BANNED

Human Rights Watch Chief Kenneth Roth Barred From Entering Hong Kong

The organization had planned to release a report focusing on how China is trying to “deliberately undermine the international human rights system.”

The executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has been denied entry to Hong Kong, where he had been planning to launch a report focusing on the Chinese government’s “intensifying assault” on human rights, the group announced Sunday. Kenneth Roth was scheduled to release the U.S.-based organization’s World Report 2020 on Jan. 15, which reportedly brings to the forefront how China is aiming to “deliberately undermine the international human rights system, not simply to suppress the rights of people at home but also undermine the ability of anybody else to try to hold China to human rights standards.” The report is the 30th edition in which HRW reviews human rights practices in roughly 100 countries. The group said that immigration authorities told Roth that he could not enter the country when he landed at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday and provided no reasoning. “I had hoped to spotlight Beijing’s deepening assault on international efforts to uphold human rights,” Roth was quoted as saying. “The refusal to let me enter Hong Kong vividly illustrates the problem.” Just last month, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official threatened to impose sanctions on HRW and other non-governmental organizations.