UK judges quit Hong Kong's top court over national security law concerns while Canadian and Australian judges decide to remain
Two senior British judges, including the president of the UK Supreme Court, Lord #RobertReed and his deputy Lord #PatrickHodge resigned from Hong Kong's highest court. Four of the ten remaining overseas judges, however, said they would remain to defend the city's "last surviving strong institution of democracy".
Reed said in a statement on March 30, 2022, that they could no longer serve in Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal "without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom."
The judges resignation was endorsed by the UK prime minister as #BorisJohnson told MPs: “They have evidently concluded the constraints of the national security law make it impossible for them to serve in the way they would want.”
British Foreign Secretary #LizTruss also said that the situation had reached a tippingpoint "untenable" for judges to serve independently without risk legitimising oppression.
"We have seen a systematic erosion of liberty and democracy in Hong Kong. Since the National Security Law was imposed, authorities have cracked down on free speech, the free press and free association."
Four of the ten remaining overseas judges, however, have said on the next day that they will remain, including former Canadian chief justice Beverley McLachlin, Australian judges William Gummow, Anthony Murray Gleeson and Robert French.
Sources:
InmediaHK, #Mar30;
https://bit.ly/3LqiLrr
HKFP, #Mar31
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/31/australian-canadian-judges-to-stay-on-hong-kong-top-court-after-2-uk-judges-quit-citing-security-law/
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Barrister #PaulHarris Leaves Hong Kong After Being Approached by National Security Police
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/32345
Hong Kong Watch, the first overseas organisation accused of National Security Violations
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/32404
.
Two senior British judges, including the president of the UK Supreme Court, Lord #RobertReed and his deputy Lord #PatrickHodge resigned from Hong Kong's highest court. Four of the ten remaining overseas judges, however, said they would remain to defend the city's "last surviving strong institution of democracy".
Reed said in a statement on March 30, 2022, that they could no longer serve in Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal "without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom."
The judges resignation was endorsed by the UK prime minister as #BorisJohnson told MPs: “They have evidently concluded the constraints of the national security law make it impossible for them to serve in the way they would want.”
British Foreign Secretary #LizTruss also said that the situation had reached a tippingpoint "untenable" for judges to serve independently without risk legitimising oppression.
"We have seen a systematic erosion of liberty and democracy in Hong Kong. Since the National Security Law was imposed, authorities have cracked down on free speech, the free press and free association."
Four of the ten remaining overseas judges, however, have said on the next day that they will remain, including former Canadian chief justice Beverley McLachlin, Australian judges William Gummow, Anthony Murray Gleeson and Robert French.
Sources:
InmediaHK, #Mar30;
https://bit.ly/3LqiLrr
HKFP, #Mar31
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/31/australian-canadian-judges-to-stay-on-hong-kong-top-court-after-2-uk-judges-quit-citing-security-law/
-----
Related articles
Barrister #PaulHarris Leaves Hong Kong After Being Approached by National Security Police
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/32345
Hong Kong Watch, the first overseas organisation accused of National Security Violations
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/32404
.
獨立媒體
韋彥德、賀知義辭任終院非常任法官 稱不願為港府背書 | 獨媒報導 | 獨立媒體
【獨媒報導】終審法院現時有12名海外非常任法官,特首林鄭不時以此強調香港司法獨立,惟12席法官去留出現變數。英國最高法院今宣布,英國最高法院院長及副院長韋彥德勳爵及賀知義勳爵,辭去香港終審法院非常任法官職務,即時生效。韋彥德在聲明指,《港區國安法》實施後不時權衡終院工作與英國國家利益,最終認為若繼續出任工作,將難免予人感覺正為一個遠離自由民
#PoliceState #Crackdown
Former Confederation of Trade Unions leaders brought in for questioning by Hong Kong national security police
Source: Inmediahk, HKFP; #Mar31
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Former Confederation of Trade Unions leaders brought in for questioning by Hong Kong national security police
Source: Inmediahk, HKFP; #Mar31
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
#PoliceState #Crackdown
Former Confederation of Trade Unions leaders brought in for questioning by Hong Kong national security police
Four former leaders of a disbanded pro-democracy union have reportedly been brought in for questioning by Hong Kong’s national security police after allegedly failing to supply information about its past activities.
"The core members of the CTU allegedly violated the Societies Ordinance and needed to assist our investigations," a police source said.
The former chair of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (#HKCTU) Joe Wong, former vice-chair Leo Tang, ex-treasurer Chung Chung-fai, and former general secretary Lee Cheuk-yan – who is currently behind bars – were taken on March 31, 2022 to assist police investigations.
The HKCTU was Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy union coalition, representing almost 100 affiliated organisations totalling around 145,000 members, before its dissolution in October 2021.
Despite the shutdown, the Security Bureau issued a statement saying any organisation or its members would “remain criminally liable” for offences committed, regardless of disbandment.
Source: Inmediahk, HKFP; #Mar31
https://bit.ly/3LxdqyP
Former Confederation of Trade Unions leaders brought in for questioning by Hong Kong national security police
Four former leaders of a disbanded pro-democracy union have reportedly been brought in for questioning by Hong Kong’s national security police after allegedly failing to supply information about its past activities.
"The core members of the CTU allegedly violated the Societies Ordinance and needed to assist our investigations," a police source said.
The former chair of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (#HKCTU) Joe Wong, former vice-chair Leo Tang, ex-treasurer Chung Chung-fai, and former general secretary Lee Cheuk-yan – who is currently behind bars – were taken on March 31, 2022 to assist police investigations.
The HKCTU was Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy union coalition, representing almost 100 affiliated organisations totalling around 145,000 members, before its dissolution in October 2021.
Despite the shutdown, the Security Bureau issued a statement saying any organisation or its members would “remain criminally liable” for offences committed, regardless of disbandment.
Source: Inmediahk, HKFP; #Mar31
https://bit.ly/3LxdqyP
#HongKongPolice to lower residency requirement for new recruits
Source: Hong Kong Free Press #Mar31
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Source: Hong Kong Free Press #Mar31
Read more
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#HongKongPolice to lower residency requirement for new recruits
//The Hong Kong Police Force has announced that it will no longer require applicants for certain positions to have been living in the city for at least seven years, although they will still have to be permanent residents.
As per the city’s immigration regulations, Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong, people born outside the city to a parent that is both a Chinese citizen and Hong Kong permanent resident, and those born locally to a parent who has the right of abode before the child turns 21 can be permanent residents without living continuously in Hong Kong for at least seven years.
According to the response by the Secretary for Security Chris Tang, the police had 5,706 vacancies as of December 31, 2021, which was 8.5 per cent more than the 5,258 open positions in February last year.
The Force had targeted to hire 1,545 more officers between March 2021 and February 2022. At the end of last year, actual recruitment numbers stood at 542.//
Source: Hong Kong Free Press #Mar31
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/31/hong-kong-police-to-lower-residency-requirement-for-new-recruits/
#Recruitment
//The Hong Kong Police Force has announced that it will no longer require applicants for certain positions to have been living in the city for at least seven years, although they will still have to be permanent residents.
As per the city’s immigration regulations, Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong, people born outside the city to a parent that is both a Chinese citizen and Hong Kong permanent resident, and those born locally to a parent who has the right of abode before the child turns 21 can be permanent residents without living continuously in Hong Kong for at least seven years.
According to the response by the Secretary for Security Chris Tang, the police had 5,706 vacancies as of December 31, 2021, which was 8.5 per cent more than the 5,258 open positions in February last year.
The Force had targeted to hire 1,545 more officers between March 2021 and February 2022. At the end of last year, actual recruitment numbers stood at 542.//
Source: Hong Kong Free Press #Mar31
https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/31/hong-kong-police-to-lower-residency-requirement-for-new-recruits/
#Recruitment
Hong Kong Free Press HKFP
Hong Kong police to lower residency requirement for new recruits
The Hong Kong Police Force has announced that it will no longer require applicants for certain positions to have been living in the city for at least seven years, although they will still have to b…
#Award
A 19-year-old Hongkonger wins National Poetry Competition
#EricYip #NationalPoetryCompetition #Fricatives #Freedom #Emigration
Source: Initial Media #Mar31
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
A 19-year-old Hongkonger wins National Poetry Competition
#EricYip #NationalPoetryCompetition #Fricatives #Freedom #Emigration
Source: Initial Media #Mar31
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
#Award
A 19-year-old Hongkonger wins National Poetry Competition
#EricYip, who is from Hong Kong, won for his poem #Fricatives in the #NationalPoetryCompetition. The 19-year-old economics student from the University of Cambridge has become the youngest person to ever win the competition.
The poem plays with ideas about language to also comment on colonialism, race, migration, belonging and the guilt of leaving one’s home behind.
Yip’s work was chosen by judges Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long, who read all the entries anonymously.
Benson said: “Fricatives is an immensely ambitious and beautifully achieved poem. It puts its reader into the position of a student of English as a second language, the fricative consonants tangling our mouths as we speak the poem, and intriguing us with the alternate meanings that rest precariously on the pronunciation. ‘Proper’ achievements – the correct pronunciation, the good education abroad, and the proud parents – are countered by an underworld of political prisoners and risky, grim sex.”
In an interview, Eric Yip told reporters that he was shocked to have won. “Poetry is definitely one of the arts where you get better with age because you have more lived experiences and you read more and you write more.”
Yip, who cites Ocean Vuong as a writer who made him realise he “had a right” to be heard, speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, but writes poetry in English.
Yip won £5,000 for the first prize. The National Poetry Competition also named nine other winners, including 92-year-old MR Peacocke for her poem Out of School.
#EricYip #NationalPoetryCompetition #Fricatives #Freedom #Emigration
Source: Initial Media #Mar31
https://publielectoral.lat/theinitiumnews/79
A 19-year-old Hongkonger wins National Poetry Competition
#EricYip, who is from Hong Kong, won for his poem #Fricatives in the #NationalPoetryCompetition. The 19-year-old economics student from the University of Cambridge has become the youngest person to ever win the competition.
The poem plays with ideas about language to also comment on colonialism, race, migration, belonging and the guilt of leaving one’s home behind.
Yip’s work was chosen by judges Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long, who read all the entries anonymously.
Benson said: “Fricatives is an immensely ambitious and beautifully achieved poem. It puts its reader into the position of a student of English as a second language, the fricative consonants tangling our mouths as we speak the poem, and intriguing us with the alternate meanings that rest precariously on the pronunciation. ‘Proper’ achievements – the correct pronunciation, the good education abroad, and the proud parents – are countered by an underworld of political prisoners and risky, grim sex.”
In an interview, Eric Yip told reporters that he was shocked to have won. “Poetry is definitely one of the arts where you get better with age because you have more lived experiences and you read more and you write more.”
Yip, who cites Ocean Vuong as a writer who made him realise he “had a right” to be heard, speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, but writes poetry in English.
Yip won £5,000 for the first prize. The National Poetry Competition also named nine other winners, including 92-year-old MR Peacocke for her poem Out of School.
#EricYip #NationalPoetryCompetition #Fricatives #Freedom #Emigration
Source: Initial Media #Mar31
https://publielectoral.lat/theinitiumnews/79
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端傳媒官方頻道 Initium Media
【史上最年輕冠軍! 19歲香港學生獲英國國家詩比賽冠軍】
2021年英國國家詩比賽(National Poetry Competition)昨(31日)公布獲獎名單。來自香港的劍橋大學經濟系學生Eric Yip憑藉《Fricatives》一詩奪冠,年僅19歲的他成為該獎項有史以來最年輕的冠軍。
在詩中,Eric Yip以一個留學生的視角,結合香港政治環境背景,討論了殖民主義、種族、移民、歸屬感及背井離鄉的負罪感等議題。
「《Fricatives》是一首極其雄心勃勃、非常優美的詩歌,它將讀者置於…
2021年英國國家詩比賽(National Poetry Competition)昨(31日)公布獲獎名單。來自香港的劍橋大學經濟系學生Eric Yip憑藉《Fricatives》一詩奪冠,年僅19歲的他成為該獎項有史以來最年輕的冠軍。
在詩中,Eric Yip以一個留學生的視角,結合香港政治環境背景,討論了殖民主義、種族、移民、歸屬感及背井離鄉的負罪感等議題。
「《Fricatives》是一首極其雄心勃勃、非常優美的詩歌,它將讀者置於…
#Crackdown #Censorship
Slogan dedicated to victims of Tiananmen crackdown has been painted over and lined with a row of potted plants in a Hong Kong University
#CUHK #LingnanU #HKU #PillarOfShame #Education #FreedomOfSpeech
Source: Inmediahk; #Mar31
Photo credit: HKFP
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Slogan dedicated to victims of Tiananmen crackdown has been painted over and lined with a row of potted plants in a Hong Kong University
#CUHK #LingnanU #HKU #PillarOfShame #Education #FreedomOfSpeech
Source: Inmediahk; #Mar31
Photo credit: HKFP
Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
#Crackdown #Censorship
Slogan dedicated to victims of Tiananmen crackdown has been painted over and lined with a row of potted plants in a Hong Kong University
Residents at Swire Hall of the University of Hong Kong (#HKU) painted a slogan on the bridge after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
Every year since then, HKU students have retouched the slogan, which read: “Souls of martyrs shall forever linger despite the brutal massacre; Spark of democracy shall forever glow for the demise of evils.”
33 years later, the university cordoned off the bridge claiming for “regular maintenance works”. Later on the slogan was found covered with cement and on top of it, a row of flower pots was added.
The removal of the slogan was part of a wider clampdown on commemorations of the Tiananmen crackdown at universities across Hong Kong.
In December, HKU dismantled the Pillar of Shame statue – an eight-metre sculpture that depicts bloodied bodies bundled together – in the middle of the night.
The next day, also in the early hours, a Goddess of Democracy statue and a relief sculpture were taken down at Chinese University (#CUHK) and Lingnan University (#LingnanU).
#CUHK #LingnanU #HKU #PillarOfShame #Education #FreedomOfSpeech
Source: Inmediahk; #Mar31
https://bit.ly/3J16po2
Photo credit: HKFP
Slogan dedicated to victims of Tiananmen crackdown has been painted over and lined with a row of potted plants in a Hong Kong University
Residents at Swire Hall of the University of Hong Kong (#HKU) painted a slogan on the bridge after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.
Every year since then, HKU students have retouched the slogan, which read: “Souls of martyrs shall forever linger despite the brutal massacre; Spark of democracy shall forever glow for the demise of evils.”
33 years later, the university cordoned off the bridge claiming for “regular maintenance works”. Later on the slogan was found covered with cement and on top of it, a row of flower pots was added.
The removal of the slogan was part of a wider clampdown on commemorations of the Tiananmen crackdown at universities across Hong Kong.
In December, HKU dismantled the Pillar of Shame statue – an eight-metre sculpture that depicts bloodied bodies bundled together – in the middle of the night.
The next day, also in the early hours, a Goddess of Democracy statue and a relief sculpture were taken down at Chinese University (#CUHK) and Lingnan University (#LingnanU).
#CUHK #LingnanU #HKU #PillarOfShame #Education #FreedomOfSpeech
Source: Inmediahk; #Mar31
https://bit.ly/3J16po2
Photo credit: HKFP