The Chilling Effect: Hong Kong’s Securitisation and the Erosion of Rights-Based Environmental Protection

The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL) threatens the exercise of rights-based approaches (RBAs) to environmental protection. Enacted in 2020, the NSL has been criticised for its draconian and ambiguously formulated provisions that contravene China’s obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 and international law. This paper posits that the NSL undemocratically constrains the fundamental rights required to exercise RBAs for environmental protection, thereby facilitating long-term risks to ecocentric legislative activity in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). It also investigates the capacity of civil society to demand accountability for environmentally focused HKSAR policies and laws. Challenges to environmentalism in the post-NSL era are examined, evaluating the law’s impact on environmental activism. The paper concludes that the NSL has facilitated the erosion of environmentalism in the HKSAR, limiting the activities of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), muzzling free expression, and suppressing political opposition. Given the current political environment, the prospect of legal reform appears bleak. Sustained international support for local environmental human rights defenders is necessary, and future research must focus on developing alternative strategies for environmental advocacy in restrictive political settings.