致聯合國人權理事會及英國外交及聯邦事務部之公開信

致聯合國人權理事會及英國外交及聯邦事務部之公開信
An Open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom

香港大學學生會就林榮基先生被中共綁架一事將去信聯合國人權理事會及英國外交及聯邦事務部， 要求有關當局介入調查相關事件。下為相關信件之內容。

The Hong Kong University Students' Union has drafted an open letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom in request for their intervention to the matter regarding the unlawful maltreatment in the Causeway Bay Bookstore scandal. The letters are as follows:


We, the Hong Kong University Students’ Union, are writing to express our deepest disappointment towards the Causeway Bay Bookstore scandal which reflects a total disregard for human rights and even a violation of international conventions, the Sino-British Joint Declaration in particular. We request your condemnation of the People’s Republic of China government for its unlawful maltreatment and your intervention into this matter at your utmost capacity.

The Causeway Bay Bookstore scandal began last year with serial disappearances of owners and shopkeepers. While Lee Bo had returned with a total disagreement of the rumoured abduction, the valiance of Lam Wing-kee on 14th June revealed the true and ugly story behind. Intercepted on his way to China on 24th October 2015, he was held in custody with his identification papers confiscated and was even deprived of food and sleep on this very first day. First brought to Ningbo, blindfolded and bundled up, he never received any response to his enquiries for the crimes he might have convicted. Worse still, due to his inability to contact any next of kin, he was left with no choice but to sign and forfeit his right to contact his family and hire a lawyer. It marks the eight-month-long ‘residential surveillance’ during which his rights were unequivocally exploited. The 300-square-feet apartment confined him from the outside world till March, with six shifts of two guards in position for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He might be allowed to be back to Hong Kong two days ago. But it was only under his nominal promise that he would return with a hard disk containing the list of his customers. The hard disk would then be used as evidence to imprison or even execute his customers.

The current responses from the Hong Kong and China governments only add uncertainty to the issue and our future. While the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Lam had violated Chinese law, there has been no explanation for the criminal offences that he was charged with. The unlawful maltreatment is a severe deprivation of people’s freedom and shall not be tolerated. Responsibility for such atrocities is expected to remain unclaimed by the Communist especially with the daring attitude Wang Yi showed in his arrogant criticism against a Canadian journalist for enquiring on the booksellers’ scandal. On the other hand, the Hong Kong government failed to protect its own citizens. The police might claim that the investigation into the scandal was in progress and they had tried their best to provide assistance to the victims. But Lam’s reply simply made things crystal clear, ‘I don’t know of anyone the Hong Kong government has ever saved.’

The unlawful maltreatment on Lam is a glaring act that worries Hongkongers about the end of our own autonomy. ‘One Country, Two Systems’ and ‘High Degree of Autonomy’ have long been believed to be the guiding principles of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, but they were again flagrantly violated in the course of the serial abductions. Protected by the Declaration, Hong Kong is entitled to a period of 50 years in which we abide by our original political and economic system, remaining ‘unchanged’. Apart from the various freedoms that are granted, rule of law is one of the precious elements that the Declaration has preserved, which includes our standard judicial procedure of open trial and our well-based judicial independence. Given the separation of Hong Kong’s judiciary from that of China, the arrest and long custody are simply ungrounded, especially when it is not evident that Lam has convicted any Chinese laws. The ill-founded accusation is a shameless attempt by the Chinese government to muzzle oppositions through its authoritarian means. The abduction and detainment of Lam without an open trial is also illegitimate. All in all, this is not law enforcement, but an indisputable kidnap through the embodiment of secret police.

The incident is also in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whose Article 19 guarantees everyone the freedom to receive information regardless of frontiers in print. The accusation against Gui Minhai and other booksellers based on the act of delivering books across the border is thus unjustified. Opposition against arbitrary arrest or detention is also made very clear in Article 9, of which the scandal is a blatant violation: Lam was held in custody for 8 months without even knowing the reason. It further shows the illogical nature of the deprivation of his right to go through judicial procedures or seek legal assistance.
The process of abduction and his confinement for eight months are undoubtedly acts inflicting severe mental suffering on him, atrocities that should have been prohibited in China under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. At the same time, both China and Hong Kong governments did not take immediate initiative in investigating the incident to ensure personal safety from any kind of torture. The lack of protection for Lam against all ill treatment or intimidation not only goes against the Convention but also depicting the indifference and negligence of the Hong Kong government.

The aforementioned violation poses unprecedented risk to Hongkonger’s human rights condition and casts doubt towards our prospect, let alone the years after the ‘promised’ unchanged period till 2047. In retrospect, communist attempts in muzzling rights defence activists and protesters are evident. House imprisonment and jailing are already the rather lenient results. Lam put himself at a moment of life and death. He ensures our right to know and takes off the facade of the Chinese Communist at the expense of his own safety. He has put his life at risk for Hongkongers. He might be back in front of our eyes, but there is no guarantee he can continue evading the prying eyes of the Chinese Communists. His future remains unknown, and his case is only the tip of the iceberg. While some of his colleagues remain ‘abducted’, when the Chinese are up in their arms about us, the same shall only take place all over again. These disappearances and abductions shall carry on in all likelihood.

We hereby demand the United Nations Human Rights Council:
To investigate into the Causeway Bay Bookstore scandal via the Special Procedure of the Human Rights Council
To condemn the PRC government on its violation of human rights 
To urge the HKSAR government to take proactive measures in ensuring the safety of Lam Wing-kee and other missing persons should similar accidents take place
We also demand the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom:

To take diplomatic actions against the violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration of the People’s Republic of China government
To take proactive measures in protecting the rights of Lee Bo, a British citizen

Yours sincerely,

The Hong Kong University Students' Union
Cosigned by:

The Hong Kong Federation of Students
The Student Union of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Students' Union
The Student Union of Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Lingnan University Students' Union
Provisional Executive Committee, City University of Hong Kong Student Union