raised concerns about reported campaigns to eradicate Tibetan culture and language, the closures of schools teaching in Tibetan and other minority languages, and assimilation programmes including the coerced residential school system imposed on Tibetan children. LGBTI PEOPLE’S RIGHTS In February, two students filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education, seeking to overturn disciplinary action against them “for violating university rules” after they distributed rainbow flags on Tsinghua University campus in 2022. Information about the lawsuit on social media was censored. The authorities also maintained pressure on LGBTI groups. In May, the Beijing LGBT Center, one of the oldest and largest LGBTI advocacy and support organizations in China, announced that it was closing “due to forces beyond their control”. In August, on Qixi – China’s Valentine’s Day – WeChat banned the accounts of several LGBTI groups including Trans Brotherhood China, Beijing Lesbian Centre and the Beijing branch of Trueself without giving reasons. DEATH PENALTY Information on the use of the death penalty was limited as figures on the number of sentences and executions remained classified as state secrets. The death penalty remained applicable for 46 offences, including non-lethal offences such as drug trafficking that do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” under international law and standards. The state media reported some cases in which individuals were sentenced to death. They included Yu Huaying who was sentenced to death in September by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court for abducting and trafficking children in the 1990s. In December, the Philippines government announced that China had executed two Filipinos for drug-trafficking offences after The State of the World’s Human Rights ignoring its appeals for the sentences to be commuted. WORKERS’ RIGHTS The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raised concerns about unsafe working conditions and widespread harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment of women, and insufficient labour inspection mechanisms to investigate allegations of violations of relevant law and regulations. The Committee also raised concerns about the lack of sufficient accident and medical coverage, especially for informal sector workers, and inadequate social security coverage including for rural to urban migrant workers. RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT A report published in February by Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that coal power plant construction in China in 2022 was six times higher than in the rest of the world combined. In September, China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said that completely phasing out fossil fuels was “unrealistic”. China resumed the construction of temporarily halted coal-fired power plants and allowed the construction of new plants domestically and abroad, despite a recommendation in February by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to suspend permissions and pause financing for coal-fired power plants. HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY The Hong Kong authorities continued to use the 2020 National Security Law (NSL), as well as colonial-era sedition provisions in the Crimes Ordinance and other restrictive laws, against pro-democracy campaigners, journalists, human rights defenders and others. In the largest national security prosecution to date, the trial of 47 pro-democracy advocates began in February. All were 131