International Human Rights Day 2020

Dec 10, 2020 | News

Today is International Human Rights Day. On Monday in Parliament I urged the world to speak up for those who are subject to egregious human rights violations in Hong Kong and in mainland China:

2020 has undoubtedly been a dark year for the people of Hong Kong. In less than six months, the imposition of the National Security Law over the city has led to devastating impacts on the everyday lives of Hongkongers, preventing them from exercising some of their most basic rights. Defendants of freedom and liberty are being silenced, teachers are forbidden to teach impartially, and journalists are stopped from reporting true facts. Allegiance to China was imposed, democratic elections were delayed, public protests were banned and opposition politicians expelled.

Under the National Security Law, Hongkongers are no longer free. Yet, the fight for their democracy is not lost. From media figures like Jimmy Lai, to pro-democracy activists like Joshua Wong, to the many more who go unnamed, the people of Hong Kong continue to defy authoritarianism and protect the liberal values they so deeply cherish.

The international community must back them and stand with Hong Kong  #StandWithHongKong.

The theme of today’s Human Rights Day is ‘Recover better – stand up for human rights’. This is the exact situation that Hongkongers find themselves in, having battled not only with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also an aggressive deterioration of their rights, freedoms and way of live.

Read the full debate here:

Lord David Alton

For 18 years David Alton was a Member of the House of Commons and today he is an Independent Crossbench Life Peer in the UK House of Lords.

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