Report of Hong Kong Civil Society on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2023)

香港公民社會報告：《經濟、社會及文化權利國際公約》（2023）
-中文內容在下方-

The Hong Kong Scots CIC, along with over ten former Hong Kong popularly elected councillors, submitted a shadow report to the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding the severe encroachment of the right to education and cultural life under the National Security Law of Hong Kong imposed by Beijing.

Education

1️⃣Eroding academic freedoms in higher education institutions 

➡️Hong Kong Government intimidates students and staff as chilling effect under National Security Law: 

➡️The Police Force investigated an article analysing symbols and slogans in the Hong Kong Protest 2019 as a National Security Crime; the article was forced to suspend due to the investigation, professor of the article needed to leave Hong Kong;

➡️All boards of directors in Universities were appointed by Cheif Executive; only a few seats were contested by the universities themselves;

➡️Dismissing or terminating the employment of professors, scholars and staff who once opposed the Government for political reasons;

🗣️Hong Kong Authorities should respect the freedom of academics. Stop hampering academic freedom by exerting pressure on educational institutions and staff and stop expressing the desire to remove dissidents from their positions in educational institutions. The state should intervene to resume the positions of those unreasonably dismissed staff and stop intimidating students and staff in educational institutions.

2️⃣Arbitrary restriction on the right to education of adolescents

⛓️In prison

Classes in prison did not meet the education proposes. The teachers only played drama films in the classes. The failure to monitor the teaching quality in prisons strips the rights to education of underaged inmates. We recommend that the Hong Kong authorities enhance the monitoring of the quality of education in prisons to ensure that underaged inmates acquire adequate education.

🏫In secondary education

Underaged pro-democracy protestors have been suspended from schools and were unable to find schools to continue their studies thereafter. While the student was not convicted of any wrongdoing and no decision of expulsion or suspension was made at the time being, the suspension was deemed an illegitimate punishment to restrict his right to education. While the student only received verbal instruction to stay outside of the classroom, the arbitrary and infinite suspension and failure to contact the student when he was absent were serious negligence of the school for its incompliance to the Education Ordinance

📜 the government failed to ensure that schools should make secondary education “generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means” as in ICESCR Article 13 2(b). We recommend the government to strictly monitor the schools on the compliance to the Education Ordinance in upholding students’ right to education.

3️⃣Elements of National Security in Education

➡️All teachers are required to pass the Basic Law and National Security Law Test (BLNST) since the NSL was enacted. The test is compulsory and instils political values in teachers, while it is not relevant to teaching objectives for most of the subjects; 

➡️Surveys suggested that the turnover rate of teachers is between 7.5% and 8.4% in the year 2021/22, which is about 70% higher than the previous year;

📖This contradicts the ICESCR Article 13 (1) which “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society…”

Cultural right 

1️⃣Censorship on creative industries and activities

📚Publication

In 2022, the Hong Kong court judged a series of children’s books about the ideas of human rights as seditious material. The authors were sentenced to imprisonment for the publication of seditious materials.

🏛️Artworks in the museum

An artwork referencing the Tiananmen Square Massacre was removed from the museum caused of its political elements;

🎬Screening

The screening of a short film produced by a university student was cancelled caused of showing a sketch of the Yellow Umbrella Movement (2014); the screening was approved before the National Security Law enacted; the censorship was growing after 2020;

🛡️We observed that state-sponsored media are becoming more influential in intervening in cultural activities. The administration in Hong Kong fails to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions, while the political pressure on censoring expressions from the authority in Mainland China is playing a growing role in Hong Kong.

Society

1️⃣Inconsistent and disproportionate restrictions over the pandemic

📢The freedom of assembly

The government declared restrictions on gatherings from April 2020 through subsidiary regulation of the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance. Such restrictions largely remained in the first week of 2023. The gatherings, usually during the mentioned period, of over four people in public areas for the same purposes are prohibited. Obviously, the social distancing measures prevent public assemblies against the government or penalising people who are exercising their right to peaceful assembly to raise concerns on the rights in relation to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It is further contrasted by the public assemblies celebrating the legislation of NSL and the Hong Kong handover anniversary held by regime-allied groups that remained overwhelmingly unobstructed;

🧑‍🤝‍🧑Social Distancing measure

However, no social distancing measures have been mandated in public transport, which are highly risky places to transmit the disease. The bus operators even reduced the frequency of buses during the epidemic, and the vehicles were even more crowded than before. On the contrary, restrictions on the number of passengers were imposed in many other countries to prevent disease transmission.

💉Rather than scientific grounds and public health, the implementation of social distancing measures was excessively based on political reasons

Read the full report on the UN website at  http://bit.ly/HKScotstoUN73.

After we submitted our report, our organisation discovered that 15 Beijing-backed groups submitted their shadow report to the UN. Submissions made by these women’s groups, youth groups, and a parent-teacher association of a primary school are nothing but puppets of former Hong Kong officials, pro-Beijing businessmen and politicians. All this propaganda praises the draconian National Security Law of Hong Kong, aiming to legitimise the encroachment of economic, social and cultural rights to which Hongkongers entitled under British rule. 

報告：香港履行《經濟、社會及文化權利國際公約》（2023）

The Hong Kong Scots CIC 連同 10 多位香港前民意代表，早前向聯合國經濟、社會及文化權利委員會提交影子報告，提及香港在北京實施 #港區國安法 下，港人之教育權利及參與文化生活權受到嚴重侵蝕。報告摘要如下：

#教育 

1️⃣侵蝕高等教育學術自由

➡️香港政府利用國安法製造 #寒蟬效應，恐嚇學生和教職員：

➡️警方以國安法調查並禁止一篇分析抗議口號符號論文；

➡️ 校董非持份者票選，全部由行政長官欽點產生，當中只有極少數席位來自大學本身；

➡️曾與政府立場一度相左的教授、學者、職員，不獲續約或被終止僱用；

🗣️香港當局應尊重就所有政治問題進行學術討論自由。停止通過向教育機構和工作人員施加壓力來阻礙學術自由，停止將持不同政見者從教育機構中撤職的想法。 並恢復那些被無故解僱的工作人員的職位，停止恐嚇教育機構的學生和工作人員。

2️⃣任意限制青少年受教育權利

⛓️#監獄 

獄中課堂教育目的及教程不符，獄中教師上課時只播放錄像，港府未有能監督確保監獄中的教學質素量，從而剝奪了未成年囚犯受教育的權利。

🏫#中學 

參與示威未成年學生被非法逐出校園，並不獲任何學校取錄繼續學業；雖然這名學生沒有被判有任何不當行為，但遭受非法處罰停學，而限制其受教育權利的。雖然學校並無書面上判處停學處分，卻口頭指示學生不得上課，任意無限期停課及學生缺席時不聯絡學生；學校違反《教育條例》的嚴重疏忽，而港府任由事件發生。

📜港府未能確保按照《經濟、社會及文化權利國際公約》13 2(b)

「各種中等教育，包括技術及職業教育在內，應以一切適當方式，特別應採用免費教育制度，廣行舉辦，庶使人人均有接受機會」

3️⃣國安法元素侵蝕教育

➡️所有教師都必須通過基本法和國家安全法基準試(BLNST)。該考核是強制性的，並灌輸中共政治價值觀，但與教學目標無關；

➡️從數據中我們看到在2021/22年度教師流失率在7.5%至8.4%之間，較往年增加約70%；

📖教育應以人的人格及其尊嚴感的充分發展為本，並應加強對人權和基本自由的尊重；

📖教育應使所有人能夠有效地參與自由社會。

#文化 

1️⃣政治審查創意產業和活動

📚#出版自由 

2022年香港法院判定部份人權理念兒童讀物為煽動性材料；

🏛️#博物館 

涉及 #天安門大屠殺 的作因其政治元素而被從博物館中移除；

🎬影視創作自由

大學生製作的短片因放映涉及 #雨傘運動 之橋段而被迫取消放映；該片在港區國安法實施前，一直能如常於不同地方獲得放映權，惟立法後被進一步審查；

🛡️港府未能保護和促進文化表達的多樣性，而來自中國大陸的政治壓力，正在香港發揮著越來越大的作用。

#社會 

1️⃣不一致且不成比例的疫情管制

📢#集會自由 

自2020年4月起，香港政府限制公共場所4人以上集會（#限聚令 ），期間只有與政府立場相左的和平集會被禁止，違例者會被罰款；相反，舉行親政權集會如：慶祝國安法落實、香港回歸等，則仍然通無阻；顯然，該管制旨在限制及處罰行使其《經濟、社會及文化權利公約》所賦與權利的人；

🧑‍🤝‍🧑#社交距離 

高風險公共交通工具上，竟然毫無社交距離措施，甚至讓繁忙時間的車廂變得更擠擁；

而疫情期間，許多其他國家均有對公共交通上人數有所限制，並積極調整班次減低風險；

💉相對於科學依據及公眾健康，我等認為港府的疫情管制是極度基於政治因素而加以限制。

報告全文

http://bit.ly/HKScotstoUN73

* 除了本團體提交報告，十多個親北京組織同時向聯合國提交報告。有報道發現，其中一份由地區組織「明基金會」提交的意見書中，檔案追蹤修訂功能（track changes）顯示兩處經「CMAB」修改，與政制及內地事務局英文縮寫相同。特區政府早前回應同一委員會的中文回覆及附錄，同樣由「CMAB」開啟新檔或修改。《明報》相關報道：shorturl.at/bilD0

「墨寫的謊言，決不能掩蓋血寫的真相」，我等香港人會繼續說真實的香港故事，讓世界看到真正的香港。