The
Hong Kong government breached its bill of rights on protection from torture and cruel treatments by failing to provide an independent mechanism for complaints about police, the region’s high court has ruled.
The finding comes as a report by international experts who quit a Hong Kong police brutality inquiry last year said
officers’ crowd-control tactics had radicalised protesters and worsened perceptions of the force’s legitimacy.
Hong Kong’s police force was once one of the most respected in Asia, but its reputation was vastly diminished as the rolling protests last year descended into violence, including numerous instances and allegations of police brutality that went unpunished.
Thursday’s case was brought by the Hong Kong Journalists Association after the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, said there was no need for any complaints system outside the existing one overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC).
The high court court ruled that system was inadequate to discharge the government’s obligations under the bill of rights, and the government was duty-bound to establish one that was independent.