Senior International Advocacy Associate

Carmen Lau is the Senior International Advocacy Associate at the Hong Kong Democracy Council, supporting HKDC in extending its advocacy efforts to the international community. She is currently living in exile in the UK.

Carmen was elected as a district councillor during Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy movement. In 2020, she was appointed Secretary-General of the Civic Party, Hong Kong’s second-largest pro-democracy party, which has since been forcibly dissolved. Amid escalating political repression, she was forced to resign her elected office in 2021 by the government and fled to the UK that same year. In December 2021, she was wanted for “blank votes incitement” during the Legislative Council elections. On Christmas Eve 2024, she was targeted again — this time under the National Security Law — with an arrest warrant and a HK$1 million bounty on her head. Since then, her family in Hong Kong has been interrogated by national security agents, and her neighbours in the UK have received anonymous letters encouraging her bounty hunting. 

From exile, Carmen continued her advocacy for democracy and civil liberties. She founded Hong Kong March, an annual UK-wide cultural month, and led the Vote for Hong Kong 2024 campaign to leverage the political influence of exiled UK-based Hong Kongers. She currently serves on the Leadership Council of the World Liberty Congress.

Carmen has testified on Hong Kong media freedom and the crackdown on civil society before the UK Parliament APPG on Hong Kong. She has been interviewed and quoted by the Financial Times, Politico, BBC, Le Monde, NBC News, NHK, Nikkei Asia, France 24, among other outlets. She has also spoken at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Chatham House, College Freedom Forum, and other events.