On 4 March 2023, a Hong Kong government-designated national security judge at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court convicted woman human rights defender Chow Hang-tung and two other leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the Hong Kong Alliance) for refusing to comply with the Hong Kong police’s request in August 2021 demanding disclosure of extensive information about its funding, activities, Board members, executives, and staff.

Sentencing is scheduled on 11 March 2023. The woman human rights defender and the two other Alliance leaders face up to six months in jail and a HKD100,000 fine (approximately EUR 11,919). Chow Hang-tung is also being prosecuted for “inciting subversion of State power” under the National Security Law in a separate case.

The police’s request for information was based on what it claimed were “reasonable grounds” for believing the Alliance was a “foreign agent”, and was issued under the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, which grant expansive investigative powers to the police. However, during the trial, the prosecution concealed the identity of the foreign organisation for which it accused the Alliance of acting as a “foreign agent”, and a key police officer who testified also refused to answer questions regarding the identity of the foreign organisation. The judge also sided with the prosecution’s and the police’s argument that disclosure of such information would damage “the public interest” and “jeopardise on-going investigations” into other individuals and organisations.

Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) is a barrister and woman human rights defender in Hong Kong. At the time of her arrest on 8 September 2021 for refusing to provide data to the police, she was one of the vice-chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance. On 24 September 2021, as a result of the prosecution of the Alliance’s leaders and high risks of further prosecution, members of the Alliance voted to dissolve the organisation. On 26 October 2021, while the liquidation process for the Alliance was still on-going, then Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued an order for the Alliance be removed from the Companies Register on the basis that "the operation of the Alliance which seeks to end the Chinese Communist Party's leadership amounts to seeking to overthrow" the political system of the People's Republic of China and subverting state power.”

In his ruling, the national security judge also affirmed that the National Security Law itself as well as the decisions and actions of the National Security Committee, a new body created under the National Security Law, cannot be challenged in local court. The National S ecurity Committee, chaired by Hong Kong’s chief executive and supervised by the central Chinese government in Beijing, was responsible for developing the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law.

UN human rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns that the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules for Article 43 pose serious risks to the right to defend human rights and to freedom of expression, freedom of association, privacy, and a fair trial.

In September 2021, UN Special Procedures mandate-holders wrote to the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities about the detention of Chow Hang-tung. The experts said that detention and arrests of human rights defenders “form part of a broader operation to impose undue restrictions on the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong” and that such “a criminalisation of the exercise of human rights with reference to national security is incompatible with international human rights law.”

In July 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee, in its concluding observations on the implementation by the Hong Kong government of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), expressed concerns about the arbitrary arrests and detention of human rights defenders under the National Security Law and sedition law, calling for the suspension of enforcement of these laws and for their reform or repeal. The Committee stated that “Article 43(6) of the National Security Law and Schedule 6 of the Implementation Rules, which facilitate arbitrary intrusion into privacy for the purpose of public security or national security, are not compatible with article 17 of the Covenant.”

In February 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also criticised the use of the National Security Law to target human rights defenders in Hong Kong, and was concerned that the law “has de facto abolished the independence of the judiciary.” It has called for a review of the Law to bring it into line with international human rights standards.

Front Line Defenders believes the arrest and subsequent prosecution of Chow Hang-tung and other Alliance members under the National Security Law are reprisals against their legitimate and peaceful human rights work. Both the substantive and procedural inconsistencies with international human rights standards seen in this case illustrate the intention and capacity of the Hong Kong authorities to use the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules to punish and intimidate human rights defenders and organisations and deter them from communicating or collaborating with or receiving support from international partners, other governments, and UN human rights mechanisms.

Front Line Defenders calls on the Hong Kong authorities to quash the conviction against Chow Hang-tung and the other Alliance leaders, release them immediately, and drop the other criminal charges against them. It reiterates its call on the central Chinese government to repeal the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules in Hong Kong.