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The Deputy Secretary for Justice, Mr Cheung Kwok-kwan, today (March 21, Geneva time) concluded his visit to Geneva, Switzerland.
He attended the 55th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council and delivered a speech on March 20 (Geneva time).
He said that legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law has been passed by Hong Kong’s legislature to discharge Hong Kong’s long overdue constitutional duty to enact laws on its own to safeguard national security, stressing that the legislation will bring about a stable and prosperous future for Hong Kong with the rights and freedoms enjoyed in accordance with the law fully protected, as always.
He pointed out that the legislation fully aligns with the principles of international laws and practices. The legislation clearly specifies that the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Basic Law, as well as the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as applied to Hong Kong, are to be protected in accordance with the law. This important principle forms a cornerstone of the legislation, and is literally written in the new law.
He reiterated that each and every sovereign state has an inherent right to enact laws to safeguard its national security, including China, and many countries have enacted a host of national security laws based on their own national security risks and needs.
“The Basic Law Article 23 legislation will better protect our country from genuine threats to national security in the increasingly intricate geopolitics of our time,” he said.
“The comments by some countries and organisations on this are made in complete disregard of basic jurisprudence and facts, and demonstrate nothing more than double standards and sophistry,” he continued.
He highlighted that the legislative exercise has gained very wide support from the Hong Kong community.
Joining him for the meeting were representatives of the Department of Justice, the Security Bureau, and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government officials attended the meeting as members of China’s delegation.
During his stay in Geneva, Mr Cheung also called on the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland, Mr Chen Xu. Mr Cheung expressed his deepest gratitude to Mr Chen for his support to Hong Kong in enhancing international understanding of the concerned legislative work. Mr Cheung said he hoped that this trip will help the world to understand the necessity, legitimacy and urgency of the legislation.
Mr Cheung will leave Geneva for Hong Kong today.
The Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, Mr Xia Baolong, met the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, in Shenzhen this morning (March 21). The Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC; the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung; and the Director of the Chief Executive’s Office, Ms Carol Yip, also joined the meeting.
Mr Lee briefed Mr Xia on recent work developments, including the completion of the enactment of local legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law. Mr Lee said that the Sixth-term Government and the Seventh Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have jointly fulfilled the constitutional responsibility and historic mission of legislating for Article 23 of the Basic Law, with the passage of the Safeguarding National Security Bill on March 19. The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance will take effect upon gazettal on March 23, ensuring the effective protection of national security. During the public consultation, the HKSAR Government has received over 13 000 submissions of opinions, 98.6 per cent of which showed support and gave positive comments. With the active and continued support and promotion for the legislative work by those who love the country and Hong Kong, the legislative exercise has a strong popular support and its early completion is a consensus of the Hong Kong community.
Mr Lee said that the HKSAR Government took a result-oriented approach and united the community to jointly accomplish the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law. It was a glorious achievement of the implementation of the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”. With the passage of the Safeguarding National Security Bill, Hong Kong has established solid fortifications and consolidated its “defence wall” in the transition from chaos to order, and it can now stride forward confidently on the prosperous path of development, focusing its full attention on developing a vibrant economy and a caring community.
The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) held a multi-disciplinary seminar on Child Sexual Abuse in the Cyber World today (March 21). Experts and representatives from relevant sectors jointly explored how to more effectively protect children from online sexual threats from multiple perspectives.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr Siu Chak-yee, stated that the number of technology crimes recorded by Police increased from 6 778 cases in 2014 to 34 112 cases in 2023, accounting for more than 35 per cent of overall crimes, representing a nearly five-fold increase.
In recent years, there have been more and more cases of children being sexually blackmailed, defrauded, and even sexually assaulted by online acquaintances. According to an analysis, last year, more than 900 cases involving “naked chat blackmail” and “compensated dating scams” targeted students, accounting for 20 per cent of these two types of cases. In addition, sexual abuse cases related to children’s online activities are also on the rise, with the youngest victim in a case last year being only nine years old.
Mr Siu further pointed out that children can no longer be separated from the Internet nowadays. While they learn, entertain and make friends online, they may inadvertently fall into danger, and the consequences may affect their entire lives. To effectively help children prevent and combat online sexual threats, all sectors of society need to work together, understand the overall situation from multiple perspectives, and solve problems with a multi-disciplinary approach.
He added that to target various types of technology crimes, the HKPF has been allocating a lot of resources and has introduced a number of measures, including the “CyberDefender.hk” website, “Scameter”, “Child Protection Web Application”, and various crime prevention comic books and animations suitable for children.
At the seminar, parenting expert Dr Agnes Meiling Kaneko Chan, together with pediatricians Professor Patrick Ip Pak-keung and Dr Anita Tsang Man-ching, secondary school principal Mr Wong Ting-hong, social worker of Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Mr Eric Chu Heung-hung, as well as representatives from the Education Bureau, Social Welfare Department, Department of Justice, and the HKPF, conducted in-depth discussions from different perspectives. Topics included international trends in online sexual abuse against children, reasons why children fall into online sexual traps, patterns of offenders and related cases, as well as early intervention advice. Suggestions for preventing, identifying, and handling related crises were provided.
This seminar provided a platform for professionals from various fields to exchange ideas, aiming to raise their awareness and ability to respond to the threat of online sexual abuse. At the same time, the seminar also promoted collaboration among different professions, enabling them to work together to protect the safety and well-being of children. Over 500 police officers, parents, principals, teachers, social workers, and child-related workers participated simultaneously online and offline.
Today’s seminar marks the successful conclusion of a series of activities of the “Let’s T.A.L.K.” Child Protection Campaign organised by the HKPF for the third year. For more information about the Child Protection Campaign of the HKPF, please visit the one-stop child protection online platform (www.childprotection.gov.hk).
The Department of Health (DH) today (March 21) urged members of the public to support Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month through adopting a healthy lifestyle and undergoing regular screenings with a view to preventing colorectal cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the second-most common and deadly cancer locally. In 2021, there were 5 899 newly diagnosed colorectal cancer cases, accounting for 15.3 per cent of all new cancer cases. In 2022, colorectal cancer resulted in 2 270 deaths, accounting for 15.4 per cent of all cancer deaths.
Asymptomatic Hong Kong residents aged between 50 and 75 are encouraged to join the Government’s Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme (CRCSP). The CRCSP has been operating smoothly since its launch in 2016. The CRCSP has served to identify those who have colorectal cancer before they present with symptoms, or individuals at increased risk of colorectal cancer, enabling them to receive early treatment. With colorectal adenoma removed in the course of colonoscopy, these lesions are also prevented from turning into cancer. The screening pathway comprises two stages:
(1) Eligible persons should make an appointment with a primary care doctor (PCD) participating in the CRCSP for assessment and arrangement of a Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT); and
(2) If the FIT result is positive, the participant will be referred to a colonoscopy specialist enrolled in the CRCSP to receive a Government-subsidised colonoscopy examination. If the FIT result is negative, participants should attend a rescreening after two years.
The CRCSP is heavily subsidised by the Government. As of the end of 2023, around 1 040 PCDs have successfully enrolled in the CRCSP covering nearly 1 960 locations, and over 90 per cent of these PCDs will not charge any additional payment. In addition, around 240 colonoscopy specialists have joined the CRCSP to provide colonoscopy examination services at around 770 service locations, and over 70 per cent of which do not require additional payment for colonoscopy and polyp removal if necessary.
As of the end of 2023, over 420 000 eligible persons had participated in the CRCSP. Among the participants who had submitted FIT tube samples with analysable results, around 63 900 persons (around 16.3 per cent) had positive results. Since the launch of the CRCSP, over 2 900 cases of colorectal cancer and 33 000 cases of colorectal adenoma have been diagnosed through the CRCSP. Around 57 per cent of colorectal cancer cases diagnosed through the CRCSP belonged to earlier stages (Stage 2 or below), and therefore had a more favourable prognosis.
A spokesman for the DH called on eligible persons to join the CRCSP starting from the age of 50 and prevent colorectal cancer by leading a healthy lifestyle including exercising regularly, eating two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables daily, reducing consumption of red meat and processed meat, maintaining a healthy body weight, and saying no to smoking and alcohol. Participants are also encouraged to bring along eligible relatives and friends to join the CRCSP.
​For more information on the CRCSP (including eligibility criteria and the list of PCDs), please visit the DH’s thematic website www.colonscreen.gov.hk, or call 3565 6288 during office hours. read more