉེ་བའི་མཚམས་འདིར། ངས་བཙན་བྱོལ་བོད་མིའི་བཅའ་ཁྲིམས་ལ་བཟོ་བཅོས་རྒྱག་རྒྱུའི་ཕྱོགས་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་འཆར་ཟིན་ཞིག་འདོན་སྤེལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད། འདིའི་དམིགས་ཡུལ་ནི་རྩ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་དོ་མཉམ་སླར་གསོ་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་དང་། ༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་གི་ཡང་སྲིད་ཕེབས་ལམ་གྱི་གནད་དོན་ལ་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་བྱེད་རྒྱུ། དེ་བཞིན་མང་གཙོའི་སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ཁག་སྲ་བརྟན་བཏང་སྟེ་མི་མང་ལ་ནུས་པ་སྤྲོད་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཡིན།
འོས་བསྡུའི་བྲེལ་ཟིང་གི་དབང་གིས་དེ་སྔོན་གནད་དོན་འདི་དག་ཐོག་བགྲོ་གླེང་དང་བོད་སྒྱུར་གནང་ལོང་མ་བྱུང་ཡང་། ད་ལྟའི་ལྷིང་འཇགས་ཀྱི་དུས་ཚོད་འདིའི་ནང་འཆར་ཟིན་འདིར་གཟིགས་ཞིབ་ཀྱིས་ཁྱེད་ཅག་གི་དགོངས་པའི་དཔྱད་ཞིབ་དུ་ཕུལ་བ་ཡིན། འདི་ནི་འཆར་ཟིན་ཙམ་ཡིན།
As the election campaign draws to a close, I am releasing a comprehensive draft proposal to amend the Charter of the Tibetans-in-Exile. The goals are to restore constitutional balance, safeguard the sacred process of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, and empower the people by strengthening our democratic institutions. Due to the intensity of the campaign, I was unable to discuss these topics or provide a translation earlier; however, I now present this draft for your reflection and analysis during this quiet time. Please note that this is a working draft, and I welcome your feedback
Private Member’s Bill (If Elected)
The Charter of the Tibetans-in-Exile (Comprehensive Amendment) Bill, 20XX
⸻
A BILL
To amend the Charter of the Tibetans-in-Exile in order to restore constitutional balance through the establishment of a ceremonial Head of State with limited reserve powers; to provide for a Council of Regency appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama; to safeguard the reincarnation process through the Gandhen Phodrang Trust; to strengthen judicial oversight, electoral independence, popular sovereignty, and demographic representation; and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
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WHEREAS
1. WHEREAS the Charter of the Tibetans-in-Exile is the supreme constitutional instrument governing the Central Tibetan Administration;
2. WHEREAS His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has consistently guided the Tibetan people toward democratic self-governance while preserving spiritual continuity;
3. WHEREAS the devolution of political authority in 2011 created a democratic system but left structural imbalances, including the absence of a constitutional mechanism to dissolve a dysfunctional Parliament;
4. WHEREAS His Holiness has publicly affirmed the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lama and entrusted matters of reincarnation to the Gandhen Phodrang Trust;
5. WHEREAS democratic legitimacy requires judicial safeguards, independent electoral administration, accurate population data, inclusive citizenship, and fair representation;
6. WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the Charter to address these matters in a coherent and future-oriented manner;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ENACTED by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile as follows:
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PART I — PRELIMINARY
1. Short Title and Commencement
(1) This Act may be cited as the Charter of the Tibetans-in-Exile (Comprehensive Amendment) Act, 20XX.
(2) This Act shall come into force on such date as the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile may, by resolution, appoint, save that Articles relating to elections, census, and referenda shall come into force immediately upon passage.
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PART II — AMENDMENTS RELATING TO THE HEAD OF STATE
2. Insertion of New Article: Head of State
The Charter shall be amended by inserting a new Article establishing His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the Head of State with ceremonial status and limited reserve constitutional powers, including the authority to dissolve Parliament in the event of a constitutional crisis, subject to judicial review and electoral safeguards, as set out in Articles I and II of this Amendment Pact.
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PART III — COUNCIL OF REGENCY
3. Insertion of New Article: Council of Regency
The Charter shall be amended to provide for a Council of Regency appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his lifetime, empowered to act collectively as Head of State during vacancy, incapacity, or minority of the Dalai Lama, in accordance with Article III of this Amendment Pact.
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PART IV — RECOGNITION OF THE REINCARNATION OF THE DALAI LAMA
4. Recognition Authority
The Charter shall be amended to recognize the Gandhen Phodrang Trust as the sole legitimate authority to identify and authenticate the reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and to require the CTA to recognize and support such reincarnation, as provided in Articles IV and V of this Amendment Pact.
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PART V — JUDICIAL SAFEGUARDS
5. Suo Motu Jurisdiction
The Charter shall be amended to confer suo motu jurisdiction upon the Supreme Justice Commission to act as guardian of the Constitution, in accordance with Article VI of this Amendment Pact.
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PART VI — DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION AND ELECTORAL INDEPENDENCE
6. Citizen-Initiated Amendments
The Charter shall be amended to permit citizen-initiated constitutional amendments upon the support of twenty percent (20%) of registered Tibetan voters, as provided in Article VII of this Amendment Pact.
7. Independent Election Commission
The Charter shall be amended to entrench the independence of the Election Commission and to empower it to conduct referenda free from executive interference, as provided in Article VIII of this Amendment Pact.
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PART VII — POPULATION, CENSUS, AND REPRESENTATION
8. Population and Census Board
The Charter shall be amended to establish a Population and Census Board under the Election Commission, mandated to conduct a census of Tibetans in exile every five (5) years, as provided in Article VIII of this Amendment Pact.
9. Constituent Representation
The Charter shall be amended to restructure parliamentary representation and to provide for the election of religious representatives by lay voters according to religious affiliation, as provided in Article VIII of this Amendment Pact.
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PART VIII — CITIZENSHIP
10. Naturalization of Non-Tibetan Spouses
The Charter shall be amended to provide a pathway to Tibetan citizenship for non-Tibetan spouses, with full civil and political rights, in accordance with Article IX of this Amendment Pact.
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PART IX — REPEALS AND SAVINGS
11. Repeal
Any provisions of the Charter inconsistent with this Act, including post-2011 provisions inconsistent with the Head of State, Council of Regency, or electoral independence clauses, are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.
12. Savings
All actions lawfully taken under the Charter prior to the commencement of this Act shall remain valid.
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STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS
This Bill seeks to strengthen Tibetan democratic governance by correcting constitutional imbalances, safeguarding the institution of the Dalai Lama as wished by His Holiness, empowering citizens, protecting elections and referenda, and ensuring representative and inclusive governance for the Tibetan people in exile.
