Rights Groups Express Concerns After Hong Kong Protest Organizer Disbands

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International rights groups are voicing concerns about Hong Kongโ€™s dwindling freedoms after a major civil society group in the Chinese-ruled city announced on Aug. 15 to disband, amid a looming police investigation.

Hong Kongโ€™s Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), a pro-democracy umbrella group established in 2002, was the organizer behind some of the biggest rallies in the city in recent years. On June 6, 2019, over 1 million took part in a CHRF march, which also marked the start of the cityโ€™s anti-Chinese Communist Party, pro-democracy movement. Days later, on June 16, about 2 million Hongkongers took part in another march.

In a statement published on Sunday, CHRF said the decision to disband, made during the groupโ€™s meeting two days earlier, was unanimous.

โ€œIn the course of over a year, the [Hong Kong] government, in the name of the pandemic, continuously turned down march applications by the CHRF and other organizations,โ€ the CHRF stated.

โ€œMany of our member groups are under oppression, as [the cityโ€™s] civil society is facing unprecedented challenges.โ€

The group said it had originally hoped to โ€œcontinue to face the challenge.โ€ However, the choice to fight on became impossible since its secretariatโ€”an office that includes the positions of a convener, deputy conveners, and financeโ€”had failed to maintain operations, due to the imprisonment of its convener, Figo Chan. Additionally, the group said no members had expressed a willingness to take on the work of the secretariat in the coming year.

Chan is currently behind bars after being sentenced to 18 months in prison in May for taking part in an unauthorized protest in 2019.

It said that the groupโ€™s assets, worth about HK$1.6 million (about US$205,570), will be donated to โ€œappropriate groups.โ€

The group also expressed gratitude for being able to stand with Hongkongers in many different protests, including the fight against an anti-subversion bill known as Article 23 in 2003, the Umbrella Movement in 2014, and the marches against the now-scrapped anti-extradition bill in 2019.

Byย Frank Fang

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