Episode 56 – Could Hong Kong Become Another Belfast?

In this episode, the Law in Action team talks to Professor Brice Dickson and students from Hong Kong about the protest and whether the government intransigence and police overreaction would ultimately lead to Hong Kong becoming another Belfast. The ongoing Hong Kong protests were triggered via the introduction of the Fugitive Offenders amendment bill by the Hong Kong government. If enacted the bill would have paved the way for extradition of criminal fugitives to China with which Hong Kong does not currently have extradition agreements. It led to concerns that this would subject Hong Kong residents and visitors to the legal system of mainland China, undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and people’s civil liberties. As protest have progressed, the five key demands laid down by the protestors are as follows - the withdrawal of the bill, investigation into alleged police brutality and misconduct, release of arrested protestors, retraction of the official characterisation of the protests as ‘riots, and Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s resignation along with introduction of universal suffrage for the election of the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive. Though it seems that Hong Kong is safe on the whole, those inside the city are still immensely worried about where this all leads and if there is an end in sight. In this episode, the Law in Action team talks to Professor Brice Dickson and students from Hong Kong about the protest and whether the government intransigence and police overreaction would ultimately lead to Hong Kong becoming another Belfast. They also discuss possible ways of resolution to avert further eruptions of violence. https://edition.cnn.com/specials/asia/hong-kong-protests-intl-hnk https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/could-hong-kong-become-belfast Discretion: The episode was recorded back in November 2019. As such, it did not account for recent events such as the council elections where it saw an unprecedented victory for the pro-democracy camp which details could be found: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/25/what-happened-hong-kong-elections/ Professor Brice Dickson is an emeritus professor in Queen’s University Belfast. You can find more about his work here: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/brice-dickson In relation to the 2019 Stephen Livingstone Annual Lecture delivered by him on the Problems of Human Rights, it can be found here: http://law.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLaw/news/StephenLivingstoneAnnualLecture2019ProfessorBriceDickson.html