A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Haiti to Pakistan
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Karachi, Pakistan,
Muslims in other countries, including India and Pakistan, are celebrating Eid al-Adha today. Solidarity of the Muslim Ummah after the Eid prayers, Special prayers were offered for the security, development, prosperity and eradication of the Corona pandemic.
Due to the Corona pandemic, Eid-ul-Adha is being celebrated in a limited way in some countries, including Pakistan and India. People also gathered for Eid prayers at the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India
The temperature of many people was also checked on arrival at the Eid Gah to help determine if a person was infected by corona. In such cases, these people are told to return home and isolate. Under normal circumstances, Muslim families meet their relatives and friends on the occasion of Eid and offer Eid prayers together, but the Corona pandemic disrupted traditional Eid celebrations.
Eid prayers were held in all cities, districts and villages of Pakistan, scholars highlighted the importance of the philosophy of sacrifice. After Eid prayers, special supplications were offered for the unity of the Muslim Ummah, security of the homeland, development, prosperity and eradication of the Corona pandemic.
Supplications were also offered for the liberation of occupied Kashmir and Palestine and for the end of the ongoing strife in Muslim world. Animals are being sacrificed following the Abrahamic tradition after the prayers.
On the occasion, special security arrangements have been made across the country under which a heavy contingent of police has been deployed outside mosques and Eid venues.
This important festival of Eid-ul-Adha lasts for three days and for animals sacrificial.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
-
Loghman Sawari was 17 when he was placed in a men-only centre on Manus Island. Nearly a decade on, and another child refugee wants to know why he’s still in detention
One of the child refugees unlawfully detained on Manus Island alongside Loghman Sawari has said it is “unbelievable” he remains detained, eight years on, while an Australian family has said they have repeatedly offered their own home as sanctuary for him if he were released from detention.
This came as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees again urged Australia to end offshore asylum processing which “undermined the rights of those seeking safety and protection and significantly harmed their physical and mental health”.
Related: Refugee hunger strike at Melbourne detention centre ends after 17 days with detainees in hospital
Related: ‘It was like the scene of a horror movie’: how Jaivet Ealom escaped from Manus Island
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
The Press Freedom Tracker launch video featuring Peter Greste and the tracker team. Video: AJF
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk
The Peter Greste-fronted Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom is launching a press freedom tracker for use in engaging with politicians and government officials to push for better protections for journalists in the Asia-Pacific region, reports Miranda Ward of the Australian Finanancial Review.
Greste, who spent more than 400 days behind bars after he and two colleagues were charged with terrorism offences while on assignment for Al Jazeera in Egypt, said the press freedom tracker would record incidents, both attacks on press freedom and positive steps forward, and help the AJF and other stakeholders assess the state of press freedom in the region.
Peter Greste wants to help the Australian public understand the challenges facing press freedom in Australia.
Journalism professor Peter Greste … biggest challenge facing press freedom in Australia is making the public understand the threats facing media. Image: Screenshot/Pacific Media Watch “It’s designed to be something that looks at the state of press freedom, the direction of travel and whether it’s up or down across the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
“We’re also being very careful not to rate countries because we don’t think that’s necessarily helpful. What we’re looking at, though, is a way of comparing and contrasting the way that various countries handle press freedom across the region and the broad direction of trends.”
Greste said the AJF would use it as a tool “for opening political and diplomatic conversations and as a tool for advocacy”.
The AJF was formed in 2017 by Greste, lawyer Chris Flynn and former journalist and strategic communications consultant Peter Wilkinson. Flynn and Wilkinson worked with the Greste family to free Greste from an Egyptian prison.
Complement advocacy work
The press freedom tracker, which was launched in Brisbane yesterday, will complement the AJF’s advocacy work and how the organisation engages with governments to discuss press freedom issues.Greste said the AJF was also working on its “regional dialogue” project, which is a series of semi-formal meetings between news companies, governments and security agencies designed to help each understand the other better and find better ways of working together.
“One of the chief arguments is that there’s often talk about the trade-off between press freedom and national security, the balance between press freedom and national security, which implies that if you have more of one, by definition, you have less of the other,” he said.
“We disagree with that characterisation. We think that press freedom is actually part of the national security framework. It indirectly helps government function better, it helps the system work more effectively, it helps expose corruption within governments and organise crime.”
The biggest challenge facing press freedom in Australia, said Professor Greste who is also UNESCO chair in journalism and communication at the University of Queensland, was making the general population understand the threats facing media.
“Opening up a daily newspaper, it doesn’t feel as though Australia press is limited in any way. We don’t have explicit censorship and not seeing journalists thrown in prison. Up until the [Australian Federal Police] raids [on the ABC and a News Corp journalist], we weren’t seeing police kicking down the doors of journalists in a rage reaction. So it doesn’t look as though journalism is in a crisis,” he said.
Greste said that if the public had a better understanding of how “dangerous it is for sources within government to speak to journalists anonymously, confidentially”, and the effect that has on stories that are not being told, he believed it would be more widely recognised that journalism in this country was “not as healthy as we’d like to believe”.
No constitutional protection
“The challenge is getting the public to understand the role that journalism plays, and appreciate that role, and recognise the loss of press freedom that we’ve seen since 9/11. The impact that the national security legislation has had on press freedom.”In Australia specifically, the AJF is pursuing the creation of a media freedom act that would help provide protections to journalists and compel the courts to consider press freedom in any case that would affect the state of press freedom in the country.
“Australia is about the worst Western liberal democracy in the world when it comes to legal and constitutional protections for things like freedom of speech and press freedom,” Greste said.
“We have no constitutional protection at all.”
The AJF hopes a media freedom act would help protect news organisations from police raids such as the AFP’s 2019 raid on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters by insisting judges be obligated to consider press freedom and the public interest before signing warrants to allow such raids to take place.
Greste said that while a parliamentary inquiry in August last year recommended sweeping reforms, politicians need to find the will to implement the recommendations.
“The opportunity for the AJF is to help the public understand this and to find and develop political support for media freedom,” he said.
“We’re getting some support, we’ve had a number of politicians approach us. We’re in the process of drafting an act. We’ve been speaking to a number of independent MPs about working on the idea and certainly politicians in the Coalition and in the Labor Party privately have been expressing support for the idea.”
“It’s just that it’s hard to put on the political agenda and get the kind of moment that we need to see a piece of legislation go through.”
Republished with permission from the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
-
Myanmar,
Myanmar’s junta authorities nominated Aung San Suu Kyi on more corruption charges, her lawyer said on Tuesday, adding to charge sheet that could see the Nobel laureate jailed for more than a decade.
A mass uprising in Myanmar against the military’s February coup has been met with a brutal crackdown that has killed more than 890 civilians, according to a local monitoring group.
Suu Kyi, 76, who is under house arrest, is already on trial for sedition, illegally importing walkie talkies and flouting coronavirus restrictions during elections last year, her party clean sweep and won.
She will face four more charges of corruption, her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters on Tuesday, adding to those she already faces over claims she illegally accepted $600,000 in cash and around 11 kilos of gold.
Her legal team has yet to see “the first information reports and other documents”, he said, adding that the charges would be heard by a court in the second city of Mandalay from July 22.
Tuesday’s hearing on charges Suu Kyi violated Covid restrictions was adjourned, as no prosecution witnesses showed up, Khin Maung Zaw said.
On Monday a prosecution witness failed to testify after becoming infected with the coronavirus.
Infections are spiking in Myanmar, with the State Administration Council as the military junta calls itself reporting more than 5,000 new cases on Monday, risen up from fewer than 50 per day in early May.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
-
Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
An earthquake struck eastern Tajikistan on Saturday morning, killing at least five people, according to authorities in the mountainous Central Asian country.
Tremors from the 5.9 magnitude quake could be felt in the capital of Dushanbe, 165 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of the epicenter.
“Dozens of houses were destroyed,” the Tajik committee for emergency situations said.
“Power lines were also partly damaged” in three villages in the district of Tajikabad, where all the victims lived.
The quake struck at 7:14 am (0214 GMT) and at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the committee and state news agency.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has ordered a commission of enquiry headed by the prime minister, Russian media reported.
Turkmenistan, bordering Afghanistan, is frequently hit by earthquakes.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
-
Non-binding resolution also calls for governments to impose further sanctions on China as tensions rise
The European parliament has overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on diplomatic officials to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in response to continuing human rights abuses by the Chinese government.
In escalating tensions between the EU and China, the non-binding resolution also called for governments to impose further sanctions, provide emergency visas to Hong Kong journalists and further support Hongkongers to move to Europe.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Foreign affairs committee calls for import ban on products from Xinjiang, where it says there is ‘industrial-scale forced labour’
Britain must act to stop China’s atrocities against Uyghur Muslims by banning the import of Chinese cotton and solar panels from Xinjiang province, as well as by announcing that no government officials will attend the Winter Olympics in Beijing, a report by MPs says.
The chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat, said that without action the UK would be allowing China “to nest the dragon deeper and deeper into British life”.
Related: France investigates fashion brands over forced Uyghur labour claims
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
It’s been dubbed ‘tangping’ – shunning tough careers to chill out instead. But how is the Communist party taking the birth of this new counterculture?
Name: Low-desire life.
Age: People – young ones especially – have been rebelling, dropping out, rejecting the rat race for pretty much ever, since the rat race began. But in China, it’s becoming more common. On trend, you might say.
Related: How hard does China work?
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Patikul, Sulu, Philippine,
At least 29 people were killed after a Philippine military plane carrying 96 people crashed in the country’s south on Sunday, local media reported.
According to the News Agency, at least 50 people have so far been rescued, while 17 were still unaccounted for. Two of those killed and four of the injured persons were civilians on the ground.
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 aircraft crashed in Patikul, Sulu at 11.30 a.m. (0330GMT), according to the news agency.
Three pilots and three airmen were also killed in the crash, it added.
Rescue operations are still ongoing for the missing passengers and crew, according to the Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, said they were “deeply saddened by the C-130 mishap in Sulu”.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
-
By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist
Papua New Guinea and Fiji are among several countries in the region going backwards in their fight against the covid-19 pandemic and this is concerning, a New Zealand epidemiologist has warned.
PNG has recorded more than 170 deaths and more than 17,000 cases of the virus. In Fiji, 17 people have died and more than 3,000 active cases are in isolation.
Professor Michael Baker, from the University of Otago, said the figures coming out of both countries are a concern.
“One of the added worries with PNG is it’s by far the largest population [9 million] and many people are living in informal settlements in crowded conditions with multi-generational families,” he said.
“They are very vulnerable to this infection so it’s very concerning. This is the same in Fiji.
“We are seeing a pattern across the Asia-Pacific region now where countries that have managed the pandemic extremely well and have succeeded in eliminating the virus. Fiji did extremely well and had no transmission for over a year.
“But now what we’re seeing is an outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant and we will see more infections of the virus unfortunately.”
Professor Baker said this had put a lot of strain on the health control measures in these countries, due to fatigue and complacency, after more than a year of battling the virus.
Fiji’s government has refused to impose a national lockdown with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama saying this would cripple the economy and impact on Fijian jobs.
Professor Michael Baker says the Delta variant has put a lot of strain on the health control measures in countries such as PNG and Fiji, due to fatigue and complacency, after more than a year of battling the virus. Image: RNZ/AFP Fiji positivity rate at 7.4 percent
The country’s covid-19 positivity rate is now at 7.4 percent while the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold is at five percent.“That’s a grim situation and is very concerning,” Professor Baker said. “They are on that exponential part of the curve and that means essentially uncontrolled transmission of this virus and we know all the consequences that go with that.
“That also means with more positive cases will come deaths. Typically there’s a mortality risk depending on the ages of the population of half a percent to one percent.”
In PNG, where testing remains limited, the government has been reluctant to force wider communities into lockdowns and so instead has urged the public to adhere to the preventative measures of the “niupela pasin” or new normal.
With vaccine hesitancy still rife in PNG, health authorities there appear to be banking on the natural protection of a youthful population to mitigate some of the impacts of covid-19.
“But one of the real worries is that when you exceed the capacity of the health system to manage these ill people, they start dying from quite preventable causes. Some people are seriously ill and it will be hard to look after them even with the best intensive care.”
He said a change to policy settings is needed so people are more prepared for any outbreak.
Concern for Asia-Pacific region
“I’m concerned for the whole Asia-Pacific region because they are all going backwards at the moment and having trouble containing this variant [Delta]. Just look at the terrible situation in Fiji.“This is a real lesson for us in New Zealand that everything we are doing now we are going to have to do better if we are going to stay ahead of this more infectious variant.”
Professor Baker’s number one piece of advice is to stay home if you have cold or flu symptoms and get tested. After that, wearing masks indoors at level two and compulsory scanning are critical.
There have been calls to ramp up covid-19 vaccinations on both sides of the Tasman.
An alert level 2 was raised in New Zealand last week after an Australian tourist who had visited tourist attractions, restaurants and bars in Wellington between June 18 and 21 tested positive for the Delta variant of the virus on his return home.
Wellington moves back down to alert level 1 from midnight Tuesday, and cabinet has agreed in principle to resume travel with some Australian states from Sunday: Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Tasmania.
The travel pause with NSW, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland is set to continue beyond Sunday. Cabinet will review the settings for those states on Monday, July 5, and announce a decision on Tuesday, July 6.
University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker Image: Luke Pilkinton-Ching/University of Otago Call to ramp up vaccinations
The Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum worked on protocols and advice for the governments on the trans-Tasman travel deal, with tourism worth more than NZ$5 billion to the two countries.Co-chair of the forum, Ann Sherry, believes the attitude of some towards vaccination is putting everyone at risk.
She said both countries need to give their vaccination rollouts “some acceleration”, especially as Australia and New Zealand have countries nearby with connections.
“I watched imagery last night of fighting in Fiji over someone who’d stolen crops,” she said.
“Now when you get to the stage in your near neighbours where people are fighting over food because they’re so dependent on tourism — so dependent on both Australians and New Zealanders coming in and out, and them getting work in both Australia and New Zealand — can we really in good conscience sit by and watch that happen?
“There’s a bigger world around us. A lot of places very dependent on Australia and New Zealand in the region, and they’re doing it tough at the moment.
“Their economies are collapsing and that puts a lot of vulnerable people at risk. And I personally don’t think we should just sit by, watch that happen and say, ‘we’re okay, so see ya’.”
19,000 cases in French Polynesia
Meanwhile, French Polynesia’s covid-19 tally has breached the 19,000 cases mark after another nine infections were recorded over the weekend.Daily infection numbers have, however, plummeted to single digits after peaking in November when French Polynesia had the fastest propagation rate of the pandemic outside Europe.
Six cases of the Delta variant were discovered last week and more than 60,000 people have been fully vaccinated.
Since last week, there is no curfew. Gatherings continue to be restricted to a maximum of 25 people and in enclosed spaces, masks have to be worn by people aged 11 and older .
The territory was reopened to quarantine-free travel for vaccinated visitors from the US last month.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Health workers in Fiji … the country is struggling with the latest Delta variant outbreak. Image: RNZ/Fiji govt This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
-
3 Mins Read Due to corporate occupiers’ commitment to double net zero adoption by 2025, 50% investors will priortise green-certified real estate.
The post 70% of Asia-Pacific Companies Are Willing to Pay More Rent For Greener Buildings: Report appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
-
Rights activists say country has built one of world’s most far-ranging systems of forced disappearance
China has ramped up its use of secret detention without trial, creating one of the most far-ranging systems of forced disappearance in the world, human rights activists warn in a report.
Tens of thousands of people have been subjected to “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), an anodyne, bureaucratic name for an Orwellian system, the group Safeguard Defenders said in the report, Locked Up.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms from China to Colombia
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Key figure in 2019 anti-government protests was imprisoned for more than six months under national security law imposed by mainland China
The Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow has been released from jail after serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorised assemblies during 2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent by mainland China.
Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam women’s prison on Saturday. She got out of a prison van and into a private car without making any remarks.
Related: Hong Kong film censors get wider ‘national security’ powers
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Widespread internment, torture and rights abuses have been claimed by former detainees as Beijing continues a policy of denial
Amnesty International has collected new evidence of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of China, which it says has become a “dystopian hellscape” for hundreds of thousands of Muslims subjected to mass internment and torture.
The human rights organisation has collected more than 50 new accounts from Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities who claim to have been subjected to mass internment and torture in police stations and camps in the region.
Related: ‘Nobody wants this job now’: the gentle leaders of China’s Uighur exiles – in pictures
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Jakarta, Indonesia,
Indonesia has cancelled the Hajj 2021 pilgrimage for people in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation for a second year in a row due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the religious affairs minister said on Thursday.
Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas told a briefing to Saudi Arabia, where the pilgrimage takes place, had not opened access to Hajj.
Last year, more than 220,000 people from the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country were set to take part in Hajj, which all Muslims must perform at least once in their lives if able.
Indonesia’s decision was a disappointment for some who have been on a pilgrimage waiting list for years.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
-
Nourn moved from Cambodia to the US as a child, and ended up in an abusive relationship that led to a man’s murder. After years in prison, she is now a powerful voice for those who face incarceration and deportation
When Ny Nourn entered Central California Women’s Facility, the largest women’s prison in the world, there was every reason to believe she would never walk free on American soil again.
She was just 21, and had been sentenced to “life without parole” for her part in a hauntingly brutal murder – a part she was forced into. Even if, at some distant date, a successful appeal commuted that sentence, her conviction made Nourn deportable – so when she had served her time, she was likely to be transported to another prison and ultimately to Cambodia, the country of her parents’ birth, a country she had never set foot in.
Ron used to say: ‘I should have killed you that night I killed him,’ and a part of me wished he had
Now I see that we were two Asian defendants accused of killing a white man. Looking back, I had no chance
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Envoy raps Beijing for failing ‘treaty obligation’ to allow consular access to author accused of spying
Australia’s ambassador to China has labelled the treatment of Yang Hengjun “arbitrary detention” on the morning of the writer’s closed-door trial for espionage charges.
The envoy, Graham Fletcher, was on Thursday denied entry to the Beijing court where Yang will be tried after spending more than two years in jail.
Related: Joe Biden orders US intelligence to intensify efforts to study Covid’s origins
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Rights groups said LDP deserved ‘gold medal for homophobia’ after comments over discrimination bill
Japan’s ruling party has been accused of violating the Olympic charter after it failed to approve a bill to protect the rights of the LGBT community, during discussions marred by homophobic outbursts from conservative MPs.
Closed meetings held this month to discuss a bill, proposed by opposition parties, stating that discrimination against LGBT people “must not be tolerated” ended without agreement after some Liberal Democratic party (LDP) MPs said the rights of sexual minorities had “gone too far”.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
A growing nationalistic fervour is fuelling a torrent of vitriol against anyone speaking out against the state, especially women’s rights activists
Late last month, an “unknown hill in the Chinese desert” was blanketed in scores of large red and white banners, flapping vitriol in the breeze. “I hope you die, bitch,” said one. “Little bitch, screw the feminists,” said others.
They were all actual messages sent to women, a direct act of harassment anonymised by social media. They were sent during weeks of intense debate about the treatment of women on platforms such as Weibo, sparked by the abuse of Xiao Meili who posted video of a man who threw hot liquid at her after she asked him to stop smoking.
Some artists and activists established a temporary physical “Internet Violence Museum” to show how online violence on the Internet in China brutally attacked feminists. This project responded to the recent persecution of feminists by nationalist trolls and major online platforms. pic.twitter.com/PbNVbtH98a
Related: The Chinese government is trying to rebrand forced sterilization as feminism | Arwa Mahdawi
Every time nationalistic sentiment runs high, a woman is cyberbullied, from Fang Fang to Tzu-i Chuang, from Vicky Xu to Xiao Meili. Ethnic Chinese women are seen as theState’s property; whenever they’re deemed to have strayed from patriarchal values, they are damned. https://t.co/cwlRolETQU
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Foreign ministry responds to west’s human rights claims, saying countries should ‘face up to their own problems’
China has rejected accusations of human rights abuse and economic coercion, made by G7 foreign ministers, accusing them of “blatantly meddling” in China’s internal affairs, calling their remarks groundless.
“Attempts to disregard the basic norms of international relations and to create various excuses to interfere in China’s internal affairs, undermine China’s sovereignty and smear China’s image will never succeed,” said the foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin. “They should not criticise and interfere with other countries with a superior mentality, and undermine the current top priority of international anti-epidemic cooperation.”
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
I had never imagined how horribly the company my father works for was entangled with the story of my West Papuan partner
They make great trucks. That’s what my father says whenever I ask him: “What do they make? Who do they sell them to?” “Only to the good guys,” is his standard answer, and the topic changes quickly. But what he calls “trucks”, most people call “tanks”. And I am always led to wonder, “What kind of ‘good guy’ drives a tank?”
My father works for Thales, one of the richest weapons corporations in the world. Before heading up security for Thales he worked for Asio, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
Related: Global protests throw spotlight on alleged police abuses in West Papua
If it’s true that change begins at home, I hope my father will be ready
Related: The West Papuan independence movement – a history
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Parliament will not debate motion and will instead discuss rights abuses in more general terms
New Zealand’s parliament will not debate a motion that would label the abuses of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China, as acts of genocide.
Parliament opted instead on Tuesday to water down the language, and discuss concerns about human rights abuses in the region in more general terms.
Related: How I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uighurs
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
-
Authorities lambast British-born Paul Harris for criticising treatment of pro-democracy campaigners
Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have accused the British-born head of Hong Kong’s bar association and human rights lawyer of being an “anti-China politician” after he criticised jail sentences imposed on pro-democracy activists.
Paul Harris, the chair of the HKBA, had represented one of 10 people convicted this month for organising or attending unauthorised assemblies during the pro-democracy protest in 2019. The defendants were given a range of suspended sentences or immediate jail terms of up to 18 months.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
