Chances should be given to youngsters who have taken legal responsibility for their actions during social unrest, said former Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie.
“Youths are the pillars of our future society,” Leung said in a video produced by Project Change, a non-governmental organization established in 2020 to provide support to youths arrested during the Hong Kong protests in 2019.
“For those who were misled or acted without fully considering the consequences, we must offer them a chance to start anew once they have learned from their mistakes and accepted their legal responsibilities,” she said.
Leung said the central government values young people, viewing them as vital to the future development of society.
“The chief executive of the HKSAR has also affirmed that individuals who have committed crimes should be given an opportunity for rehabilitation,” she added.
Leung argued that mere punishment will not alter their perspectives on society and noted the importance of education in helping young people recognize their wrongdoings.
“If they’ve already received such education, they should be allowed to reintegrate into society,” she said, warning that failing to do so may lead them to remain defiant, resentful and unable to contribute positively.
In a separate video released by the NGO, businessman Irons Sze Wing-wai expressed hope that the community would support and accept these young individuals who have erred.
“Many of these young people are university students with professional aspirations… We often hear that our society is lacking in manpower and talent, and this group can reintegrate into the community and rejoin the workforce,” Sze said.
He also acknowledged the political divisions that have persisted since the Occupy Central movement in 2014 through the 2019 social unrest, but noted that society has stabilized following the implementation of the national security law in 2020.
Ex-justice boss urges Hong Kong to give youngsters arrested in 2019 unrest a second chance
We must give them a chance to start fresh once they have learned from their mistakes and accepted legal responsibility, Elsie Leung says
A former justice chief has called on Hongkongers to give young people who were arrested during the 2019 anti-government protests a second chance, saying punishment alone will not change their views on society.
Elsie Leung Oi-sie, as well as businessman Irons Sze Wing-wai, made the appeal on Monday in two separate videos by Project Change, an NGO set up in 2020 to help young offenders.
“Youths are the pillars of our future society. For those who were misled or did not think things through, leading them to commit crimes, once they have learned from their mistakes and accepted the legal responsibility, we must give them a chance and allow them to start fresh,” said Leung, also a former deputy director of the Basic Law Committee.
“If they are devoid of job opportunities, how can they reintegrate into society?”
Leung stressed Beijing officials cared about young people and that city leader John Lee Ka-chiu also said it was society’s responsibility to give offenders the opportunity to reform.
She said punishment alone could not change their views towards society.
“It is our duty to educate them and help them understand their wrongdoings. If they have already received such education, I believe they should be given an opportunity to reintegrate society,” she said.
“Otherwise, if they are not in harmony with society, how can they contribute to it?”
Project Change has helped about 170 young people arrested in the 2019 unrest and had handled dozens of career advice inquiries as of June this year.
In another video, Sze, also local delegate to the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, called on society to work together to help young offenders.
Hong Kong Institute of Engineers says it wants to promote ‘reconciliation’ and give much-needed professionals a second chance
Hong Kong’s professional body for engineers wants to promote “reconciliation” through a task force set up to help rehabilitate young members convicted for involvement in the 2019 protests.
The Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE) spoke out after a pilot disciplinary hearing process gave a reprimand to an aspiring member of the profession who served jail time for his role in the unrest and struggled to find work after release from prison.
Sing*, an aspiring engineer who had worked towards professional qualifications for several years, was among the 2,328 so far convicted for their roles in the 2019 anti-government protests triggered by a now-shelved extradition bill.
“From the moment I was arrested, I had already prepared for the worst,” Sing, who declined to disclose details of his case to avoid identification, said.
“I just hadn’t thought it would be so difficult to find a job after I finished serving my sentence.”
He explained he had got to the advanced stages of job interviews after approaches from employment agencies and potential employers in the wake of his release from jail in 2022 – but was rejected after his conviction was revealed.
Sing said he went to Project Change, an NGO set up in 2020 to help young people arrested over the civil disturbances, after he failed to land a job despite six months of effort and secured a new post in weeks with the scheme’s help.
He also learned that his IKIE membership could be restored if he was prepared to go through a disciplinary tribunal at the self-regulating professional body.
“That’s when I slowly began to see hope that I could get my life back on track,” Sing said.
He became the first case for a task force created by the HKIE governing council in January 2023 to provide support to members aged under 35 who had acquired convictions as a result of the unrest.
An estimated 2 million people marched through Hong Kong on June 16, 2019, against the proposed extradition bill, which was followed by months of unrest that included violent clashes with police.
Tang Whai-tak, the chairman of the HKIE task force, said its work was like being the “training wheels on a bicycle”, with the aim that the affected members would be able to manage on their own after suitable support.
The task force, which operates alongside existing disciplinary procedures, helps young people get back their HKIE membership, access learning opportunities and make reapplications for mainland Chinese travel permits.
The task force, which includes lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu and four other senior engineers, can also make pleas in mitigation for those who face the disciplinary hearing.
Tang said the fear and despair of young engineers faced with the loss of their professional qualifications and standing was “beyond imagination”.
“[Someone asked:] ‘Do I need to change the name on my birth certificate by engaging a lawyer and taking an oath?’,” he added.
“My heart ached when I heard about it – how a good person got to the point of considering changing his name for no reason. What a hopeless and despairing moment that was.”
About 10 inmates set to be released from prison in the next two years have an engineering background, with the task force to organise a talk at Pik Uk Prison in the New Territories to outline what it can offer.
Barry Lee Chi-hong, the HKIE president, said the number of potential beneficiaries of the organisation’s scheme might be small, but it was a gesture that spoke volumes as the body was among the first professional groups to offer support for rehabilitation.
“The message we want to send is that we hope for great reconciliation,” Lee said. “Just because someone took a wrong step does not mean it will affect their entire life.
“If they have regrets, we will welcome them back to our big engineering family.”
Sing completed his disciplinary hearing and was given a reprimand, which was recorded on the HKIE register.
But he is now back on track to gain the professional qualification that will allow him to rise through the ranks without his career being jeopardised by his conviction.
Sing is among three HKIE members who have gone through a disciplinary hearing and held onto their memberships.
Aaron Bok Kwok-ming, a former HKIE president who was instrumental in the formation of the task force, said it made independent judgments based on the merits, without discussion with outside forces.
“The present atmosphere in society … is to engage in economic development and construction, adding more land and housing, building a technopolis [in San Tin],” Bok said.
“Our own judgment is that we will need a large number of people with engineering talent in the future.
“Society has spent a lot of money and resources on the education of these trainees or licensed engineers. We should try our best to help get them back.”
Project Change has helped about 170 young people arrested in the 2019 unrest and handled dozens of inquiries about career advice.
John Mak Hiu-fai, the NGO’s reintegration programme director, said the group had approached at least 30 industry bodies in the past two years and the HKIE’s pioneering effort was a confidence booster for young people unsure about society’s acceptance of their past.
“The police force and the Correctional Services Department have always attached great importance to rehabilitation and they have rendered assistance [in Sing’s case], which reflects the government’s desire to make good use of talent, which is in line with our ideals,” Mak said.
“Hopefully they can talk about it more often, so more people can learn about it, more sectors will provide more support, and more young people can be engaged.”
Professor Sung Yun-wing, Project Change’s founder, added it was hoped that the government could take the lead in not rejecting young job candidates because of their links to the 2019 unrest.
“Our ultimate goal is not for Project Change to last forever,” Sung said. “What we want to do most is to call it a day – that is when our civil society and the Hong Kong government, with their policies and mechanisms, reach a point where they can handle the anti-extradition bill incidents relatively smoothly.”
Sing said, that as cases connected to the 2019 unrest were still going through the courts, it would take years for Sung’s dream to come true.
But he added that programmes such as the HKIE one should encourage other professionals behind bars to still have hope for their futures on release.
“I hope to let them know that after they finish serving their sentence, they actually have a hope of returning to the engineering profession,” Sing said.
“If you do your best, someone will give you a chance.”
Thousands were arrested when violent protests roiled Hong Kong five years ago, with some who have been released from prison finding it difficult to return to society.
HONG KONG: Five years ago, violent protests rocked the streets of Hong Kong over a controversial extradition Bill that would allow people to be sent to China for trial.
Intense clashes erupted between protestors and the police outside the government headquarters in Admiralty.
But the situation would soon escalate.
Protesters stormed the city’s legislative council building on Jul 1, ransacking and vandalising its interior with anti-government slogans. Then-Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam declared the extradition Bill “dead” nine days later.
In the following months, as the situation continued to worsen, Beijing stepped in and ordered a massive crackdown of those involved.
More than 10,200 were arrested, with some being imprisoned. Nearly 3,000 have been charged with offences including rioting, unlawful assembly and criminal damage, according to police figures.
Around 40 per cent of those arrested were students.
One such former inmate, who only wanted to be known as Kenny, shared his experience with CNA. Those like him who have finished serving their jail terms struggle to reintegrate with the community, even as the government has pledged its support for them.
“I FELT FEAR”
Kenny was arrested at a protest in August 2019. He later received a call from the police, who told him to “take another oral deposition”, he told CNA.
“On that day, I knew I would be officially prosecuted and brought to the court,” he said.
He later pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly and was sentenced to a year behind bars.
“I felt fear, of course,” he recounted.
“In prison, there were two things I really worried about. The first one was whether I could continue my studies to finish my bachelor’s degree. And the other thing was … could I find a job after I graduate?”
Kenny, now aged 24, graduated last year and eventually found work at a logistics company.
He sought help from non-governmental organisation Project Change, which has helped more than 160 ex-inmates in their job applications. It also helps to restore university and professional qualifications affected by criminal records.
For example, some inmates who were nurses or social workers were disqualified from their professional licenses. Project Change managed to help two such clients to regain their qualifications.
Twenty per cent of its cases are referred by the Correctional Services Department, which manages prisoners and prisons in Hong Kong.
Mr Yau Shing Mu, associate director of Project Change’s Reintegration Programme, said that stakeholders – including school authorities, employers and licensing authorities – need to be persuaded to accept such ex-convicts “without substantial risk”.
“We try to persuade them that it is in the interest of the community to take these people back so that they can get back on track,” Mr Yau added.
“They are not those criminal-minded people, and they really want to contribute to the community.”
PRISONER SUPPORT GROUP HANDS OUT “PEACE PACKS”
Meanwhile, in the years following the protests, Hong Kong introduced various national security measures to rein in radicalism and pro-independence activities.
In June 2020, China introduced a new national security law in Hong Kong in response to the protests. A wider range of dissenting acts was criminalised, such as “subversion” – undermining the power or authority of the central government.
The passage of this law led to the closures of many civil society groups, amid uncertainties over the legality of their activities.
In the wake of this, prisoners’ support group Waiting Bird was formed in 2022. It supplies essentials to inmates like cleaning supplies, stationery and snacks.
Demand for their “peace packs”, comprising daily necessities for inmates, peaked over the last six months, said one of Waiting Bird’s committee members Brandon Yau.
It hands out 120 packs on average per month, which are picked up by the inmates’ families.
Mr Yau said that Waiting Bird has helped with more than 600 cases, with 70 per cent of its beneficiaries still serving their sentences. They were mostly charged with rioting, among other offences including those related to national security and sedition.
“As of now, although demand for legal advice or sharing of experiences have gradually come down, there’s still a great need for prison supplies,” Mr Yau added.
Because the Correctional Services Department sets specific requirements for prison supplies, it becomes challenging to source them, he noted.
“The towels that we can buy are too long … the Correctional Bureau mandates that only half of it can be given to inmates,” he told CNA.
“Therefore, we have to cut each towel that we bought into halves to be usable.”
Under existing rules, prisoners may have a third of their sentence reduced on the grounds of good behaviour.
Yet, with the city’s new national security law Article 23 that was passed in March, things have changed.
A prisoner convicted of national security offences must not be granted remission unless the Commissioner of Correctional Services is satisfied the move will “not be contrary to the interests of national security”.
Mr Yau said he came across a detainee who was due to be released soon after being kept behind bars for two years. However, the new legislation meant he ultimately had to stay another six months.
“Despite frustration, he could only focus on studying, and reached out to us for books to help pass the time,” Mr Yau added.
DESIRE TO BUILD A BETTER HONG KONG
CNA also spoke to Mrs Regina Ip, convenor of the key decision-making Executive Council of Hong Kong and a member of the Legislative Council, to find out what has changed since the protests.
When asked what the government is doing to ensure that young activists who took part in the protests reintegrate into society, Mrs Ip said the Correctional Services Department has a rehabilitation programme.
But she questioned whether the government can truly trust such young activists.
“They ask for leniency, but do they really understand, accept that they have damaged society and a lot of damage to our country and society?” she asked.
“I think people must try and understand and accept Hong Kong as it is.”
Kenny is one of these young people, many of whom left Hong Kong soon after the protests. But he said he is staying put.
He added that in the short term, he wants to get more involved in advocacy. He also floated the idea of taking up a volunteer gig at Project Change or other similar organisations.
“The government can consider hiring someone like me on a case-by-case basis, because most of us who participated in the 2019 protest don’t intend to cause damage in the society,” he said.
