HONG KONG -Amnesty Worldwide mentioned on Wednesday that Hong Kong authorities have used a brand new nationwide safety legislation to focus on dissent and justify “censorship, harassment, arrests and prosecutions that violate human rights” within the yr because it was applied.
Beijing imposed a sweeping nationwide safety legislation in June final yr that units out punishment for something it deems as subversion, secession, colluding with international forces and terrorism with as much as life in jail, setting town on a extra authoritarian path.
Authorities have mentioned the legislation would have an effect on an “extraordinarily small minority” of individuals and that it had restored stability after months of often-violent protests in 2019. They’ve mentioned rights and freedoms within the former British colony stay protected however they don’t seem to be absolute.
Most high-profile democratic politicians and activists have been arrested below the brand new legislation or for protest-related fees, or are in self-exile.
“In a single yr, the Nationwide Safety Regulation has put Hong Kong on a fast path to turning into a police state and created a human rights emergency for the folks dwelling there,” mentioned Amnesty Worldwide’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra.
“In the end, this sweeping and repressive laws threatens to make town a human rights wasteland more and more resembling mainland China.”
China international ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin mentioned at an everyday information convention that Amnesty’s statements have been “purely malicious slander”.
The Hong Kong authorities, in an announcement late on Wednesday, mentioned it strongly objected to “the grossly deceptive and incorrect remarks by some people, organizations and international locations upon the anniversary of the Regulation”.
It didn’t title these it referred to.
“We should reiterate, for the document, that any legislation enforcement actions … are based mostly on proof, strictly in keeping with the legislation, for the acts of the individuals or entities involved, and don’t have anything to do with their political stance, background or occupation,” the assertion mentioned.
In its 47-page report, the worldwide human rights group cited evaluation of courtroom judgments, courtroom listening to notes and interviews with activists, concluding the laws has been used “to hold out a variety of human rights violations”.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese language rule in 1997 with the promise of a excessive diploma of autonomy from Beijing and that wide-ranging rights and freedoms can be protected for at the very least 50 years.
Mishra mentioned the legislation “has contaminated each a part of Hong Kong society and fomented a local weather of worry that forces residents to assume twice about what they are saying, what they tweet and the way they stay their lives”.
Greater than 100 folks have been arrested and greater than 60 charged within the first yr below the safety legislation, in keeping with a tally by Reuters.
“Hong Kong’s NSL has been used as a false pretext to curb dissent,” the rights group mentioned.
