Foreword
With the enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, China solidified a comprehensive national
security framework in the city that has had a far-reaching effect on the human rights situation in Hong Kong. The
vague and all-encompassing definition of national security has given government authorities, including law enforcement agencies, expansive powers to constrain human rights, with only nominal oversight by Hong Kong’s administrative, legislative and judicial systems. Political censorship and institutional pressure on press and academic freedom were unprecedented. The rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, among other human rights, were greatly stifled in Hong Kong in 2020.