[APWSLMembers 213] Submission to UNHRC on Human Rights Violatons during the WTO MC6 in Hong Kong

[Franklen Choi of SEPI]

>From HKPA and AHRC





	

Press release


    March 19, 2006

The Submission to UNHRC on Human Rights Violations during the Policing, 
Arrests, and Detentions of the Protests against WTO MC6 in Hong Kong in 2005


  The submission

This submission was prepared by the Hong Kong People’s Alliance on the 
WTO (HKPA) and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) for submission 
to the 86th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Committee in consideration 
of the Second Report of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of 
the People’s Republic of China in the light of the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The hearing will take 
place on March 20, 2006 in New York, USA.

This 53 page submission is based on the factual experience of the HKPA 
during the preparation and implementation of People’s Action Week (PAW), 
the activities running parallel to the WTO MC6. With respect to the 
human rights violations that occurred during the mass arrest and 
detention, this report is based on detailed statements received from 
approximately 45 individuals and groups representing a mixture of 
international and local participants, reports from activity organizers, 
reports from lawyers, police reports submitted to the Hong Kong 
Legislative Council (Legco), numerous interviews with action organizers 
and observations from Hong Kong citizens living near Kwun Tong Police 
Station. This report presents a comprehensive review of the human rights 
violations as a result of the policing before and during the WTO 
session, the excessive use of weapons, the mass arrest on December 
17-18, the detention, and the Hong Kong complaints system.

Systematic tactic of undermining rights of protestors lead to Human 
Rights violation

The WTO conference is famous for attracting protesters from all over the 
world. However, the set up of the conference did not provide legitimate 
space for dialogue between WTO delegates and members of the various 
social movements who came to protest. During the WTO MC6 thousands of 
protesters from Hong Kong as well as many other countries, particularly 
neighboring Asian countries, actively voiced out their concerns and 
demands on the streets. The Hong Kong community took sympathetic note of 
the arguments made by the protesters against those conducting their 
discourse in comfort.

However, the Hong Kong government systematically and repeatedly 
undermined plans for legitimate and peaceful demonstration prior to and 
during the WTO ministerial conference by delaying the approval of venue 
applications for activities, designating areas surrounding the venue of 
MC6 as closed areas, questioning hotels, camps and car rental companies 
about their arrangements with organisations taking part in the PAW, 
unduly delaying the approval of visas, interrogating overseas 
participants and making them stay in the airport for hours and raiding 
the office of an HKPA member among others. All of these government 
actions were taken in the name of so-called facilitation.

Furthermore, the government took unnecessary harmful action to crack 
down the protest on December 17, 2005 when it had become known that the 
negotiations in the WTO MC6 had entered a critical moment. Why were so 
many strong weapons used by the police during this confrontation? Was 
the mass arrest legitimate? Why did the arrest take so long, confining 
the peaceful majority of protesters on the street for such a long 
period? The protesters were prevented from participating in the final 
day of protest against the WTO MC6, at the same time as the conference 
delegates rushed out a so-called HK declaration. Is there any connection 
between the two?

The behavior of the Hong Kong police – particularly from the evening of 
December 17 to the morning of December 18 – has raised more questions 
regarding principles of law enforcement and human rights. For instance, 
one HIV AIDS patient, whose life was seriously endangered when deprived 
of his right to take his own medicine, shared his story. The HKPA is 
aware of others who were in the same situation. The HIV AIDS patient 
asked HKPA, “Why were the Hong Kong police so ignorant about HIV AIDS? 
Besides, shouldn’t it be my basic human right to take my own medicine as 
a patient?” The Hong Kong government has a responsibility to answer all 
of these questions.

Recommendations

The protesters who have been detained, all local and overseas protesters 
and the Hong Kong public were expecting the Hong Kong government to give 
a response to all of the above questions. Disappointedly, the Hong Kong 
police report to the security panel of Legco on February 7, 2006 was far 
from satisfactory. The police only gave a few substantial data items, 
after hundreds of questions by Legco members. Therefore our demands have 
been included as recommendations in the submission. They include the 
following:

    * The committee should urge the Hong Kong government to carry out a
      thorough and independent inquiry into the human rights violations
      that occurred during the mass arrest of the WTO protesters and
      their detention by the police on December 17 and 18, 2005.
    * The committee should urge the Hong Kong government to carry out a
      comprehensive review of the police’s guidelines, methods and use
      of force and weapons for policing demonstrations and public
      assemblies to ensure that they comply with the ICCPR.
    * The committee should urge the Hong Kong government to set up an
      independent complaint mechanism against the police.


    Follow up by HKPA

The HKPA is still doing fund raising for the protesters who are being 
prosecuted by the Hong Kong government with the local and international 
community. Moreover we are starting to raise funds for this HIV AIDS 
patient, and others, who were affected by the detention.