Safeguarding National Security Ordinance
Part 1
Ord. No. 6 of 2024
Section 2
A459
2. Principles of this Ordinance
This Ordinance is based on the following principles—
- (a) the highest principle of the policy of “one country, two systems” is to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests;
- (b) human rights are to be respected and protected, the rights and freedoms, including the freedoms of speech, of the press and of publication, the freedoms of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration, enjoyed under the Basic Law, the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as applied to the HKSAR, are to be protected in accordance with the law; and
- (c) for acts and activities endangering national security, there must be adherence to active prevention in accordance with the principle of the rule of law, and suppression and punishment in accordance with the law, and accordingly—
- (i) a person whose act constitutes an offence under the law is to be convicted and punished in accordance with the law; no one is to be convicted and punished for an act that does not constitute an offence under the law;
- (ii) a person is to be presumed innocent before the person is convicted by a judicial authority;
- (iii) the right to defend, and other rights in a legal action, enjoyed in accordance with the law by a criminal suspect, defendant and other participants in the action are to be protected; and
