The severe erosion of freedoms and rights in Hong Kong must be on the agenda for the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner’s upcoming trip to China
As the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, finalises her preparations ahead of her long-delayed visit to China in May, Hong Kong must be at the top of the agenda amidst the drastic degradation in freedoms and rights in the territory.
The erosion of freedoms has accelerated since the implementation of Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law (NSL) on 1 July 2020, which includes vaguely worded and broadly defined criminalisation of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Since its implementation, press freedom has been dismantled, almost all pro-democracy politicians and activists have been jailed or driven into exile, and the right to free assembly has been banned.
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have closed their offices in Hong Kong over fears for staff safety, labelling the situation ‘a human rights emergency’. Extraterritoriality has been built into the NSL, meaning that individuals and entities abroad can be targeted.
Our own organisation, Hong Kong Watch, has become the first known international organisation to be threatened with prosecution under the NSL by the Hong Kong Police Force in a disturbing signal of Hong Kong’s intent to expand repression and banish alternatives to the official narrative.
Benedict Rogers, co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch, said: “This is an urgent opportunity for the High Commissioner to raise the severe human rights violations with the authorities in both Hong Kong and in Beijing.
“Hong Kong has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and yet the National Security Law has fundamentally compromised the constitutional safeguards which have historically protected rights and freedoms in the city.
“For Michelle Bachelet’s visit to be considered anywhere near successful, she must raise the situation in Hong Kong with the Chinese government. The High Commissioner must raise the case of political prisoners in Hong Kong, who have been denied bail and detained in custody for long periods before the start of their trials, and sentenced, in many cases, for merely opposing the Hong Kong government through their words and actions.
“She should also seek a visit to Hong Kong to inquire into the situation on the ground, accompanied by relevant Special Rapporteurs, to investigate the scope and force of the National Security Law, and determine how it breaches international human rights norms.”
Background: The crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong
Since the anti-extradition bill protests started in 2019, more than 10,000 people have been arrested in protest-related cases, and over 2,300 charged. Many of these people have been detained and are facing prosecution under the National Security Law or antiquated common law charges.
The NSL is used to silence the Hong Kong government’s critics. On one day last year, February 28, 53 individuals were formally charged with ‘conspiracy to subvert the state power’, owing to their participation and organisation of the democratic primaries in July 2020, in which over 600,000 Hong Kongers cast their votes.
Joshua Wong for instance, the 24-year-old activist who was one of the key figures in the 2014 student-led ‘Umbrella Movement’, is currently imprisoned for various ‘unauthorized assembly’ charges, and ‘conspiracy to commit subversion’ under the NSL.
Andy Li, currently remanded in custody, was arrested on suspicion of ‘collusion with foreign forces’ under the NSL in August 2020. It was reported by Apple Daily that Li is being held in solitary confinement at the maximum-security Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre and monitored by “secret-units” of the government.
Jimmy Lai, the internationally-respected entrepreneur who founded Next Media which published the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, before its forced closure in June 2021, is being held on multiple charges, which include ‘organising, inciting and participating in an unauthorized assembly’, ‘colluding with foreign powers to endanger national security’, and ‘fraud’.
Hong Kong Watch’s monthly briefings – www.hongkongwatch.org – provide detailed updates on developments in Hong Kong.
香港監察呼籲聯合國人權高級專員將香港列為訪華首要議程
在香港的自由和人權狀態急劇惡化的情況下，香港問題必須被列為聯合國人權事務高級專員 Michelle Bachelet 五月訪華的首要議程。
香港人權自由狀況自 2020年 7月 1日中共在香港實施嚴厲的《港區國安法》以來加速衰落，，而國安法中的「分裂國家」、「顛覆國家政權」、「恐怖主義」及「勾結外國勢力」等罪行解釋模糊、定義過闊。自國安法實施以來，香港新聞自由被瓦解、幾乎所有民主派人士或社運人士都被監禁或被迫流亡，而自由集會的權利亦被禁止。
國際特赦組織等人權組織早前因擔心員工安全而關閉了他們在香港的辦事處，又將香港情況列為 「人權緊急情況」。而國安法的實際操作亦不受國界限制，意味著全球每一個人或團體都有機會成為該惡法目標。
而香港監察早前已經成為首個被香港警方威脅以國安法起訴的國際組織，這是一個令人不安的警號，顯然中港當局打算擴大打壓人權自由的規模和範圍。
香港監察聯合創辦人兼行政總監羅傑斯指：「這是聯合國向北京及香港當局提出他們嚴重侵犯人權自由問題的一個緊急機會。
聯合國《公民權利和政治權利國際公約》（ICCPR）條文適用於香港，但《港區國安法》卻根本性地違背了這些保護香港權利和自由的憲法保障措施。
聯合國人權事務高級專員 Michelle Bachelet 必須質問中共政府香港當前的人權自由問題。她必須將香港政治犯情況列入議程；香港政治犯於審訊開始前被拒保釋須長期拘留，而大多情況下，他們僅僅因為反對香港政府的言論而被入罪。
Michelle Bachelet 亦應安排訪問香港，在聯合國相關特別報告員的陪同下親身調查香港情況，調查《港區國安法》的範圍和權力，確定其如何違反國際人權準則。」