CONFIDENTIAL #
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Need for a BOR
9.
3
a Bill of
against the
law.
submissions have reservations about the need for
Rights. A barrister has written twice to argue
desirability of the legislation. His first
submission is based on the maintenance of the common law
tradition and his preferred course of developing specific legislation with necessary exemptions and safeguards,
instead of an omnibus BOR copied from an international treaty which creates indeterminate rights in many areas of
His second piece casts doubt on whether the BOR will
be consistent with the Basic Law and expresses the concern
that the provision in the Bill for a right to action by any
individual who feels aggrieved may loosen up the whole
fabric of the law.
The third submission argues, in
addition to the inappropriateness of copying international
covenants into domestic legislation, that the BOR would
undermine the ability of the Government to deal with problems flexibly, e.g. illegal immigrants and Vietnamese
boat people, and would thus be a major threat to law and
order.
Scope of the BOR
10.
The majority of the 12 submissions advocate that
the provisions in the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights should be included in the BOR,
particularly those on rights to education, employment and
social security.
CONFIDENTIAL
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