Election candidates’ disqualification, migrants’ protest rights among concerns in report for UN

Jason Chao, convener of the Macau Research Group

The disqualification of election candidates, the denial of the right to peaceful assembly of migrant workers and the resignations of TDM’s journalists following the imposition of new editorial guidelines are among the concerns that will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) next Wednesday.

Reports of the concerns come as the committee will hear a Macau delegation on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Macau society members are welcome to submit opinions and concerns regarding the city, and this has been done so by Jason Chao, convener of the Macau Research Group and a social activist.

The “Report on Human Rights in Macau 2022” raised the issue of the electoral committee disqualifying election candidates in the September 2021 elections on the grounds of being “not loyal to Macau” and “not upholding the Basic Law.”

The 2021 elections saw the disqualification of 21 candidates, three of whom were already members of the Legislative Assembly and had never been prevented from running for the legislature in any of the previous elections. 

According to the report, “the disqualifications deprived Macau residents of a free choice of candidates at the 2021 Legislative Assembly Election.”

The election recorded an all-time-low turnout (42.2%) and an all-time-high percentage of blank votes (2.29%) since Portugal’s handover of Macau to China in 1999, the group recalled.

The group then called on the UN committee to “ensure that election candidates are not disqualified for their political opinion or their exercise of freedom of expression.”

Another concern was the refusal of government authorities to issue a permit allowing migrant workers to hold a demonstration. Officials have reiterated that non-resident workers do not enjoy the right to assembly.

In February 2021, the Public Security Police refused to accept a prior notice of assembly submitted by Burmese migrant workers who wanted to organize a protest against the Burmese military coup.

Chao’s report cited resolution 24/5 of the UN Human Rights Council, which states their obligations to “fully protect the rights of all individuals to assemble peacefully […] including migrants.”

Another controversial concern was the resignation of several reporters from TDM. 

It had been circulated across local media outlets last year that TDM’s management had convened a meeting with Portuguese reporters to instruct them about the new reporting ethos and guidelines to which they should conform. 

These guidelines stress that news coverage should promote patriotism, respect and love for the motherland and Macau.

TDM has clarified that it will not alter its editorial guidelines, which had stoked public controversy.

“This submission recommends that HRC urge Macau, China to: a) retract the editorial guidelines that effectively undermine the editorial independence of journalists of the public broadcaster; b) guarantee that the public broadcaster reports the diverse voices of Macau; and c) guarantee that the public broadcaster would not engage in suppressing or downplaying dissent,” the report noted. 

Other concerns involve “no right to strike in the planned trade union law,” “planned revision of the national security law,” and “restrictions on unskilled migrant workers looking for jobs.”