Irwin Cotler is the international chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and the former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. Noah Lew is special advisor to the Hon. Irwin Cotler and a recent graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Three years ago, against the backdrop of the continuing breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law set out during the 1997 handover, the government of China imposed the National Security Law (NSL), giving the Hong Kong government effectively a proxy of the government of China – vast powers to surveil and arrest individuals who contravene the law’s broadly worded provisions. Specifically, the NSL creates the crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, thereby criminalizing fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong. Those found guilty of committing any of the four crimes – by judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, in a process reflective of the erosion of the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary – are deemed ineligible to run for elected office, and face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
At the time, critics warned that the NSL would be used to deprive opposition leaders and dissidents of their basic human rights. Three years later, it is evident that those fears have been borne out, proving that the NSL represented a death blow not only to the democracy movement in Hong Kong, but effectively ends any semblance of democracy there.
A report published last year by the International Service for Human Rights details the severe chilling effects the NSL has had on civil society in Hong Kong. It describes how human rights NGOs and individual human rights defenders have been intimidated, threatened and arrested in flagrant violation of their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to be presumed innocent. To date, at least 260 people have been arrested in Hong Kong under the law. As a result, many NGOs have been disbanded or relocated overseas, while individual dissidents and activists have been silenced or forced to flee to another country.
But matters escalated even further last week, when the Hong Kong government announced the issuance of arrest warrants for eight of these overseas dissidents, as well as bounties of $1-million Hong Kong dollars for information that could lead to any of their arrests. This represents a dramatic expansion of the implementation of the NSL, extending its reach far beyond Hong Kong’s borders.
This extraterritorial application of the National Security Law is a stark example of the growing phenomenon of transnational repression, which describes authoritarian states’ exportation of their oppressive practices and policies beyond their own borders. Transnational repression poses a grave threat to Canadians, and we have urged the federal government to take numerous steps to address the issue. This latest attempt by the government of Hong Kong to silence, intimidate and deter leading dissidents abroad requires a strong, just, and timely response.
First, Canada must address the arrest warrants and bounties as part of a larger strategy to explicitly combat transnational repression. Notably, in the U.S. Department of State’s statement condemning the Hong Kong government’s action, the spokesperson specifically said that the U.S. opposed Beijing’s “transnational repression efforts” – a phrase that was absent from Canada’s response.
Second, Canada must work with its allies to ensure that the eight international arrest warrants are unenforceable. One approach would be to fully cancel any remaining extradition treaties with China and Hong Kong, as argued by Canadian-born lawyer and former Hong Kong legislator Dennis Kwok, who is one of the eight targeted dissidents. In addition, Interpol should refuse to honour the warrants, as Beijing’s efforts to use the international police organization’s mechanisms to enforce its transnational repression efforts have been well-documented. Indeed, Interpol can instead help to deter those efforts through an early warning system to protect dissidents and human rights activists from the transnational repression of authoritarian regimes.
Third, Canada should impose targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions on the Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong government officials responsible for human rights violations using the National Security Law, including the recent arrest warrants and bounties. This should be part of a broader effort to sanction the perpetrators of transnational repression.
In announcing the warrants and bounties, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee declared that the eight dissidents would be “pursued for life.” We must meet these brazenly repressive efforts with our own equally strident protective efforts, ensuring that the eight individuals are “protected for life,” and that all other current and potential dissidents and human rights advocates – with respect to Hong Kong and beyond – are empowered to continue their work toward seeking freedom and justice.