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GENEVA: China’s national security law for Hong Kong poses a serious risk to the city’s freedoms and violates international legal obligations, warned UN special human rights rapporteurs.
Beijing has faced a barrage of criticism over the law, which was imposed in late June after protests rocked the semi-autonomous city last year.
The law, which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and has intimidated many protesters into silence.
In a letter released on Friday (September 4), UN advisers warned that parts of the legislation “appear to criminalize freedom of expression or any form of criticism” of China.
“The National Security Law … poses a serious risk that those fundamental freedoms and due process protections will be violated,” the rapporteurs said.
READ: Hong Kong court says media mogul Jimmy Lai is not guilty of criminal intimidation in 2017 case
The letter warned that the legislation may “unacceptably violate the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly.”
The rapporteurs urged that China “reconsider” the legislation and that a fully independent reviewer be appointed to ensure that it complies with China’s international human rights obligations.
They also expressed concern about one of the most controversial points in the law, which allows cases to be transferred from Hong Kong jurisdiction to mainland China, and warned that it could undermine the right to a fair trial.
Critics believe that the security law has ended the freedoms and autonomy that Beijing promised Hong Kong could maintain after its 1997 handover by Britain – freedoms unique to China.
The broadly drafted law criminalized certain political speeches overnight, such as advocating sanctions and greater autonomy or independence for Hong Kong.
Lawyers representing some of the more than 20 people arrested under the law so far say police are investigating the activists’ historic actions to bolster their cases.
The UN experts also expressed concern about the definition of terrorism in the national security law.
They warned that it extends to damage to physical property, such as transportation facilities, which goes far beyond the UN Security Council definition of terrorist conduct aimed at causing death or serious bodily injury.
Since the law was imposed in Hong Kong, a number of nations have terminated their bilateral agreements with the city, including extradition treaties with the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, France and Germany.
The law has also sparked fears about the decline in press freedoms, particularly after the arrest of media mogul Jimmy Lai under the new law last month.
