The disbanding of the Civil Human Rights Front shows the space for free expression in Hong Kong continues to shrink at a rapid pace

Yesterday the Civil Human Rights Front, one of the largest civil society groups in Hong Kong responsible for organising some of the city’s largest pro-democracy protests in 2019, announced that it would disband.

The Civil Human Rights Front, which has existed for 19 years, cited growing pressure as driving the decision. In recent months, the Front's convenor, Figo Chan Ho-wun, has been jailed and the Hong Kong Police Force has made statements indicating that rallies that the group had previously organised breached the National Security Law.

The Hong Kong Police Force has been investigating the civil society group’s finances since April and a government source stated to the media that it would pursue the group regardless of its dissolution. The Civil Human Rights Front's disbandment comes just days after the disbandment of Hong Kong’s largest teachers’ union.

Commenting on the disbandment of the Civil Human Rights Front, Johnny Patterson, Hong Kong Watch’s Policy Director, said:

“The space for civil society and free expression in Hong Kong continues to shrink at a rapid pace, as Beijing marshals its security apparatus to target activists, teachers, speech therapists, and trade unionists.

The freedoms that were once guaranteed under Hong Kong’s Basic Law and China’s obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration have been replaced with a culture of intolerance and fear as Hong Kong turns into a police state.

In response to the growing crackdown on civil society groups and trade unions, likeminded countries must do all they can to offer lifelines which will allow Hong Kongers to leave the city, introduce Magnitsky sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials, and review the autonomous status of Hong Kong and the international preferences it affords.”