Statement of the NAGKAISA Labor Coalition for the Immediate and Unconditional Release of Lee Cheuk Yan

The NAGKAISA Labor Coalition stands in firm solidarity with our comrades in the global labour and civil society movement in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Lee Cheuk Yan.

Lee, a well-known labour leader and pro-democracy activist, has been targeted under the sweeping provisions of China’s National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong in 2020—accused of “inciting subversion of state power” for his involvement in the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and the exercise of his most basic rights: freedom of assembly, association, expression and memory.

We affirm that:

• The criminalisation of Lee’s peaceful work is a direct assault on trade union freedoms, on democratic space, and on the dignity of workers everywhere.

• The fact that Lee and others have been held for over 1,500 days for acting in defence of rights reveals the scale of repression we are up against.

• When the right to remember past struggles is suppressed, the right to organise for the future is weakened. The Hong Kong Alliance’s decades-long work to commemorate the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen protests is at the heart of this challenge.

Therefore, NAGKAISA calls on:

1. The Hong Kong authorities and relevant governments to drop all charges against Lee Cheuk Yan and to release him immediately and unconditionally.

2. Labour organisations, human rights institutions and governments around the world to monitor the trial closely, to apply diplomatic and moral pressure, and to stand together in solidarity.

3. Filipino unions and the broad labour movement in the Philippines to raise Lee’s case, to recognise its significance for workers’ rights globally, and to reaffirm that we are interconnected—when union freedom is undermined in one place, it is weakened everywhere.

We in NAGKAISA pledge:

• We will elevate Lee’s case in our national forums and international engagements.

• We will continue to stand in solidarity with colleagues in Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific region who are under threat.

• We will continue to defend the principle that there can be no labour justice without human rights.

For the freedom of Lee Cheuk Yan. For the dignity of workers everywhere.