Hong Kong Centre for Human Rights (“HKCHR”) submitted a parallel report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Committee”) yesterday (16 January), which illustrated the actual human rights situation in Hong Kong in detail.
We hope that the report could assist the Committee to understand the difficulties and threats faced by Hongkongers when they are exercising their economic, social and cultural rights (“ESC rights”). We urge the Committee to express concerns over the deteriorating human rights situations in Hong Kong, and demand the Hong Kong government to cease violating human rights and take remedial actions immediately.
The HKCHR submitted that Hong Kong’s human rights situation has deteriorated on an institutional level since the imposition of the National Security Law (“NSL”). The Chinese and Hong Kong governments have infringed on the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“ICESCR”) by utilising different policies, laws and executive powers. Key points raised in the submission are as follows: –
(1) The HK government utilised the NSL, other domestic laws and executive measures to shrink the civic space and create a chilling effect, so as to hinder people from exercising ESC rights. Groups related to ESC rights, including civil society groups and artists, are stigmatised as “anti-government” based on their political opinions or works. Their access to fundings is therefore obstructed or threatened to be obstructed in order to stifle their development or advocacy.
(2) The Hong Kong government refused to accept and comply with the recommendations made in the concluding observation of the Human Rights Committee review in 2022. Instead, it accused groups of smearing Hong Kong and China by making human rights reports. Civil society actors who took part in the review were doxed.
(3) One must also note the dissolution of leading large-scale trade unions which caused a domino effect, the decreased trade union membership and participation rate, the use of various domestic laws to hamper the exercising of labour rights, and a significant setback of collective bargaining.
(4) The government issued national security guidelines for schools, which dictate the way teachers approach issues related to national security. Government promotes patriotic education in schools and universities, and reformed liberal studies for secondary students, accompanied by a stricter censorship on textbooks and removal of discussions on controversial social issues. We also provide information on the cases of dismissal of university professors based on political opinions, cases of pressure on scholars, and the deregistration of schoolteachers.
(5) We urgently bring to the Committee’s attention the recent waves of censorship of the internet, films, library materials and literature creation.
(6) We also address how the COVID-19 policies adopted by the HK government allegedly unnecessarily and/or disproportionately restrict the rights protected by the ICESCR in terms of the right to work, to education, and to health. This submission also records allegations that COVID-19 policies have been used to suppress the exercises of trade union rights.
(7) Police’s excessive use of chemical substance, including tear gas and water cannons, in suppressing protests during 2019 to 2020, obstructing first-aid in protests and arresting medical volunteers, obstructing injured protesters and arrestees from receiving prompt medical treatments, and police brutality especially in handling protests in recent years. The police have also violated special measures to protect children.
(8) Defendants of national security cases are under long-term pre-trial detention which separates them from their families and loved ones.
The Spokesperson of HKCHR said today:
“We hope that the report could assist the Committee to understand the actual human right situation in Hong Kong. We urge the Committee to express concerns over the deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong, and demand the Hong Kong Government to cease violating human rights and take remedial actions immediately. As to the adverse effect of the NSL on ESC rights, the Chinese and Hong Kong government should take step to repeal the NSL in accordance with the recommendations by the Human Rights Committee in July 2022.”
Link to our submission:
https://hkchr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/HKCHR-submission-on-ICESCR.pdf
Background:
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regularly reviews each State party’s implementation of the ICESCR in order to monitor their fulfilment of their obligations under the treaty and to improve human rights. The Committee would issue concluding observations after each review to detail the Committee’s concerns and recommendations for the State party to better discharge their obligations under the treaty.
The ICESCR applies to Hong Kong. Hong Kong government submitted the 4th report to the Committee in December 2019 as pursuant to the mechanism and Committee’s request. Based on that and NGOs’ submissions, the Committee made a list of issues in April 2021 for the upcoming review. The Hong Kong Government submitted a reply to the list of issues in March 2022. According to the Committee’s programme of work, it will hold meetings with the Chinese government including Hong Kong and Macau SARs from 15th to 16th February to raise questions about human rights issues in Hong Kong. After the meetings, the Committee will issue concluding observations to elaborate the Committee’s concerns and recommendations for Hong Kong.
HKCHR is established in 2022 by a group of human rights defenders from Hong Kong with strong background in policy and legal research. The mission of HKHRIC is to provide credible information on the latest situation in Hong Kong, with reference to its legal, political, and human rights development, in order to support the resilient civil society in Hong Kong and defend the city’s rights and freedoms in accordance with international human rights law and standards.
Reference:
Fourth periodic report submitted by Hong Kong, China under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant, due in 2019 (received by UN in December 2019) https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2FC.12%2FCHN-HKG%2F4&Lang=en
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ List of issues in relation to the fourth periodic report of Hong Kong, China (released in April 2021)
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2FC.12%2FCHN-HKG%2FQ%2F4&Lang=en
Replies of Hong Kong, China to the list of issues in relation to its fourth periodic report (received by UN in March 2022)
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2FC.12%2FCHN%2FRQ-HKG%2F4&Lang=en
Proposed Programme of Work of Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 73rd session https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCESCR%2FINF%2F73%2F34197&Lang=en