Paul Harris: Oppression of peaceful protest and a continual increase in agitation between ruling party and public may lead to violence, quoting examples of unjust trials from history of Northern Ireland
By Translated by Guardians of Hong Kong 29 Apr 2021[Editor’s note on 27 April: After this article was published, Harris approaches Stand News and hopes to make the following statement. Since appeals are in progress related to the reported courts cases, he did not comment on them. He only pointed out the fact that this is the first time in Hong Kong having imprisonment sentences to unauthorized peaceful assemblies. Apart from that he did not make any comment. Regarding the importance of peaceful demonstration, his opinion only based on history, not about these cases.]
Two peaceful demonstrations on 18 and 31 August 2019 are charged as ‘unauthorized assembly’. 10 defendants are sentenced to imprisonment varying from 8 to 18 months with only 5 granted suspensions. Stand News interviews Paul Harris, Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA)
He notices both the ruling party and the public in Hong Kong are immersed in strong emotions since 2019. This is worrying. He quotes Northern Ireland in the 70s as example. Terror attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), public anger and fear occupied the whole country. These pushed both the ruling party and the public to act strongly in a hurry. The ultimate result was a series of unjust, wrong or false charges. Hong Kong should take this as a lesson.
The two court cases above, where Paul Harris represented LEUNG Yiu Chung in the ‘818’ case, have verdicts last week. Harris declines to comment on the cases as they will enter stages of appeal soon. However he points out an important fact - “sentencing to imprisonment for unauthorized assembly” is the first time for the courts in Hong Kong history.
Peaceful demonstrations are safety outlets. When prohibited people may resort to violence since working as a lawyer in 1993 in Hong Kong, Harris handled many cases involving demonstration rights. These cases got him studying protest campaigns around the world. Having spent 20 years writing books about the topic, including The Right to Demonstrate (2007) and Raising Freedom’s Banner: How Peaceful Demonstrations Have Changed the World (2014, after the Occupy Central Movement), dissecting the origins and importance of peaceful demonstrations. Harris said that the sentences to unauthorized peaceful demonstrations in countries adopting Common Law are usually light. For example in New York, the maximum penalty is 10-day imprisonment or US$25 fine. In London the maximum is 1000 pounds fine.
“People have strong feelings and they need to find an outlet for those feelings, a peaceful demonstration is an outlet. If you don't allow it, those feelings will not go away. They are very likely to turn to very damaging channels, which can include violence.”
Harris quotes another example of Suffragettes, a campaign about females’ voting right. Initially the demonstrations were peaceful and supported by a lot of folks. But when the Prime Minister refused to meet with the campaign leaders, the organizers turned their anger into protests with violence. The confrontations lasted until the First World War broke out.
He expected to be attacked but the scale exceeds his imagination within the first six months of Harris’ appointment as the Chairman of HKBA, the pro-establishment and pro-China newspapers attacked him many times. Harris says “I did expect something similar, but not so much, so soon.” Some accuse HKBA as too “political”. There are even pro-establishment Legco members and pro-establishment media demanding the government to revoke HKBA’s legal right of self-regulation. Harris responded: HKBA has always been following its constitution when carrying out responsibilities in protecting the rule of law and judicial independence. Sometimes it is inevitable to get into politically sensitive issues. However the HKBA needs to take up its own responsibilities when its basic rights are affected.
Harris admits that after being attacked repeatedly the HKBA takes every step with care. It assesses in multiple directions when making comments, e.g. “How much hostility or smearing will a response attract?” and “Is it the right time to respond?” However Harris stresses HKBA will not hesitate to speak up when defending core values.
If regulated by the government, lawyers who offended it will face risks of disqualification Harris emphasizes that HKBA always handle disciplinary issues of its members rigorously. All complaints are handled by the Barristers Disciplinary Tribunal where all members are appointed by the Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal. This system of regulation proves to be effective. Harris points out that if the government does the regulation there will be two major issues. Firstly lawyers who offend the government may face risks of being disqualified. Moreover, the government lacks professional expertise to judge whether anyone has breached the Bar Code of HKBA.
Hong Kong is now filled with strong emotions. There is worry of unjust or false charges when Harris first took his current post, he questioned that the National Security Law (NSL) may hurt the rule of law in Hong Kong and demanded to amend its clauses. Harris does not directly respond to the question “With more and more pro-democrat being charged, will you worry that Hong Kong will gradually shift from ‘Rule of Law’ to ‘Rule by Law’?” Instead he wants everyone to understand that there is no perfect judiciary system in the world. Even in British system’s history there was a serious impairment.
This reminds him of his childhood experience. In the 1970s the PIRA started a series of terror attacks in Britain by planting bombs everywhere, killing many. “There was immense anger and fear and determination to do something about this in the British Population, and on the part of the authorities including the police.” Caused by fear, this strong willpower finally led to a “most horrific miscarriage of justice” in the history of UK where many innocent were jailed, some even for lives. He points out the government came up with false evidences. In 20 years with more evidences revealed, courts uncovered the truth and rebutted many earlier verdicts. This piece of memory is deep in Harris’s mind. “You don’t stop the bombs by locking up innocent people, in fact you help the guilty to get away.” Harris worries that the same situation arose in Hong Kong since 2019. If such strong emotions persist and increase, they will finally cause unjust and wrong trials. He hopes people from all political camps take this experience as a lesson.
Source：Standnews #Apr21
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