“The State Can Lock Up People, But Not Their Thinking”: How Hong Kong’s National Security Law Undermined Human Rights in Five Years

This briefing paper, published by Amnesty International, outlines why, five years after the imposition of the National Security Law (NSL), renewed global advocacy is urgently needed to bring to justice those responsible for widespread rights violations in Hong Kong. The research examines patterns in arrests and prosecutions under the NSL framework, showing the drastic erosion of the main legal safeguards. The key findings are alarming: 1) in 85% of the analyzed cases, legitimate expression was on trial; 2) in 89% of national security cases, the courts denied bail; and 3) the length of pre-trial detention averaged 11 months. “[T]he authorities are deploying vague and overly broad legal provisions to target opposition voices and dismantle civil society,” the briefing concluded.