3
force and be implemented in the laws of the SAR; and to
take care that procedural clauses within the Bill run no
risk of conflicting with the Basic Law. This remains the
basic consideration throughout our deliberations. There
have been questions as to why the relevant provisions of
the ICCPR should now be implemented in a single piece of
comprehensive legislation, when the Basic Law envisages
the continuation of their implementation through the laws
of the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Some fear that the entrenchment of a Bill of Rights that
is supreme over other laws will drastically change Hong
Kong's legal system, contrary to the provisions of the
Basic Law, and seriously affect law and order.
people are worried that the Bill of Rights will be
repealed after 1997 because of inconsistency with the
Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.
Some
In answer to these concerns, I should like to say
that we need a Bill of Rights to make all infringements of
the ICCPR provisions, as reproduced in the Bill,
justiciable in our courts; and to provide, through the
Bill of Rights, effective remedies for all such
infringements. It is the ICCPR, not the Bill, that will
be entrenched in Hong Kong's constitutional document.
Indeed, the Administration is quite clear that the Bill
before Members today is fully consistent with the Joint
Declaration and the Basic Law. We have been aware that