#EndReprisals

Until 2020, civil society in Hong Kong was vibrant. The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), for example, was established in 2002 with the aim of giving a platform to different organisations to promote the development of human rights in Hong Kong. The CHRF was responsible for organising the largest peaceful protests in Hong Kong’s history, notably protests against the National Security Law in 2003 with half a million Hong Kongers taking to the streets, as well as the one and two million person-strong anti-extradition law protests on 9 and 16 June 2019 respectively.

Human rights organisations in Hong Kong had engaged consistently and constructively with the UN, and regularly contributed to the work of the UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures. Forty-five civil society groups organised themselves into a strong coalition for policy advocacy and engagement with the Hong Kong government linked to the 2018 Universal Periodic Review, while UN expert recommendations and comments on Hong Kong were widely shared, and often addressed in substantive meetings of the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s elected legislature. Many saw the UN as a venue of justice, as well as a source of authoritative guidance on issues ranging from police violence to abuses against migrant domestic workers.

This engagement came to a screeching halt after the imposition by Beijing of the National Security Law for Hong Kong (NSL), which entered into force on 1 July 2020.

Jiang Tianyong is a prominent human rights lawyer and legal rights activist from China. He has been working at the grassroots level to defend land and housing rights, promote the rights of vulnerable social groups and expose the root causes of systemic rights abuses.

He defended high-profile cases in China, including clients with HIV, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan protesters and victims of the 2008 milk scandal.

Despite being arbitrarily disbarred by the government in 2009, Jiang has tirelessly continued his valuable human rights work to improve the situation in China. He has persisted in denouncing human rights violations in his country and supported numerous well-known human rights defenders unlawfully detained.