Do not trade Hong Kongers’ safety for political expediency
The Labour government is proposing a controversial amendment to the UK’s extradition law concerning Hong Kong. This development, in my view, poses a significant threat to human rights and democratic values for those who have sought sanctuary here.
To truly grasp the gravity of what is being proposed, allow me to briefly explain how the UK has historically categorised territories for extradition. We had three main classifications:
* Territory 1: This category encompassed European Union (EU) countries. The UK implicitly trusted these nations to uphold similar judicial standards and human rights, meaning extradition requests typically bypassed significant UK judicial scrutiny.
* Territory 2: This included non-EU countries that had signed European human rights conventions, and notably, former British Commonwealth territories, which previously included Hong Kong. In these cases, the UK government and its courts retained greater power to review extradition applications, particularly concerning human rights considerations.
* Case-by-case Category: This third and most scrutinised category applied to countries like North Korea and mainland China, which were not deemed to meet Western judicial standards or provide adequate human rights safeguards. Extradition to these nations was handled on an individual basis, undergoing rigorous scrutiny by UK courts.