The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today called for the immediate release of 53 pro-democracy opponents arrested in Hong Kong on “subversion” charges. We are deeply concerned about the arrest of 53 political activists, academics, former lawmakers, sitting district councillors and lawyers in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Wednesday and call for the immediate release of those arrested,” said Liz Troxel, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement to that effect, AFP reported today from Geneva. Spokeswoman Liz Throssell added: “Yesterday’s arrests are the latest in a series of detentions related to the exercise of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, including the right to peaceful assembly.
More than 50 pro-democracy opponents, including American lawyers, were arrested in Hong Kong on Wednesday in the largest crackdown to date under China’s recent national security law, according to AFP. Troxel stressed, “These latest arrests show that, as feared, the crime of subversion under the National Security Law is actually used to detain people exercising their legitimate right to participate in political and public life.”
The report said the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and various UN independent experts have repeatedly warned that “the definition of the crime of subversion under the National Security Law, adopted in June 2020, is vague and overly general, facilitating abuse or arbitrary enforcement.”
In 2020, Chinese authorities launched a hard-line takeover of the former British colony in a year of unprecedented pan-democratic mass mobilization since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the report said. A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “We emphasize that the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives, is a fundamental right, protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and also by the Hong Kong Basic Law. The UN agency also called on the authorities to refrain from using national security laws to suppress the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. UN human rights officials also called on the authorities to guarantee the right to freedom of expression in the context of the ongoing investigation, “in particular by allowing journalists and media organizations to fully and freely exercise their legitimate functions.”
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