1 July 2021

7:30 am EDT / 1:30 pm CEST / 7:30pm HKST
(Duration: 90 minutes)

Online event

Register here

Background

On 30 June 30, 2020, Beijing imposed the National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong.  This legislation has been wielded by both PRC and Hong Kong authorities to silence dissent, arrest people expressing pro-democratic views, stifle protests, and reinterpret the working of Hong Kong’s judiciary.  To date, 100 people have been arrested under the NSL, with 56 being formally charged.  Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal has declared that not only does the Beijing-imposed NSL override Hong Kong’s Basic Law and its human rights protections, but that it is also not open to judicial or constitutional challenges in an open court, which clearly risks undermining Hong Kong’s judiciary.  On 1 July 2020, the UK’s Foreign Secretary reported to the UK Parliament that the National Security Law constitutes a clear and serious breach of the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The event

This 90-minute event will bring together Hong Kong activists in exile and human rights experts to discuss the human rights implications of the National Security Law, including on Hong Kong’s legal system and democratic processes, and on Hong Kong residents.  Human Rights Council Member States and observers, along with civil society participants, will have an opportunity to conduct an open dialogue with voices from Hong Kong's exiled political and legal community regarding the degradation of individual rights and freedoms since the implementation of the NSL, and to think critically about policy approaches for promoting and protecting human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong given this new reality. 

This event will be held online, and is open to participation from all stakeholders, including States, civil society organisations and journalists. In order to register for the event, please RSVP here. Individual Member States and NGOs may make 60 second interventions, and Member States and NGOs speaking on behalf of a group may make 120 second interventions. Those wishing to present interventions should inscribe on the speakers list here.

Moderator: Victor Mallet, Financial Times

Opening remarks:

• Deputy Assistant Secretary Jonathan Fritz, Bureau for East Asian Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State
• Ambassador Simon Manley, Permanent Representative of the UK to the UN and Other International Organizations in Geneva
• Ambassador Andrius Krivas, Permanent Representative of Lithuania in Geneva

Panel segment I: 

• Clément Voule, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association
• Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders

Panel segment II: 

• Nathan Law, activist
• Glacier Kwong, activist 
• Victoria Tin-bor Hui, University of Notre Dame

This event is co-sponsored by the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. This event is co-sponsored by the following NGOs: Article 19, CIVICUS, Human Rights Watch (HRW), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Independent Diplomat, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), and World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).

Photo: Flickr/Studio Incendo (CC-BY-2.0)