Original Facebook post by HKU Prof. Joseph Chan Cho-wai
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948)
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government;
this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall
be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by
equivalent free voting procedures.
8 Sept 2014
Robert Chow announced a new campaign targeting students who will be on strike and/or participate in occupy movement
Remember Robert Chow? He’s set up a hotline for people to report individuals who ask high schoolers to strike and/or Occupy Central. (RTHK)
— Alan Wong (@byAlanWong) September 8, 2014
Chow does not seem aware of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Hong Kong and China are both parties and which clearly states that:
Article 15
1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.
2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
Article 16
1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.
2. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Concerned citizens may file complaints to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Personal Data at complaints@pcpd.org.hk.
Justin Tse | 29 August 2014 | Religon. Ethnicity. Wired.
Things are heating up over there in Hong Kong over the movement known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace. There’s going to be a rally on August 31 to deliberate over what sorts of acts of civil disobedience the movement will take in response to Beijing’s newly proposed framework for Hong Kong’s electoral reform. This is because while the Occupy Central movement put forward a proposal for Chief Executive candidates to be determined by civil nomination, Beijing has de facto rejected the proposal by insisting on choosing the candidates. Universal suffrage, however, seems to be still on the table. All of this comes on the heels of an anti-Occupy Central rally that was held in Central, as well as several seemingly political investigations of pro-democracy legislators. To add even more alarm in terms of the parallels to the Beijing Spring in Tiananmen Square in 1989, armoured vehicles have been reported to be entering Hong Kong from China.
Mattias Cheung | 16 August 2014 | Oxford Human Rights Hub
With the Hong Kong Government set on introducing an undemocratic electoral reform in the coming months, Professor Benny Tai has proposed to organise a peaceful assembly, ‘Occupy Central with Love and Peace’. It has been condemned and denounced as an affront to the rule of law.
The background to this saga is the Hong Kong Government’s proposed electoral reforms. With the imprimatur of Beijing in 2007, the Government now plans to introduce universal suffrage for Chief Executive (head of government) elections, but candidates must be nominated by an unaccountable nominating committee. This carries the imminent risk that ‘undesirable’ candidates will be screened out, contrary to Article 26 of the Basic Law and Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’).
Alvin Y. H. Cheung | 25 July 2014 | Human Rights in China
Seventeen years after China’s resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong, the former British colony has returned to the spotlight. The debate over reforms to the process for selecting the city’s next Chief Executive in 2017 has reached fever pitch. Democracy advocates are rallying behind the “Occupy Central” civil disobedience movement; authorities in Beijing have responded by threatening suppression by the People’s Liberation Army. But what is the argument about, and what is truly at stake?
20 April 2014
13 April 2014
9 April 2014 | Center for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
In light of the current heated discussions on civil nominations and requirements of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the CCPL is organising a Panel Discussion to serve as an impartial and organised platform for leading figures who have expressed views on this topic to explain their views. We aim to fully manifest the spirit of rational discourse, which the CCPL is committed to enhancing at this crucial stage of Hong Kong’s constitutional development.
Event details, including another seminar (Cantonese) of the same series
20 March 2014 | Center for Comparative and Public Law, Faulty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
The Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong hosted an academic roundtable on “Universal Suffrage and Nomination Procedures: Imperatives from Article 25 ICCPR” in light of the impending electoral reforms in Hong Kong on 20 March, 2014. The Roundtable garnered the reflections of international experts on the requirements of equal and universal suffrage as expressed in Article 25. These insights will be used as a basis to evaluate the various proposed models for electing the Chief Executive and members of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong.
Event details, including written submissions by participants
Occupy Central with Love and Peace 