UN questions rights violations in Macau during pandemic

Macau authorities disqualified politicians from contesting the 2021 election for their alleged ‘disloyalty to China’

The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has raised alarm over alleged crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Macau under the pretext of Covid-19 restrictions.

The UN body expressed concerns over the crackdown during a review of the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Macau via video conference on July 15, Portuguese news agency Hoje Macau reported.

The UNHRC officials have quizzed the government of the former Portuguese colony, now a Chinese-ruled autonomous territory, and said that Covid-19 restrictions in Macau were not “compatible with the rights guaranteed by the Basic Law and the ICCPR.”

The ICCPR is a multilateral treaty that requires states to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, speech, assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial.

“I am concerned that these very severe restrictions infringe the rights guaranteed by the agreement,” said the UNHRC committee member, Shuichi Furuya.

In response, the Macau delegation defended that, “in general, the measures are not affecting people’s lives” and that, following this program outlined by the Government, daily infections “have fallen from a peak of 100 per day to 20 to 30.”

Catholic Churches in Macau closed doors in the third week of June amid a surge in infections. Currently, all liturgical programs including Holy Mass are being conducted online.

Church officials have urged Catholics to maintain peace, patience, and strengthen their faith amidst the stressful lockdown period.

“May God help us this week to be at peace, to help one another through Christian charity,” urged Father Daniel Ribeiro, parish priest of Macau’s Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady, during Sunday Mass on July 17.

The Macau administration has put the region under strict lockdown since July 11 which has been extended further. The strict restrictions came after closure of bars, cinemas, hair salons and outdoor parks from June 23 in the city known as Asian gaming and gambling hub.

Since the first reported infection in February 2020, Macau authorities imposed strict restrictions on the island several times. Macau has reportedly followed one of the world’s toughest Covid-19 countermeasure policies that include strict border controls, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns.  

On July 18, Macau started the 11th round of mass testing amid the worst outbreak of the pandemic, Reuters reported.

Under current lockdown measures, all residents are strictly prohibited from leaving their homes except for buying groceries and caring for others. The casinos and gaming industry, the mainstay of the economy in Macau, have also been shut down.  

Only essential services such as supermarkets, pharmacies, hotels and water and gas stations have remained open.

The government has declared to release 10 billion patacas (USD 1.24 billion) in handouts to struggling businesses that have been affected by the extended lockdowns.

The UN body has also questioned Macau officials over the exclusion of candidates from the local parliament in 2021 terming it as “a flagrant violation” of the rights enshrined in the ICCPR.

Vasilka Sancin, another UNHRC member, said that she considered it “particularly worrying” that in the “surveillance records compiled by the police” and “used by the electoral commission to justify disqualification” were events honoring Chinese political activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and the Tiananmen victims.

Liu Dexue, Director of the Services for Justice Affairs, defended the Macau administration’s stand that the disqualification followed due process and verification.

“Some members participated in activities involving national security, which did not defend the Basic Law or were not loyal to the Macau Special Administrative Region,” he explained stating that there are mechanisms in place to appeal the decision in the Electoral Commission.

Earlier in 2021, the pro-democracy candidates were all disqualified from the election on alleged disloyalty to China after they commemorated the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and honored rights activist and Beijing critic, Liu Xiaobo.

Of the 33 seats in Macau’s legislature, 14 are directly elected. The pro-democracy camp won just two, half of what it got in the last vote in 2017. The other 19 lawmakers include 12 indirectly chosen from professional sectors and seven appointed by Macau’s chief executive.

The Human Rights Committee will present the conclusions at a press conference scheduled for July 27.

Observers say after suppressing freedoms and a strong pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong with the draconian national security law, China’s communist regime is now attempting to muzzle any form of dissent to tighten its grip on Macau.

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