In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, today's imposition of lengthy jail terms on three activists and a heavy fine on the affiliated civil society organisation is another regrettable outcome of the deeply flawed National Security Law.
The jailing of Chow Hang-Tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, who organised peaceful vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square victims, shows the ever-increasing restrictions on civic space in Hong Kong, including harsh measures taken against civil society actors, since the law was passed in 2020.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls for these sentences to be quashed and reiterates his call for the National Security Law to be brought in line with China's international human rights law obligations.
