PRESS RELEASE: Four UN special procedures “express serious concern at the harassment, intimidation and arrest of healthcare workers" in Hong Kong

Four United Nations human rights experts have written to the Chinese government detailing evidence of the harassment, intimidation and arrest of healthcare workers in Hong Kong during the protests last year, and highlighting “the misuse of healthcare transport, facilities and confidential information”.

The UN Special Rapporteurs on physical and mental health, freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the right to privacy, together with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, cite reports that “large numbers of healthcare workers have been arrested and hand-cuffed with zip-cords either in the vicinity of violent confrontations or in the course of performing their legitimate healthcare duties” and that even when they provided identification as healthcare workers, they were reportedly arrested by police for “taking part in a riot” and detained for 24 hours with no access to a lawyer before being released on police bail pending charges.

The experts also claim that “based on reports received, police have hindered healthcare staff at public hospitals when they perform their legitimate health duties, insisting on being present when doctors privately consult with patients, including in delivery rooms, and attempting to enter operating rooms when persons suspected to have participated in protests are due for surgery.”

Hospitals are allegedly “often patrolled by police units in full riot gear, bearing shields, batons and fire-arms loaded with beanbag rounds and rubber bullets,” they note. In addition, healthcare workers have reportedly been threatened with disciplinary action by the Public Hospital Authority in Hong Kong.In further shocking claims, the UN experts report that “undercover police officers have allegedly impersonated first-aiders to arrest injured protesters”. 

The acts outlined in their letter to the Chinese government would, the experts claim, “contravene article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which guarantee the right of every individual to life, liberty and security”. They also violate the right to peaceful assembly set out in article 20 of the UDHR, and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health guaranteed by article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which China has ratified.

“The right to health is an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate healthcare but also to other important aspects: it is closely related and dependent upon the realisation of other human rights, including non-discrimination, equality and the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and movement,” the experts conclude. The UN letter to China comes exactly five months after Dr Darren Mann, a British surgeon working in Hong Kong, first highlighted the arrest of healthcare workers in an article in The Lancet. In December 2019 Dr Mann addressed a meeting of Parliamentarians hosted by Lord Alton of Liverpool, a Patron of Hong Kong Watch, and in January he briefed the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong.

It follows a previous joint letter to China by two UN Special Rapporteurs, on hazardous substances and wastes and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, alleging “inappropriate use of chemical agents” including “hazardous substances such as tear gas, pepper spray, pepper balls and irritating chemical constituents dispersed from water cannons”.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, said: "This letter by four UN experts in response to allegations of serious violations of human rights against medical professionals in Hong Kong is very significant. Taken together with the previous letter by two other UN special rapporteurs, on the issue of teargas, these represent grave issues under international law and merit urgent attention and action from the international community. Although our focus everywhere is on COVID-19, we must not allow these representations by the UN to the Chinese authorities to be swept under the carpet. There must be an independent investigation and action to hold those responsible accountable." 

Benedict Rogers, co-founder and Chair of Hong Kong Watch, said: “We strongly welcome the UN experts’ representations to the Chinese authorities, which detail with the authority of the UN Special Procedures evidence of very grave violations of human rights by the Hong Kong Police. We urge the international community to take these allegations very seriously and to implement Magnitsky-style targeted sanctions on those responsible for protest abuses. We call for a full independent inquiry into police brutality in Hong Kong. At a time when healthcare workers around the world are rightly celebrated for their courage in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, it is tragic that in Hong Kong doctors, nurses and first-aiders have faced such serious violations. The letter from the UN experts may be ignored by the Chinese government, which has made no response as yet, but it must not be ignored by the international community.”