Portuguese Section. At the invitation of "Direito e Justica", the newly formed Portuguese Section of the International Commission, Paul Sieghart gave an address on human rights at its inaugural meeting in Lisbon.
Italian Section. In April of this year Paul Sieghart and Tom Sargant attended a conference in Venice organised by the Italian Section with the support of the German and Austrian Sections. The theme of the conference was "The Judiciary and Politics", which has become a serious problem in Italy.
Hong Kong Branch
The Hong Kong Branch of JUSTICE remains active and now has well over fifty members.
Its main concerns during the past year have been to scrutinise and comment on new bills coming before the Legislative Council and to keep a watchful eye on the use of the strong powers vested in the Independent Commission against Corruption and other law enforcement authorities. ~
In April of this year the Branch gave its public support to the view expressed by Lord Denning in the course of a lecture in Hong Kong that it was a grave mistake to retain on the Statute Book the death penalty for murder which is regularly imposed and pronounced but since 1966 has always been commuted.
The branch now has in mind to renew its campaign for the appoint- ment of an Ombudsman. The need for such an office has been clearly shown by the case load of Mr. Robert Primrose who, as Secretary to the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council has acted as an unofficial Ombudsman in many matters concerning citizen's rights and welfare. He retires this year and has good reason to be proud of his achievements.
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS
In April of this year, twenty-five years after its foundation, the International Commission of Jurists held a four-day meeting in Vienna. It was attended by twenty-four members of the Commission-all distinguished jurists-from twenty countries. The occasion was made possible through the generosity of the Austrian Government and the Ford Foundation.
Alternate members of the Executive Committee and a representative of each national section were invited to attend the Commission's meetings as observers, and the three working groups as participants. Those attending from the British Section were Lord Gardiner, Geoffrey Garrett, Paul Sieghart and Tom Sargant, together with Norman Marsh, a former Secretary-General of the Commission.
The main topics on which the working groups were asked to prepare reports were:
(1) International procedures for the implementation of Human
Rights Law;
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