HONG KONG BILL OF RIGHTS
CONFIDENTIAL
Background
1. The purpose of the Bill is to give the force of the law locally to the relevant provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as applied to Hong Kong. This means that if anyone in Hong Kong believes that their civil or political rights, as defined in the Covenant, have been violated they will be
able to seek redress in the courts there. The provisions of the
other international covenant, the Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, are different in nature. They are in the form of
objectives to be achieved progressively and, generally speaking, are not generally rights which individuals could easily enforce in the courts. They are not well suited for inclusion in a Bill of Rights.
Entrenchment
2. Following discussion of the draft Bill by the Hong Kong Executive Council, Hong Kong Government are reconsidering the advantages and disadvantages of entrenchment provisions. It would be possible for the Bill of Rights to contain, for example, a provision which would require amendments or legislation inconsistent with the Bill to be presented twice to the legislature with an interval of, say, a year between presentations. However, were such a provision to be included, it could be regarded as being in conflict with Article 74 of the draft Basic Law, which states that "unless otherwise provided for in this Law, the passage of any Bill or motion in the Legislative Council of the HKSAR shall require the votes of more than one half of its members present". The indications are that the Chinese would react badly to any entrenchment provisions in the Bill of Rights which they regard as being in conflict with the powers of the SAR Legislature, as provided in the draft Basic Law. They may even expressly prohibit the SAR Legislature from enacting entrenched legislation. They would not be infringing the Joint Declaration if they did so. that to happen, the effect on confidence would be very serious.
Were
CONFIDENTIAL