protect human rights can work."
This was an important point, because the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as extended to Hong
Kong does not include the guarantee of self-determination
contained in that Covenant. Although the United Kingdom has
provided self-determination to other colonial peoples, this has not been allowed to the people of Hong Kong. The denial
of that right, and its omission from the Bill of Rights
Ordinance was criticised by a a number of speakers at the
conference including Dr Nihal Jayawickrama, a Senior Lecturer
in Law at the University of Hong Kong and Chairman of Justice (the branch of the International
International Commission
Commission of Jurists) in
Hong Kong.
A number of sessions were devoted to the practical tasks of educating judges and lawyers in Hong Kong upon the large body of human rights jurisprudence which has developed in the courts of countries with Bills or Rights and in international agencies, particularly since the Second World War. Professor Richard Lillich of the University of Virginia outlined the sources of human rights law. Professor Torkel Opsahl explained the operations of the United Nations Human
Rights Committee in considering reports under the International Covenant. At present the United Kingdom reports upon compliance of laws and practices in Hong Kong
with the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. It was during
during Professor Opsahl's paper that Mr Anthony Lester QC of the United Kingdom suggested that China would succeed to the United Kingdom's reporting obligations on Hong Kong after 1997. The PRC is not itself a
party to the International Covenant. Differing views were
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