Telephone:
5-87 30 4 6 4
JUSTICE
1. Mr Wood Mixol
2. PA
(BRITISH SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS)
HONG KONG BRANCH
FC
со
國際
法組 織
英國分會香港分會
President of Council
The Rt Hon. The Lord Gardiner
Chairman
1. R. A. MacCallum
Deputy Chairman N. Kaplan Q. c.
Executive Secretary Mrs. Anne Godfrey
2 1 JANDS8
Dear
m. Hind:
13th January, 1988
67
Communications:
Executive Secretary
601 PRINCE'S BUILDING.
CENTRAL.
HONG KONG.
Knowing of your interest in Hong Kong, we are writing to inform You of what the Hong Kong Branch of Justice believes to be the important issues of today.
By far the most important is the need to put in place the institutions of representative government as soon as possible. Justice strongly feels that direct elections to the Legislative Council should begin in 1988, leading eventually to a fully directly elected legislature.
Second,
Justice believes that, to ensure the protection of human rights, it is
essential to incorporate the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural into Hong Kong's domestic law.
and the Rights
Third, Justice requests that all legislation incorporating racial distinctions be amended. A racial criterion ("any person who is wholly or partly of Chinese race") is in the new Immigration Ordinance (1987) as well as in half a dozen other pieces of legislation, such as the Electoral Provisions Ordinance, the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance and the Legal Practitioners Ordinance.
to
Fourth, Justice seeks the withdrawal of the Film Censorship Bill, in which the government asks for the legal right to ban films for political reasons, specifically, films that in the judgment of the censor have a "likelihood" of seriously damaging good relations with "other territories," a term used to refer China. We are opposed to censorship in general but censorship for political reasons is particularly worrying to people here.
Lastly, Justice requests the repeal of Section 27 of the Public Order Ordinance, which was enacted last March despite a wide public outcry. The law, which makes it a crime to publish "false news," has no equivalent in the United Kingdom and poses a threat to basic freedoms, especially free press and free speech.
HRB 011/1