Baroness Helena Kennedy, KC becomes Hong Kong Watch Patron

Hong Kong Watch is delighted to announce the appointment of one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers, Baroness Helena Kennedy, KC, as a Patron of the organisation.

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws – Helena Kennedy, KC – is the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, and co-chair – with Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP – of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). She has served as Chair of the British Council, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, President of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and is currently Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. She is the Chair of Justice – the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists – and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997 as a Labour Party member. Baroness Kennedy is one of seven UK Parliamentarians sanctioned by China.

Benedict Rogers, co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch, said:

“We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to welcome Helena Kennedy as a Patron of Hong Kong Watch. Baroness Kennedy has proven to be a truly steadfast friend of Hong Kong and a passionate defender of human rights and the rule of law for Hong Kong. We have been privileged to work with her for several years already, and we are so grateful to her for her support for Hong Kong. We are so pleased that she will join us as a Patron and bring to our work her fifty years of legal expertise, her decades of experience of human rights advocacy and her inspiring passion for justice. We are excited to be working with her, to escalate, increase and intensify our fight for Hong Kong’s freedoms.”

Baroness Kennedy, KC said: “I have long been an admirer of the work that Hong Kong Watch does to uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. What we are witnessing is a steady erosion of rule of law, civil and political rights, and Hong Kong’s autonomy. In the face of such concerning developments, closely monitoring the situation and reminding the actors involved of their domestic and international obligations is more important than ever. Hong Kong Watch has been at the forefront of these efforts, and I am truly delighted to join their mission by becoming a Patron of the organisation.”

Baroness Kennedy joins her fellow barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice, KC – who prosecuted Slobodan Milosevic and chaired independent tribunals on the Uyghur Genocide and forced organ harvesting in China – as well as the last Governor of Hong Kong Lord Patten of Barnes, the former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, KC, the independent cross-bench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on freedom of religion or belief Fiona Bruce MP, the Chair of the House of Commons International Development Committee Sarah Champion MP, the Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael who co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hong Kong and the Labour Shadow Minister for Asia Catherine West MP as a Patron of Hong Kong Watch.

She also joins the former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, the President of the National Democratic Institute and former US Ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell, the former South Korean Ambassador for Human Rights Jung-Hoon Lee, Member of the European Parliament Miriam Lexmann and several Canadian Parliamentarians, including former Attorney General and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler MP, Garnett Genuis MP, Senator Leo Housakos, Melissa Lantsman MP, James Bezan MP and former Senator Jim Munson as Patrons.

The late Lord (Paddy) Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK, and the late David Kilgour, former Canadian Parliamentarian and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, were among Hong Kong Watch’s founding Patrons.

Benedict Rogers said: “Hong Kong Watch is a totally cross-party, bipartisan and global movement for human rights in Hong Kong, bringing together people across the political spectrum and around the world to defend the basic freedoms which Hong Kong people were promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and which Beijing is tearing apart.”