News & Events

Justice Centre is looking for a Development & Communications Intern.

It has been a great honour for Justice Centre Hong Kong to participate in a series of workshops and roundtables to drive implementation of the Global Refugee Form Legal Community Access to Justice Pledge, together with PILnet and a core group of civil society organisations.

A big thank you to Registered Psychologist and trauma counselling specialist Dina Chamberlain for her support of Justice Centre’s pilot counselling programme to help provide counselling to Justice Centre’s clients and nurture the next generations of trauma counsellors in Hong Kong.

It is with both pleasure and honour for Justice Centre Hong Kong to enter into a year-long partnership with the LSESU Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society - HKPASS starting this academic year.

Justice Centre Hong Kong has strong concerns over proposed amendments to the High Court Ordinance (Cap. 4), these proposals risk diluting procedural fairness protections for not only asylum seekers but all applicants for judicial review.

It is a great honour for Justice Centre Hong Kong to partner with the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School this year.

Justice Centre would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our pro bono partner Latham Watkins for their detailed legal research on the topic of persecution risks in the context of East Africa.

In September we said farewell to Raquel Amador, our Welfare Advisor. Not only has Raquel fulfilled this role for us over the past 2 years, helping our clients with their social welfare needs, but she is also the original founder of Justice Centre (then the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre) in 2007.

We would like to congratulate and thank all participants for the successful clinical education programmes this year. Because of their passion and dedication, we are very hopeful about the next generations of human rights defenders in Hong Kong.

The lack of publicly available information on immigration detention makes it difficult to accurately assess the prevalence of detention in vulnerable communities.

Justice Centre would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our pro bono partner Dr. Sarah Borwein for her decade-long pro bono service to Justice Centre clients and the community of asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong.

Justice Centre Hong Kong is very concerned about recent media reports on the situation at the Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre (CIC). More than 10,000 individuals are detained under immigration powers every year. As of 31 May 2020, 399 people were in detention at the CIC, including 79 asylum seekers seeking protection in Hong Kong.

A big thank you to our pro bono partner Latham & Watkins for their detailed legal research support on the topic of habeas corpus in the context of immigration detention.

Today, 22 August, marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. On this day, we pay tribute to the victims but we also celebrate those brave survivors of religious-based violence.

On this day of World Humanitarian Day (19 August), we pay tribute to all frontline humanitarian workers who continued their work for all those in need amidst the hardships of Covid-19.

The UN Human Rights Committee recently released a list of questions (“List of Issues”) for Hong Kong’s upcoming review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Justice Centre has had the great pleasure of having Evan as part of our team over the past 10 months as our Legal Casework Volunteer. He has been an incredible asset to our organisation with both his passion and legal skills.

The Assistant Legal Services Coordinator is responsible for providing administrative, legal and coordination support to the Legal Services Team and the Social Welfare Team in order to ensure services are provided in a professional, sensitive and efficient manner. You will be responsible for assisting with the design, upkeep and refinement of our working systems.

Our Research and Policy Officer Rachel will talk about the impact of Covid-19 on the refugee community in Hong Kong at 1:30pm today on RTHK Radio 3’s 1 2 3 Show with Noreen Mir.

On this World Day against Trafficking in Persons, we call upon the Hong Kong Government to adopt comprehensive legislation to criminalise all forms of human trafficking.

We are delighted to announce the successful appeal of one of our refugee clients. After many years of uncertainty, she has finally been granted protection in Hong Kong.

Eager to get active again after months of lockdown? Follow our Event Ambassador Wing To to stay fit while showing support for Justice Centre’s non-profit human rights work!

Justice Centre Hong Kong was delighted to learn that one of our refugee clients, Amina (not her real name), has just been granted the Permission to Work by the Immigration Department on a discretionary basis.

Thanks to the overwhelming support of all participants and community members, the World Refugee Day Virtual Film Screening 2020 was a great success last Friday!

Melanie Cheng joined Justice Centre 8 months ago as our Welfare Advice Volunteer and now, she is embarking on a new journey with our pilot Counselling Programme with trauma specialist and Registered Psychologist, Dina Chamberlain. Read more about her experience with us and her observations of Hong Kong's protection landscape as a former Family & Child Protection lawyer in London.

Below one percent – this is the success rate of asylum applications in Hong Kong. In other developed regions, the success rate stands at 30-40%. Asylum seekers in Hong Kong often have to wait for years, even a decade, only to have their claims rejected.

Hong Kong has a rich refugee history, from those who fled here during the Chinese Civil War or Cultural Revolution, to the Vietnamese “boat people” fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War, to people currently seeking protection in our city.

We need a Social Welfare Assistant to help with our work in providing direct assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and other brave survivors of human rights violations we serve.

We need a Legal Casework Volunteer to help with our work in providing direct assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and other brave survivors of human rights violations we serve.

Join us on June 19 for a virtual screening session in celebration of World Refugee Day (20 June), followed by a panel discussion with refugees in Hong Kong and representatives from UNHCR Hong Kong, Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong & Macao, Branches of Hope, and Justice Centre Hong Kong!

Justice Centre Hong Kong was glad to learn that one of our refugee clients, Claudine (not her real name), was recently granted Permission to Work by the Immigration Department on a discretionary basis.

Do you want to learn how to use the law to make a difference? Would you like to get hands-on experience of assisting people seeking asylum in Hong Kong? If so, apply for the Hong Kong Human Rights Law Clinic 2020 today!

Amidst the pandemic, Justice Centre Hong Kong were proud to help our clients and their loved ones celebrate Eid. On this very special occasion we were delighted to prepare and distribute dozens of food bags, which included many favourite ingredients, for what we hope was a delicious iftar.

Justice Centre Hong Kong is pleased to sign the Racial Diversity & Inclusion Charter For Employers upon the invitation of the Equal Opportunities Commission to reiterate our support for racial diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Run for charity! You could take part in FringeBacker Covid-19 Hong Kong Virtual Marathon without being in Hong Kong & you could support the work of Justice Centre Hong Kong while staying healthy and fit!

Justice Centre Hong Kong was pleased to learn that one of our refugee clients, Alice (not her real name), was recently granted Permission to Work by the Immigration Department on a discretionary basis.

Let us all be reminded on International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia #IDAHOT that no one in the world should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hand of the person they love, or being who they want to be 🌈

We are pleased to announce the successful appeal of two of our refugee clients from the Horn of Africa. After 7 years of uncertainty, they have both been granted protection in Hong Kong.

Justice Centre Hong Kong joins the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s calls upon States to protect children’s rights amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A big thank you to our pro bono partner Latham & Watkins for their detailed legal research support on the topic of habeas corpus in the context of immigration detention.

Today, on the International Day for the Right to Truth concerning Human Rights, Justice Centre Hong Kong echoes the importance of the right to the truth.

In these challenging times, Hong Kong must stand by refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, migrant domestic workers, ethnic minorities and other marginalised communities against racism, prejudice, intolerance and xenophobia.

A big thank you to our pro bono partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for helping us approach one of their preferred professional translation service providers SDL plc. They agreed, on a pro bono basis, to translate our client feedback forms into our clients’ 11 most used languages. They did an excellent job, with a four-day turnaround time.

Justice Centre Hong Kong join the UN General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande’s call on everyone everywhere, to defend gender equality together as a necessity in upholding human rights.

With the help of our pro bono partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, we have lodged separate complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman in February 2020 over the HKSAR Government's failure to offer data on the Unified Screening Mechanism.

We were delighted to learn of the recent successful resettlement of one of our refugee clients from the Horn of Africa to the United States. Prolonged by policy changes, our client waited 6 years after the substantiation of his asylum claim for the resettlement process to be completed.

A new vision… The 2020 Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize is now accepting submissions.

After nearly 5 years of dedicated service, Piya Muqit has stepped down as the Executive Director of Justice Centre Hong Kong

ZN v. Secretary for Justice, Director of Immigration, Commissioner of Police, Commissioner for Labour [2019] is a landmark case that examined the interpretation of Article 4 of the Bill of Rights Ordinance (“BOR4”) and whether it included human trafficking. The key issues were whether the protection derived from BOR4 covers human trafficking and whether a positive duty existed for the government to enact a specific criminal offence against human trafficking. The Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) delivered its written judgement last Friday afternoon (January 10).