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Hong Kong national security law has ‘chilling effect’ on freedoms, says UN human rights chief
UN rights chief warns Hong Kong national security law having ‘chilling effect’ on basic freedoms
- Michelle Bachelet says recent arrests of democracy activists ‘risk causing a wider chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental freedoms’
- She also voiced concern over ‘ongoing reports of a range of serious human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang’
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The UN rights chief on Wednesday voiced deep concern over arrests of activists in Hong Kong, warning that a tough new security law was having a “chilling effect” on basic freedoms.
“I am concerned about the rapidly shrinking civic and democratic space, especially since the passage of the national security law,” Michelle Bachelet told reporters in her annual year-end press conference in Geneva.
Beijing says the law and prosecution of critics is needed to restore stability after last year’s huge and often violent protests.
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Recent convictions, she warned, “risk causing a wider chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental freedoms”.
“More have continued to be arrested and charged with a host of offences under various laws including for unauthorised assembly,” she said.
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“We believe that peaceful protest should never be criminalised,” Bachelet said.
“I call on … authorities to apply laws in conformity with Hong Kong’s human rights obligations,” she said. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
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Beijing has come under intense international criticism over its policies in the resource-rich territory, where rights groups say as many as one million Uygurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in internment camps.
Bachelet said her office was “seeking to verify the material on this issue which we have received”.
She said work was continuing towards a long-promised visit to the region during which she wants “meaningful access to concerned areas”.
An advance team is expected to travel to China during the first half of next year to lay the groundwork for the visit.
