The ban on face-covering came into force in October. #facemaskban #HongKongProtests
Protesters gather before trying to find safe passage out of Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hung Hom district of Hong Kong on 18 November 2019. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)
HONG KONG, China — A government ban on demonstrators wearing face masks, aimed at helping to quell months of pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong, is unconstitutional, the territory’s high court ruled Monday.
“The restrictions it imposes on fundamental rights… go further than is reasonably necessary… and therefore fail to meet the proportionality test,” the court said, according to a press summary.
The ban on face-covering came into force in October, when the city’s unelected pro-Beijing leader invoked colonial-era legislation for the first time in more than 50 years.
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The move was seen as a watershed legal moment for the city since its 1997 return by Britain to China — but has been largely symbolic.
Demonstrators — most of them wearing masks — have continued to clash with police, often violently, as they press their demands for greater democracy for Hong Kong, as well as an independent inquiry into alleged brutality by the increasingly unpopular police force.
