We will continue our protest with our course on free elections.

I'm not a hero. The Hongkongers who confronted tear gas in the streets are the heroes.

Hong Kongers deserve universal suffrage.

Hong Kong is different to mainland China. We protect our freedoms. We ask for free elections to elect the leader of our city.

I hope those who previously only thought of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee regarding Hong Kong would now realise that the city is also a place fighting for democracy.

In 2014, we were opposing President Xi Jinping. Five years later, we are opposing Emperor Xi Jinping.

From horrific incidents of police brutality and complicity in indiscriminate attacks by triads on citizens to arbitrary mass arrests and the banning of demonstrations, the government has employed nearly every weapon in its war chest to intimidate Hong Kongers into silence and to suppress their popular struggle for democracy and freedom.

For generations of Hong Kongers, the only means of upward mobility and the only way to meaningfully contribute to society have been to obtain a respectable university degree (preferably in business administration) and a professional accreditation (in finance, accounting, law or medicine).

The fight for democracy is a long-term battle.

My generation could be the first in Hong Kong to be worse off than our parents.

We shall continue our fight for democracy and freedom because we do not accept that Hong Kong will be transformed into a police state.

Many issues are closely related to politics and I think Hong Kongers should pay more attention to politics.

I'm a Christian and my motivation for joining activism is that I think we should be salt and light.

Hong Kong was promised democracy under the framework known as 'one country, two systems,' and China is ignoring this promise. The international community should be more attuned to this. It matters.

The anti-extradition movement is larger and much more organised than the Umbrella Movement in 2014.

Hong Kong people may be ethnically Chinese, but lots of people do not consider ourselves, including me, as Chinese citizens.

My generation, the so-called post-'90s generation that came of age after the territory was returned to China, would have the most to lose if Hong Kong were to become like just another mainland Chinese city, where information is not freely shared and the rule of law is ignored.

Carrie Lam is not the leader elected by people of Hong Kong.

Being famous is part of my job.

Hong Kong people do not keep silent and I urge people around the world to keep their eyes on Hong Kong and the passion with which people are fighting for basic rights. We never give up and we will not be silenced.

Hong Kong has always been a symbol of the vibrant and free exchange of cultures, commerce and ideas. This reputation is threatened, however, in the face of China's efforts to increase its authoritarian control within its sphere of influence.

The education system of Hong Kong has often been slammed for marginalising a lot of people.

In 2011, when I established the activist group Scholarism, I could have not imagined that a year later, 100,000 people would take to the street and occupy for a week to urge the government to withdraw the national education curriculum.

You don't need role models to be part of a social movement as long as you care about the issues.

Carrie Lam is a proxy leader.The final decision-maker is President Xi.

I am a pro-democracy activist asking for free elections in Hong Kong.

I have been fighting for democracy since I was 15 when I organised a strike to oppose the Hong Kong government's plan to introduce the Chinese patriotic school education; 100,000 people surrounded a government building with students asking for democracy for every citizen.

Detention cells in Hong Kong are not pleasant. In Thailand they are even worse. In Hong Kong you are at least allowed to see your lawyers.

Being an activist is not easy.

Sometimes it feels as if I major in activism and minor in university.

The Lantos Human Rights Prize is intended to serve as a beacon of hope, justice and human decency in a world too often covered in a shroud of darkness.

During the Umbrella Movement, the police force wasn't in control, and the police ignored the law and tried to use extreme force to hurt people.

Back in 2014, my fellow Hong Kongers and I hoped to use nonviolent means to fight for our territory's democratic system - a simple right, promised by Beijing, to choose our own leader.

The fight for democracy relies on community support.

Our city finds itself in an uncomfortable place: on the frontline between freedom and auto_cracy.

We do not want to see a Hong Kong that enjoys freedoms on paper, but whose autonomous status conceals the workings of a totalitarian state beneath.

I'm convinced democracy will grow from the ground up, from the community.

Beyond the barricades we long to see a Hong Kong free from tyranny and a puppet government.

We do not want to see a Hong Kong that enjoys freedoms on paper but whose autonomous status conceals the workings of a totalitarian state.

Some people say that given the government's firm stance against genuine universal suffrage, our demands are impossible to achieve. But I believe activism is about making the impossible possible.

If Hong Kong could exercise democratic self-governance under the sovereignty of China, it would not be necessary for us to take this step on the path toward independence.

Will Beijing really send out the army to suppress our protests? Never say never.

I have experienced threats. Not just to me, but to my family.

I love the sense of belonging in Hong Kong. I love that it is such an international city. I love our food and our language. The people are energetic and passionate. I just really love this city.

We long to have a home where civil freedoms are respected, where our children will not be subject to mass surveillance, abuse of human rights, political censorship and mass incarceration. We stand with all the free peoples of the world and hope you stand with us in our quest for justice and freedom.

In December 2014, during the final days of the Umbrella Movement, prominent signs proclaiming We'll Be Back sprang up along Harcourt Road, one of the three major thruways occupied by peaceful pro-democracy protesters for nearly three months.

China is dead set on making Hong Kong more like it.

Beijing's imperial reach extends far and wide, from Taiwan and Xinjiang to the South China Sea and beyond.

We should, through civic referendums, determine our own pathways and political status after 2047, because in this lies the future of our democratic movement. If Hong Kong could exercise democratic self-governance under the sovereignty of China, it would not be necessary for us to take this step on the path toward independence.

Even if the CCP is willing to stick with 'one country, two systems' in principle, no one can say for certain whether Hong Kong's freedoms of speech and the press would survive in reality.