In one year, a single law has abolished human rights in Hong Kong Human rights

Local buses, recycling bins and brochures were one of Tiffany Yuen’s main responsibilities when she was elected and sent to prison for violating Hong Kong’s national security law.

Although it may seem absurd, it is a fact that the city is experiencing a rapid decline in human rights since a single legislature was enacted a year ago.

In the 12 months since the Chinese government enacted it, the national security law has been used as an excuse to stifle and eventually erase voices critical of the Hong Kong or Beijing authorities.

Tiffany Yuen is just a victim of the law. A disproportionate local politician with a track record of promoting LGBTQI and women’s rights, he said goodbye to his family and friends in February and joined a management organization.

He remains there now for participating in official “primaries” who have been accused of “conspiring to overthrow state power” with the intention of narrowing the list of pro-democracy candidates for the 2020 territorial election that never happened. Most were denied bail after a four-day crowded hearing where one of the accused grew tired, and the last remnants of the freedoms once announced in Hong Kong seemed to disintegrate with each tiring minute.

Yuen’s continued detention is permitted by the National Security Act itself, which stipulates that suspects must be denied bail unless they can prove that they “will not continue to take actions that endanger national security”.

In other words, they believe they are more guilty than innocent. The result is that people who are targeted under national security law should be sentenced to a Chinese-style prison sentence – imprisoned before being punished.

And although he is one of 118 people arrested so far in connection with the Yuen law, many others have been forced to fear, persecute and eventually remain silent in an attack that has changed the face of Hong Kong society.

The closure of Apple Daily, an open pro-democracy newspaper by businessman Jimmy Lai, last week is a significant attack on press freedom, indicative of the broader repression that pervades every pore of the city.

Last year, students deleted their social media accounts; restaurants have thrown up protest posters; thousands of people have made a tremendous decision to emigrate. Many fear the same thing: a threat to national security and the long prison sentence that comes with it.

In fact, along with the arbitrary application of national security law and specific definitions of so-called crimes, it prevents anyone from knowing how and when they can break them.

Offenses fall into four categories in general – “secession”, “subversion”, “terrorism” and “cooperation with foreign forces” – the potential for wrongdoing the law is almost infinite.

People have been arrested for their tweets or slogans for T-shirts and cell phone stickers. A former opposition lawmaker cited WhatsApp conversations with reporters as evidence against him.

As the space for freedom of expression continues to disappear, teachers have lost their licenses to encourage discussions on issues such as Hong Kong’s independence. Books criticizing China and Hong Kong have been taken out of public libraries. Children have been warned not to express political opinions at school.

As the rule of law to protect them is restricted, anti-Hong Kong voices are calling for support from the international community. It is the responsibility of world leaders in the regional commission to address the Chinese authorities ’commitment to this attack on human rights in bilateral or multilateral spheres, such as the United Nations Human Rights Council.

At one of the toughest moments in the last 12 months, former lawmaker Margaret Ng, who was suspended for participating in a peaceful protest in 2019, told the court in a request for relief: “There is no less precious right for the people of Hong Kong because of freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.”

And while Hong Kong’s human rights guarantees may violate national security laws, the will of its people may not. When authorities once again banned annual repression in the city of Tiananmen earlier this month – apparently on COVID-19 motives – and deployed thousands of police to handle the incident, which has been quiet for 30 years, many people still took to the streets to light candles on June 4, 1989. If they stopped remembering, who would do more?

As Apple Daily stared into the abyss, people approached the kiosks to buy all the copies of paper they could.

In the face of previously unimaginable levels of government repression, Hong Kongers will adapt while finding other ways to express themselves. Tiffany Yuen, who continued to design brochures for her community while in custody, is just one of them.

This is a new report from the Amnesty Movement on Hong Kong, entitled ‘In the National Name of Security’ published today.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.