Rights Groups Urge Beijing To Drop Security Law

More than 80 rights groups from around the world have issued a joint open letter to the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) urging it to drop plans to impose a national security law on Hong Kong.

The signatories include Amnesty International, the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, Human Rights Watch and others from Taiwan, Australia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere.

In the letter, addressed to the NPCSC's chairman Li Zhanshui, the groups raise concerns about suggestions that mainland agents might be sent to the SAR to protect national security and provide "support" to Hong Kong police; and that a "special court" may be established to handle national security cases, behind closed doors and without a jury.

They say that on the mainland, "peaceful activists, human rights lawyers, scholars, ethnic minorities, journalists and netizens are detained, charged and imprisoned for years, sometimes for life, for vaguely defined crimes", adding that this "strongly indicates that neither the law nor its application would conform to international human rights law and standards".

They also say the NPC's decision to directly insert the legislation into Annex III of the Basic Law means it will bypass Legco oversight and meaningful public consultation, and could violate Article 23 of the mini constitution which says the Hong Kong government should enact national security laws on its own.