Amnesty International Coordinator: "Now is not the time for Canada to remain silent on Article 23."

Carole Channer

(Clearwisdom.net) Carole Channer, China country coordinator, Amnesty International, Canadian Section, spoke at a Montreal Global Coalition Against Article 23 public rally on December 15, 2002. The following are notes from Ms. Channer's speech.

Today the people of Hong Kong are facing possibly the greatest threat to their basic freedoms since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. The threat comes in the form of draft proposals for legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law, which requires the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to enact laws against treason, secession, sedition, subversion, theft of state secrets, and prohibiting foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the SAR, or political organizations or bodies in the SAR from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.

Will these proposals serve to protect national security, as the Hong Kong government claims, or will they be used to undermine basic freedoms?

Amnesty International considers that the proposals as drafted are vaguely worded, ill defined and contrary to international laws and standards. Legislation based on these proposals could criminalize or severely restrict basic freedoms: freedom of thought, conscience, religion; freedom of expression and the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of association. These rights are largely respected at the moment in Hong Kong. Residents of Hong Kong exercising these rights under legislation based on the Article 23 draft proposals could be subjected to the abysmal human rights practices in mainland China.

Let us pause for a moment to consider the grave human rights situation in mainland China, extensively documented by Amnesty International. In a time of strong economic growth, hundreds of thousands of Chinese - Tibetans, the Uighur people of the western province of Xinjiang, followers of Falun Gong and other spiritual or religious groups, pro-democracy activists, trade unionists, internet users - daily experience harsh repression in the form of arbitrary detention, torture and even death for peacefully exercising fundamental rights guaranteed under international standards.

The world community, including Canada, must not stand by and watch Hong Kong lose basic human rights and fall victim to mainland China's human rights practices. It must send a strong message to the Hong Kong government that legislative changes being considered must strengthen human rights in Hong Kong and not provide an excuse for these rights to be ignored or violated as they are so often in mainland China.

What can Canada do?

- It can urge the Hong Kong SAR government:

1. to extend the period of consultation on the draft proposals, due to end December 24. This is too important an issue to be dealt with in haste.

2. to delay introducing the Blue Bill which would contain the actual legislation on Article 23 but which would not allow for public consultation on the legislation.

3. instead to issue a White Bill in which the legislation would be available for public discussion.

- Canada should convey to the Hong Kong government that it expects the legislation on Article 23 to protect and strengthen human rights in Hong Kong, and that it would be willing to offer advice and assistance in accomplishing this goal.

The many groups in Hong Kong which have courageously expressed their concerns about Article 23 - students, lawyers, librarians, trade unionists, doctors, business people and others - need our support at this critical moment in Hong Kong history. Now is not the time for Canada to remain silent on Article 23.

Carole Channer China country coordinator, Amnesty International, Canadian Section

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