HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL
5 July 1989
香港立法局—————————一九八九年七月五日
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I would also suggest that the power to review the constitutionality of any law enacted by the legislature of the HKSAR should also be delegated irrevocably to the Final Court of Appeal of the HKSAR.
State of emergency
I suggest that the Basic Law should provide that only the Chief Executive be empowered to declare a state of emergency in the HKSAR. For such a power must not be exercised from Beijing. Otherwise, a peaceful demonstration in the SAR, which is frowned upon by Beijing, may be declared as constituting a turmoil in the region, with the result that martial law may be declared as in Tiananmen Square, with the same dire consequences.
Human rights
am in full agreement with the FAC's call for the immediate enactment of a Bill of Rights in Hong Kong. But this Bill of Rights must be consistent with, and offer no less protection than, both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Covenant on Human Rights.
I would suggest further that the provisions of this Bill of Rights must be entrenched in the Basic Law as paramount and not subject to all the other laws of the HKSAR.
I suggest also that the United Kingdom should immediately extend ratification of the European Covenant on Human Rights and its acceptance of the compulsory jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights to Hong Kong, as in the case of a number of other overseas dependent territories. This would permit aggrieved individuals in Hong Kong to take their claims directly to the court, from which rulings are binding on member states.
Further, I suggest that Her Majesty's Government should, on behalf of Hong Kong, ratify the Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so as to permit individuals to take their claims of violation of the covenant directly to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. And the competence of the Human Rights Committee to hear claims from individuals in Hong Kong must continue to be recognized by the Chinese Government after 1997.
In short, the protection of human rights must be secured both before and after 1997.