Lord Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, has called for a United Nations special envoy to be appointed to defend human rights in the city amid a growing international outcry against China’s move to impose a controversial national security law intended to crush dissent.
“The establishment of an international contact group to coordinate a global response would be a positive way forward. Moreover, the creation of a UN special envoy for Hong Kong would contribute both to monitoring human rights and encouraging dialogue and reconciliation. Many UN member states would see it as a constructive proposal worthy of support”, Lord Patten stated on Friday.
It is the same ex-governor of Hong Kong who, together with the former Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, is promoting a declaration of a growing cross-party international coalition, made up to date May 29 by over 700 parliamentarians and legislators from 36 countries, to denounce “the unilateral introduction of a national security law in Hong Kong” and ask governments to unite against this “flagrant violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration”.
A multilateral Parliamentary initiative Senator Marco Rubio, the Acting Chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee has commented as follows: “Through this letter, legislators from many democracies are uniting to express their support for Hong Kong’s autonomy and Hong Kongers. Our words must be met with actions and our governments should remain vigilant and ready to respond to Beijing’s violations of the Sino- British Joint Declaration.”
The Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella” is proud to have been able to contribute and we thank the Italian MPs and former MPS who within a few hours have already expressed their support for this cross-party and transnational initiative, right on the same the day when the European Union’s foreign ministers effectively abandoned the citizens of Hong to their fate.
Despite the Chinese pressures and the aligned position of the Five Star Movement to Beijing, a relevant number of statements and parliamentary initiatives take place in Italy at this very moment. We do hope that this growing front will continue to mount pressure through national and multilateral institutions, so that this further illegal move by the Chinese Communist Party can be stopped.
Laura Harth
Italian signatories to the Declaration by Lord Patten and Sir Malcolm Rifkind so far include:
Dignitaries
Amb. Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, President of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”
MPs
Antonio Tajani, former President of the European Parliament (Forza Italia)
Senator Alessandro Alfieri (Partito Democratico)
Enrico Borghi MP (Partito Democratico)
Paolo Formentini MP, Vice-President Foreign Affairs Committee (Lega)
Senator Adolfo Urso, former Deputy Minister of Productive Activities with delegation to foreign trade (Fratelli d’Italia)
Eugenio Zoffili MP (Lega)
Alessandro Giglio Vigna MP (Lega)
Matteo Luigi Bianchi MP (Lega)
Alex Bazzaro MP (Lega)
Senator Roberto Rampi (Partito Democratico)
Senator Lucio Malan (Forza Italia)
Paolo Grimoldi MP (Lega)
Former MPs
Rita Bernardini, former MP (Partito Radicale)
Marco Beltrandi, former MP (Partito Radicale)
Elisabetta Zamparutti, former MP (Partito Radicale)
Sergio D’Elia, former MP (Partito Radicale)