Hong Kong Watch submits report to United Nations on protection of human rights defenders in the digital age
Today, Hong Kong Watch made a submission to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in response to the call for input on ‘Protecting human rights defenders in the digital age.’
Following the 58th Human Rights Council session in March 2025, the office of Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was requested to consult with civil society, human rights defenders, and the private sector to assess the risks digital technologies pose to human rights defenders and identify best practices to address these risks across different regions.
The submission highlights the increasingly restrictive digital environment in Hong Kong, where legal and institutional measures, including the Hong Kong National Security Law and Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (commonly referred to as ‘Article 23’ legislation), curtail freedom of expression, association, and privacy online. These laws allow authorities to interpret peaceful digital expression as a threat to national security, extend their reach beyond Hong Kong’s borders, and compel private companies to provide user data, remove content, or assist investigations.
Hong Kong Watch’s submission extensively refers to our report, Invisible Decline: Violations of Digital Rights in Hong Kong and their Impact, and documents the chilling effect these measures have had on human rights defenders (HRDs), journalists, and civil society actors, both locally and abroad. The submission provides evidence of self-censorship, disbanded civil society groups, and restricted media outlets, including British citizen Jimmy Lai’s forcibly shut-down newspaper, Apple Daily.
It also details transnational repression, exemplified by arrests of individuals for online activity conducted overseas, harassment campaigns targeting activists in exile, and the use of digital attacks such as doxxing, deepfake dissemination, and online threats with tangible offline consequences. This includes the cases of Mika Yuen Ching‑ting, who was sentenced to two months in prison for social media posts she made while studying in Japan, and UK-based HRD Carmen Lau, who was targeted with a harassment campaign that involved sexually explicit deepfake images and fabricated letters sent to addresses in the UK and Australia.
The submission emphasises that technology-facilitated attacks against HRDs in Hong Kong are not isolated online incidents, but part of a broader pattern of digital and physical intimidation designed to undermine civic participation, suppress dissent, and restrict international advocacy.
Please click here to read the full submission.
Megan Khoo, Policy Director at Hong Kong Watch, said:
“Hong Kong Watch urges the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and member states to recognise these trends as part of a systematic erosion of digital rights and to develop concrete recommendations for protecting human rights defenders in the digital age, ensuring accountability for online harassment, and safeguarding freedom of expression, association, and privacy in digital spaces in Hong Kong and around the world.”
Photo: Mathias Reding on Unsplash