NEW YORK (Nov. 13, 2026) — Today, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice submitted an individual complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of Hong Kong student activist-turned-democracy leader Joshua Wong, urging the WGAD to declare Wong’s continuous detention arbitrary and in violation of international law.
Wong is one of the leading voices of democracy in Hong Kong. At the age of 14, he co-founded Scholarism, a student activist group that successfully campaigned against the Beijing-backed “Moral and National Education” curriculum. In 2014, at 17, he was one of the leaders of the 79-day Umbrella Movement protests, calling for free and fair elections. This was the start of his repeated arrests and detentions for his activism.
On June 19, 2020, Wong announced his intent to run for a seat in Hong Kong’s legislature during the pro-democracy camp’s primaries, in response to the eroding freedoms in Hong Kong. A month later, he was disqualified from running on the basis of his political views. And on Jan. 7, 2021, Wong was arrested, while already in prison, alongside 46 others — collectively known as the “Hong Kong 47” — in the largest case under Hong Kong’s National Security Law to date. The trial began two years later, and on Nov. 19, 2024, Wong was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison for “conspiracy to commit subversion,” for attempting to organize and run in the primaries.
Eighteen months before his projected release, the Hong Kong government once again charged him under the National Security Law, this time for “collusion with foreign forces” for conduct that primarily occurred between July 1 and Nov. 23, 2020. Wong had simply met with democratic governments, asking them to denounce the declining freedoms in Hong Kong, support the protests, and advocate for prisoners of conscience. For this, he has been sentenced to an additional 10 years, of which 2 months and 2 days run concurrently with his existing sentence, effectively adding nearly a decade.
It is clear that Joshua Wong is a target of the Hong Kong government. Last month, he turned 30 years old after spending the majority of his twenties behind bars. He was due to be released in Jan. 2027. But in an extremely cruel turn of events, he was sentenced to another 10 years, so that the Hong Kong government can continue to silence him. He is the only person to be prosecuted twice under the NSL,” HRF Legal and Program Officer Claudia Bennett said. “The numerous charges, arrests, and detentions, also known as charge-stacking, speak for themselves, but this latest charge is a last-ditch effort to permanently silence his activism and prevent him from being a democratic leader and advocate for change in Hong Kong.”
In its WGAD petition, HRF and the Lantos Foundation detail numerous human rights violations and emphasize the draconian National Security Law, which is carefully designed to extinguish any form of dissent. The law has been criticized by UN Special Procedures holders, the Human Rights Committee, the WGAD itself, and numerous civil society groups. Its implementation has been characterized as a “multifront attack” on the “one country, two systems” framework. At least 200 individuals have been detained under the law since its enactment in 2020, proving its use as a tool to erode Hong Kong’s freedoms.
HRF and the Lantos Foundation call on the WGAD to investigate Wong’s case, deem his detention arbitrary and in violation of international law, and request that the Hong Kong government immediately and unconditionally release him.
HRF’s Impact Litigation Program is made possible through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and Rising Tide Foundation.
