三
E
BILL OF RIGHTS
CONFIDENTIAL
7.
The Joint Declaration and the draft Basic Law provide for the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR) to remain in force after 1997. As a confidence building
measure following Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong Government are
introducing a Bill of Rights which will enshrine the ICCPR.
Although the Chinese have made critical comments publicly to the
effect that the Bill must not contravene the Basic Law, they have
not made representations to us. We have kept them informed of our
intentions through the margins of the Joint Liaison Group and they
have indicated that they are content to see a copy of the
consultative document a few days before it is published in Hong
Kong. The draft Bill of Rights is almost ready for publication.
The outstanding element is how to ensure that the Bill is
sufficiently robust and durable without involving entrenchment
provisions which the Chinese could claim were contrary to the Basic
Law. We expect to be able to find a solution which will not lay us open to this charge. There may be some criticism in Hong Kong that the Bill is not entrenched or "supreme". But the point to get
across is that the rights themselves are entrenched as such in the
JD and Basic Law.
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
25 January 1990
MAXAEW (6)
CONFIDENTIAL