Hong Kong govt. refuses entry to Human Rights Watch chief

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Hong Kong immigration authorities barred Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch from entry upon arrival on January 12 at Hong Kong International Airport.

Roth was scheduled to launch HRW’s World Report 2020 in the city-state, where the lead essay highlights the Chinese government’s intensifying assault on international human rights system. No reason was given for entry ban.

“I had hoped to spotlight Beijing’s deepening assault on international efforts to uphold human rights. The refusal to let me enter Hong Kong vividly illustrates the problem,” Roth said.

Human Rights Watch was scheduled to release its 652-page World Report 2020 at a news conference on January 15. In the report, its 30th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries.

Roth’s introductory essay, which each year highlights a major human rights theme, warns that the Chinese government is carrying out an intensive attack on the global system for enforcing human rights.

He will now launch the report at a news conference on January 14 at the United Nations in New York.

Roth had visited Hong Kong numerous times in the past; including to release a Human Rights Watch report on gender discrimination in the Chinese job market in April 2018.

On December 2, 2019, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official threatened to impose unspecified “sanctions” against Human Rights Watch and several US-based pro-democracy organizations. Neither Beijing nor Hong Kong authorities have since provided further details.

Hong Kong immigration authorities have denied access to the city to visitors critical of the mainland and Hong Kong governments, including a US photographer who documented Hong Kong protests in January 2020, US academic Dan Garrett in September 2019, US-based exiled Tiananmen leader Feng Congde in June 2019, and United Kingdom-based founder of Hong Kong Watch Benedict Rogers in October 2017.

“This disappointing action is yet another sign that Beijing is tightening its oppressive grip on Hong Kong and further restricting the limited freedom Hong Kong people enjoy under ‘one country, two systems,’” Roth said.

“Concerned governments should take a firm stand against China’s creeping repression that massive numbers of people have protested against for months,” he added.

The international human rights system has for over 70 years guaranteed millions of people around the world fundamental rights and freedoms, including independent media that hold those in power to account, fair legal systems, education and health care, and access to clean water and air, among others.

These rights are increasingly at jeopardy as Beijing seeks to broaden its repression globally. And people across China who want the right to live freely and in dignity are confronting the most severe repression in decades under President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.

“My denial of entry pales in comparison to the harassment that Chinese activists routinely endure – jail, torture, and enforced disappearance simply for trying to secure basic rights for their fellow citizens. But China’s efforts to interfere with the work of international groups like Human Rights Watch are a form of global censorship that governments should resist before it’s too late,” Roth said. (Source: HRW)

 

 

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