Probe into unrest pledged

December 3, 2019

Chief Executive Carrie Lam:

It has been some time ago that I announced that we would invite a group of community leaders and academia and experts to independently look into the causes of this prolonged social unrest, including the underlying deep-seated problems that have been bothering Hong Kong. So what I said, perhaps in more explicit terms last Tuesday, was the idea of inviting these people to form themselves into an independent review committee. And this independent review committee will look into the causes of the social unrest and come up with recommendations for the Government because we don’t want to see the recurrence of this social disturbance in future. So we have to tackle not only the phenomenon but also the underlying causes.

As far as the investigation into Police, the well-established mechanism is to use the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Council) to look into those allegations and complaints. And this time, the IPCC has chosen or has taken the initiative to conduct a thematic fact-finding study into the more significant incidents that have caused a lot of public concern. By now, the IPCC has already worked for five months. I think the best way is for the IPCC to complete its findings and for society to examine the findings and have a good discussion on the outcome of the IPCC report.

(To watch the video with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said an independent review committee would probe the causes of the social unrest and make recommendations to the Government.

Mrs Lam made the remarks this morning ahead of the Executive Council meeting.

She said: “It has been some time ago that I announced that we would invite a group of community leaders and academia and experts to independently look into the causes of this prolonged social unrest, including the underlying deep-seated problems that have been bothering Hong Kong.

“This independent review committee will look into the causes of the social unrest and come up with recommendations for the Government because we don’t want to see the recurrence of this social disturbance in future.

"So we have to tackle not only the phenomenon but also the underlying causes.”

Regarding the investigation into Police’s handling of public order events, Mrs Lam said the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) has taken the initiative to conduct a thematic fact-finding study into significant incidents that have caused public concern.

“By now, the IPCC has already worked for five months. I think the best way is for the IPCC to complete its findings and for society to examine the findings and have a good discussion on the outcome of the IPCC report.”