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1180013 Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the Period

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1180013 Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the Period REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1180013 Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the Period 20 September 2018 to 31 December 2019 for Hong Kong Watch A Charitable Incorporated Organisation Hong Kong Watch Contents of the Financial Statements for the Period 20 September 2018 to 31 December 2019 Page Report of the Trustees 1 Independent Examiner's Report 12 Statement of Financial Activities 13 Balance Sheet 14 Notes to the Financial Statements 15 to 16 Detailed Statement of Financial Activities 17 Hong Kong Watch Report of the Trustees for the Period 20 September 2018 to 31 December 2019 The trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the period 20 September 2018 to 31 December 2019. The trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities' issued in March 2005. REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS Registered Charity number: 1180013 Principal address Office 7 35-37 Ludgate Hill London EC4M 7JN Trustees Benedict Rogers (resigned 28 Sept 2020, chairman until resignation) Gray Sergeant (Chairman) Dr Malte Kaeding Aileen Yi Wan Lam UK Patrons Alistair Carmichael MP Lord Alton of Liverpool Catherine West MP Fiona Bruce MP Sir Geoffrey Nice QC Sir Malcolm Rifkind QC Lord Patten of Barnes Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon (deceased December 2018) International Patrons Hon. David Kilgour JD (Canada) Garnett Genuis MP (Canada) Jung-Hoon Lee (South Korea) Independent examiner Samuel Troy ACA Connected Accounting Limited, 2 Victoria Square, St Albans, AL1 3TF STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT Constitution The charity was formed on 20 September 2018 as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, controlled by its governing document and which constitutes an incorporated charity. Risk management The trustees have a duty to identify and review the risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. Page 1 Hong Kong Watch Report of the Trustees (continued) OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES Hong Kong Watch’s charitable objects are to promote human rights (as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations) in Hong Kong by all or any of the following means: • Monitoring abuses of human rights; • Raising worldwide awareness of human rights issues in Hong Kong; • Promoting respect for human rights among individuals and corporations; • Publishing authoritative research reports which provide an in-depth examination of potential violations of human rights; • Providing technical advice to the British government and governments worldwide on human rights issues in Hong Kong; • Commenting on proposed human rights legislation affecting Hong Kong; • Commenting on the causes of human rights abuses in Hong Kong, including violations of judicial independence and freedom of speech in academia; • Carrying out international advocacy of human rights, making recommendations to the British government and the wider international community when violations of human rights in Hong Kong take place; • Facilitating discussion and engagement with human rights in Hong Kong among key stakeholders in government, parliament, media, academia and Hong Kong civil society. The Board of Trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the organisation each year. This report looks at what the organisation has achieved and the outcomes of its work in the reporting period. The Board of Trustees report the success of each key activity and the benefits the charity has brought to those groups of people that it is set up to help. The review also helps the Board of Trustees ensure the charity's aims, objectives and activities remained focused on its stated purposes. The Board of Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the Board of Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set. PUBLIC BENEFIT In carrying out its work Hong Kong Watch pays due regard to Charity Commission guidance concerning public benefit. The trustees are satisfied that all Hong Kong Watch’s activities for the financial year ended 31 December 2019 were of public benefit and that the organisation's funds were spent so as to achieve public benefit. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE Hong Kong Watch was founded to address the lack of awareness of the gradual erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong. It has been a significant year for Hong Kong Watch as our work across six key areas was shown to be impactful in raising awareness worldwide and effecting policy changes that benefit Hong Kongers. The attempt by the Hong Kong government to introduce an extradition bill in February 2019 was a watershed moment which resulted in mass protests, greater international awareness about the situation in Hong Kong, and our work taking on greater salience. Hong Kong is facing an unprecedented crisis which threatened the city's rule of law, basic freedoms and autonomy. Hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong marched in protests in 2019 against the proposed extradition law, which would have removed the legal firewall between Hong Kong and Page 2 Hong Kong Watch Report of the Trustees (continued) China and undermined the human rights guaranteed under the Hong Kong Basic Law. Shocking police brutality against protesters and journalists led to an international outcry, with called on the Hong Kong government to exercise restraint and to abandon the proposed extradition law. In response to these developments, we focused our advocacy efforts and research on highlighting the human rights violations in Hong Kong, raising awareness of these issues with UK and international parliamentary and government stakeholders. We called on these stakeholders to use a range of policy tools to uphold human rights, including diplomatic interventions, the introduction of Magnitsky legislation to impose targeted sanctions on officials responsible for human rights abuses, and the offer of support to refugees from Hong Kong. ADVOCACY IN THE UK One of the key founding objectives of Hong Kong Watch was to better inform parliamentarians in the UK about the erosion of freedoms, the rule of law, basic human rights and autonomy in Hong Kong, as the UK has both legal and moral obligations to monitor and speak up for human rights in Hong Kong under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Working together with the organisation’s Patrons in the UK, Hong Kong Watch has successfully put Hong Kong back on the parliamentary agenda and raised public awareness about Hong Kong situation through media engagement. Throughout 2019, Hong Kong Watch provided targeted briefings to influential parliamentarians across all political parties and via the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong. We ensured they had access to credible, focused expertise and an understanding of the human rights development in Hong Kong, the impact to Hong Kong people, the responsibilities of Britain under the international treaty and the tools to which the UK can resort in order to support Hong Kong. In May 2019, we arranged high-level meetings with the UK government ministers and policymakers with a veteran Hong Kong lawmaker. This trip was critical in the run-up to the anti-extradition protests. Following the meetings, one of our Patrons Sir Malcolm Rifkind QC raised the extradition bill in an op-ed in the South China Morning Post, and the UK government’s position on the extradition bill hardened with a greater focus on human rights. Our parliamentary engagement was extensive. In one week alone, between June 9 and June 16, Hong Kong Watch coordinated 7 parliamentary debates led by the organisation’s Patrons in both houses of the UK parliament and briefed over 40 speeches raising concerns about the proposed Extradition Bill in Hong Kong for its violations of human rights guaranteed under international human rights standards and the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Our Patrons wrote an Open Letter to the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in August 2019 urging the Secretary to stand up for people in Hong Kong by ensuring that any UK-Hong Kong future bilateral trade agreement includes a human rights clause which references the Sino-British Joint Declaration and one-country, two-systems. On 9 August, the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam to discuss his concerns about the situation in Hong Kong, and the protests there. During the call, the Foreign Secretary "condemned violent acts by all sides..." but "underlined that the violence should not cloud the lawful actions of the majority." He "emphasised the need to find a way forward through meaningful political dialogue, and a fully independent investigation" into the violence. As the crackdown on protests continued to escalate in September, our Patrons Fiona Bruce MP and Catherine West MP tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons calling for Commonwealth Nations to offer second citizenship and place of abode to the people of Hong Kong. The motion was supported and signed by 40 MPs. Separately, more than 150 British lawmakers from both Houses Page 3 Hong Kong Watch Report of the Trustees (continued) of Parliament signed a letter coordinated by Hong Kong Watch to the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, making the same call for an insurance policy for the people of Hong Kong in light of the rapid deterioration of freedoms and the rule of law in the city. In October 2019, during the visit of a prominent Hong Kong activist in the UK, we had meetings with the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Shadow Foreign Secretary (at the time) Emily Thornberry, raising the human rights of British National (Overseas) in Hong Kong and Magnitsky sanctions.
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