Hong Kong Watch has a global network working with governments and parliaments across four continents. With Hong Kong in unprecedented crisis and only a team of two full-time staff, we are extremely over-capacity. This additional funding will allow us to employ extra policy staff to ensure we can continue to amplify our global impact. Thanks to our supporters of our previous round of fundraising campaign in December 2019, the raised funds have enabled us to expand our team and without your support, we couldn't have achieved the substantial progress we made for the rights of BNOs and made a significant impact in the UK, North America, the EU and beyond in the first half of 2020.
We are at the forefront of international advocacy at a time when we urgently need a global community that is preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic to stand with Hong Kong. With the National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), our work matters more than ever. Please donate and support our work to defend Hong Kong's freedoms and to speak out for Hong Kong around the world.
To maintain international pressure on the CCP and mobilise solidarity for Hong Kong, it is critical that we expand our team and hire additional staff to advance our goals:
After two years of Hong Kong Watchs hard work campaigning, engaging with stakeholders, and mobilising policymakers, the Government has announced plans to extend the rights of BNO passport holders. We now need to push further and ensure they put that commitment in law and restore the right to abode as well.
We are working to ensure international governments participate in the creation of an international life-boat scheme for Hongkongers in need of a lifeline and refuge. We are already working with lawmakers in the US Congress to pass a law which would make it easier for Hongkongers to move abroad if they need to. We will advocate the Canadian, Australian and European Governments to do the same.
We are encouraging international governments to collectively apply sanctions against perpetrators of human rights violations in Hong Kong. We are already working with lawmakers in the US, Canada, UK, EU, and Australia to make this a reality.
In the last few months, we have:
Through coordinating an international statement led by the former Governor of Hong Kong Lord Patten and signed by over 850 parliamentarians from 40 countries opposing the national security law.
We have been at the frontline of this campaign - working closely with a wide range of MPs and media to draft articles, letters, and supporting bills to encourage the Government to extend the rights of BNOs. We also organised the publishing and endorsement of legal advice dispelling the myth that it would be illegal for the Government to help, and briefed very senior government officials behind the scenes.
Through organising Webinars, briefings, and events, in the US, Canada, UK, and the EU, we have connected prominent members of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong with lawmakers around the world. We arranged Hong Kong activists as witnesses to testify at US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), US Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Banking Committee, as well as to the UK China Research Group and an important group in the European Parliament.
Including drafting and submitting extensive evidence of human rights abuses in Hong Kong for relevant committees in the Canadian and Australian parliaments, the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hong Kongs inquiry into policing in Hong Kong.
Including drafting and coordinating letters from a cross-party group of UK MPs, Congressional leaders in the US, Canadian MPs and Members of European Parliament (MEPs) to both Carrie Lam and their respective foreign policy leaders. We have briefed hundreds of international parliamentarians to create solidarity all over the world.
Hong Kong Watch is a UK-based registered charity (charity no. 1180013) which researches and monitors threats to Hong Kongs basic freedoms, the rule of law and autonomy as promised under the one country, two systems principle which is enshrined in the Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
We work at the apex between politics, academia and the media to shape the international debate about Hong Kong. We have high profile political supporters and patrons in multiple countries.
We are in regular contact with senior diplomats, policymakers and Parliamentarians in the UK, the US, the EU, Canada, Germany and beyond, to inform, advise and develop worldwide advocacy for Hong Kongs freedoms, the rule of law and autonomy. We have developed excellent relationships with influential media outlets around the world and we work closely with respected academics to publish high-quality research.
Our organisation is overseen by a Board of Trustees with four members, who bring with them a wealth of expertise and experience advising Hong Kong Watch on its strategies and overseeing its financial and operational activities. The Board is led by Chair and Co-founder of Hong Kong Watch Benedict Rogers. Mr. Rogers is a tireless champion of human rights, speaking out for freedoms and fundamental human rights. He leads the East Asia Team at the international human rights organisation CSW and is the Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Human Rights Committee. Mr. Rogers identifies himself as a Hongkonger because Hong Kong was once his home for 5 years from 1997-2002 and in spirit with those Hongkongers that are fighting the frontline of freedom.
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Website: www.hongkongwatch.org
Twitter: @hk_watch
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