CONFIDENTIAL
Ron pl.
(14)
Reference
webster.
Mr R Hoare
HKGD
HONG KONG'S CLOSED CAMPS FOR VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AND THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
1. We spoke recently about Hong Kong's legislation on closed camps for Vietnamese refugees and the problems this poses in relation to the UK's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
2. The purpose of this minute is to place on record an aspect of the problem which you are aware of but which has not been specifically drawn to your attention. States Parties to the Civil and Political Covenant are required, under its Article 40, to submit to the Human Rights Committee periodic (quintennial) reports on the measures adopted to give effect to the rights recognised by the Covenant. The first report of the UK and its Dependent Territories was submitted in 1978, and a supplementary report of the Dependent Territories, including a section on Hong Kong, to answer questions raised by members of the Committee, is still outstanding.
3.
The supplementary report does not need to be submitted straight away;
we have decided that it can be deferred until the next periodic report is due in 1984, and the two presented together (we hope that this will, in practice be easier for the Dependent Territories). However, we shall need to bear in mind that this sets a date on which the situation in Hong Kong will come under the scrutiny of the Committee.
4.
A related issue is the review, by Hong Kong, of all the answers they have provided in the supplementary report as these were drafted before the closed camps legislation came into effect. (Mr Edwards in the legal advisers has spoken to Mr Burrows on this subject, and they agree that this will be necessary). Here I think that we shall have to wait for Hong Kong's reply to Mr Clift's letter of 6 October, but nevertheless you should be aware of this.
MKK 243/1
imon Pease
S Pease UN Dept 233 3842
нки 243/3
2 December 1982
CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL
No
7314/2 AF 14/12