45 civil society organisations urge Lord Neuberger to resign from Hong Kong Court
Today, 45 civil society organisations from around the world sent a letter to Lord Neuberger, a former president of the British Supreme Court, urging him to seriously reconsider his position on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.
The letter follows Lord Neuberger being one of five judges who unanimously upheld the convictions of Jimmy Lai, Martin Lee, Margaret Ng, Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho for “participating in an unauthorised demonstration” on 18 August 2019. The alleged unauthorised demonstration involved a peaceful march against the Hong Kong police’s use of force, which involved 1.7 million people marching without violent incident from Causeway Bay to Central.
In the letter, the civil society organisations emphasise that the “seven democrats would not be found guilty under other common law systems, including in Britain”, as the right to assemble is “guaranteed under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, and Hong Kong’s obligations under international law”.
The organisations also call attention to how in the 76-page judgement, Lord Neuberger was “not eager to provide any dissenting opinion to emphasise the importance of free peaceful assembly and free speech in Hong Kong”. Lord Neuberger also failed to warn against the Public Order Ordinance, the local criminal law centred in this case, which has been widely weaponised by the authorities to crack down on free peaceful assembly and thousands of protestors in 2019. Both of these actions contradict Lord Neuberger’s previous effort in advocating free speech in his book, Freedom of Speech in International Law.
Given that Lord Neuberger’s involvement in the Hong Kong Court opens him to credible charges of sponsoring a systematic repression of human rights against peaceful activists in the city, the organisations implore Lord Neuberger “to immediately follow the example of your British and other foreign colleagues who have decided to step down from the Hong Kong courts”.
The civil society organisations await a reply.
The full letter can be read here.
45個民間組織聯署促請廖柏嘉勳爵辭任香港終審法院非常任法官
今天，45個來自世界各地的民間組織聯署致函前英國最高法院院長廖柏嘉勳爵（Lord Neuberger），促請他嚴正重新考慮在香港終審法院的職位。
2019年8月18日，現已解散的民陣在維園舉行「流水式集會」，事後黎智英、李柱銘、吳靄儀、何俊仁、李卓人、梁國雄和何秀蘭被裁定「組織未經批准集結」和「參與未經批准集結」兩罪成立。七名民主派人士上訴後獲撤銷「組織集結」定罪，另就「參與集結」定罪提出終極上訴，五名終審法院法官上週一（12日）一致裁定駁回上訴，維持原判。廖柏嘉勳爵是五名法官之一 。
相關民間組織在信中強調，「根據其他普通法制度（包括英國在內），七名民主派人士不會被判有罪」，因集會權利「受《香港基本法》和香港在國際法下的義務保障」。
聯署組織同時指出，廖柏嘉勳爵在長達76頁的判詞中，「並不熱切提供任何反對意見，藉以強調香港自由和平集會和言論自由的重要性」。本案圍繞的香港刑事法《公安條例》廣被當局用作武器，打壓2019年的自由和平集會和數千名示威者，廖柏嘉勳爵亦沒就此提出告誡。廖柏嘉勳爵之前在其著作《Freedom of Speech in International Law》中倡議言論自由，上述兩項行為均與此有矛盾。
鑒於廖柏嘉勳爵任職香港法院，有助長以體系鎮壓香港和平社運人士的人權之嫌，聯署組織請求廖柏嘉勳爵「立即效法相關英籍及其他外籍法官同僚，辭去香港法院職務」 。
相關民間組織正等候答覆。
信函全文可在此處閱讀。