Our campaign is now complete. 2996 supporters helped us raise £112,103.00
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For the last two years, Hong Kong Watch has been speaking out for Hong Kong in parliaments in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, the EU and ASEAN.
With the situation in Hong Kong on a knife-edge, we need your help to maximise our impact. Support our campaign to help us make sure the world stands with Hong Kong.
We have a very small team, but vicious police brutality and Hong Kong government incompetence has expanded the need for international pressure, and so we need to hire another policy expert to build our team! We are seeking to fund the position for two years and the extra staff capacity will help us to achieve these goals:
1. To see the UK extend the rights of BNO passport holders
2. To see international governments apply Magnitsky sanctions to perpetrators of human rights violations
3. To build on the momentum following the passage of the US Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act
4. To educate parliamentarians and policy makers around the world about the situation in Hong Kong - keeping up the pressure on Governments.
We have a powerful network, with connections to academics, media, civil servants and politicians in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, the EU and ASEAN.
The last Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes said: "I am particularly glad you are taking this kind of initiative. I am delighted to hear that so many friends of Hong Kong wish to support the efforts made there. They draw sympathy from all around the world. I hope they will make certain that Hong Kong remains a free and open city."
In the last six months, we have introduced Margaret Ng, Denise Ho, the students of the Hong Kong International Affairs Delegation (IAD), Tommy Cheung, Martin Lee, Cardinal Zen and Alan Leong to senior politicians in the United Kingdom. We helped facilitate IAD's lobbying on the US Human Rights and Democracy Act in Washington DC, and connected them with key contacts in Germany. One of our trustees facilitated a seminar in the Canadian Parliament.
In the UK, we have briefed more than 50 speeches by MPs and Peers, coordinated mass joint letters from Parliamentarians, updated UK politicians about the situation on the ground in Hong Kong. Our patrons have regularly called debates on the subject in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and are constantly working to keep the pressure on the UK Government and giving the issue profile in the media. Our team have written about Hong Kong in international news outlets ranging from the Financial Times to Time magazine.
Our BNO Community has led the way in campaigning for the extension of the rights of British Nationals Overseas Passport holders. Steve Double MP presented a petition from them on the floor of the House of Commons in July.
In Europe, we helped organise the first ever seminar on Hong Kong in the European Parliament, introduced activists to leading European Parliamentarians, and have organised the Parliamentarians protecting Parliamentarians programme which connects high-ranking German MPs with the imprisoned and disqualified Hong Kong legislators and candidates Edward Leung, Long Hair and Baggio Leung. We have built up contacts at the United Nations in Geneva following our work on the UPR in 2018.
We have contributed op-eds to international media including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, TIME, The Spectator, The New Statesman and the South China Morning Post, and have briefed or been quoted regularly in major global media.
John Bercow, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Commons recently said of us: "Hong Kong Watch, which, to put it bluntly, is a splendid organisation that has been set up to keep an eye on what the Chinese Government are up to in relation to Hong Kong. That organisation is magnificently led on a day-to-day basis by the estimable Ben Rogers."
Help us stand with Hong Kong!
Any funds beyond the target figure will go to expanding our team further. There is so much work to do to stand with Hong Kong that we could easily increase capacity by two to three full-time staff members!
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