Human Rights Protection of HK Residents in the Mainland China
“No matter whether my husband violate the law or not, the Chinese Police and the court ought to rule in accordance with the Chinese Criminal Laws.”-Wife of Hong Kong resident being detained on the Mainland.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the rights to liberty, personal security, fair trial, free from inhuman treatments and torture.
Every year, more than 10 million Hong Kong residents travel across the boundary to the mainland and back. However, the number of Hong Kong residents being detained on Mainland has been on the rise after the 1997 handover. Hong Kong residents’ personal safety on the mainland has been thrown to a serious doubt.
Of the 40 cases that we came across, most involved civil cases but were handled as criminal ones. Many of the detainees were illegally detained and were tortured by the Chinese public security officials. They were also deprived of their rights of being legally represented and of a fair trial.
We organized the detainees’ families and expressed their grievances to the Legislative Council members and the Security Bureau. We also invited Chinese legal experts to provide legal advice for the victims. We also submitted reports to the United Nation’s Committee against Torture to get international attention. Although our effort had successfully led to the return of some detainees to Hong Kong and the establishment of a Notification System(with further improvement made in recent years), we will continue our fight for the cause.. One of our objectives is to lobby the SAR Government to set up a cross-boundary legal assistance mechanism in line of international human rights standard.
Social reality
- Before the handover, there were only 10 people detained in Hong Kong who had sought help from the Security Bureau. Since the establishment of the notification mechanism on January 1, 2001, the accumulative number of Hong Kong residents seeking help has soared to 3,000
- At present, China and Hong Kong have not yet established any mutual legal assistance agreement or extradition agreement.
- Some cases indicate that they were tortured during the detention and the inhuman treatment of public security officers in Mainland
