March Organizer Faces Possible Ban

Civil Human Rights Front has organized marches since 2003

The Civil Human Rights Front was formed in 2002 and has been organizing the July 1 marches that in 2003 drew half a million people onto the streets, causing the Hong Kong government to shelve its plans to enact Article 23, a national security bill, and the several peaceful protest marches in 2019.

But now the group is at the centre of a police probe, with the authorities scrutinizing Civil Human Rights Front's finances and its failure to register with the government under the Societies Ordinance.

Even CY Leung praised the group in 2013

Last Monday the police demanded 15 years' of financial documents including funding, expenses and related bank accounts that were due by Wednesday, but the Civil Human Rights Front said it will not comply with the order, which could result in an outright ban of the group.

Civil Human Rights Front convenor Figo Chan Ho-wun said previously the police had communicated with members of the group without raising any issues.

"Following the July 1 march in 2013, then chief executive Leung Chun-ying even referred to the Civil Human Rights Front as 'friends'," Chan pointed out.

He added the group was a lawful entity because the city's Basic Law guaranteed freedom of assembly.

Chan said the organization disagreed with the Societies Ordinance because it allowed the police to investigate the group and possibly ban it.

He said the front was only give nine days to answer questions and comply with the documents requested for the past 15 years which will be difficult to dig up since the standard time to keep documents for tax investigation purposes is only eight years.

Chan says he may be the last convenor of group

However Chan said the group did not intend to hand over those details to the police even if they still had them. "It's a matter of principle," he said.

The police probe came a month after Lianhe Zaobao, the largest Chinese-language daily newspaper in Singapore reported the Hong Kong government was seeking to ban the group on national security grounds.

The law says the police societies officer could recommend to the Secretary of Security that a group be banned if it was found to be a political body connected to a political organization overseas or in Taiwan.

Prohibition could be deemed necessary in the interests of national security of public safety, as well as uphold order or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

When asked what would happen if Civil Human Rights Front is banned, Chan believed other civil groups will pick up the mantle.

"But I may be the last convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front," he said.