expressed concerning its obligation in international law to
report to the Human Rights Committee on Hong Kong after 1997
when the Territory is absorbed by the PRC.
Important papers on techniques adopted in the
interpretation of Bills of Rights, with useful illustrations,
were given by Professor Manfred Nowak of the University of
Vienna and Professor Yash Ghai of the University of Hong
Kong. Mr Lester, with illustrations from his practice in the
United Kingdom and before the European Court of Human Rights,
outlined the practical ways in which a human rights brief
should be prepared for consideration by a court.
There then followed a session on the machinery for
human rights protection. Justice Michael Kirby, President of
the New South Wales Court of Appeal outlined the central rôle
of the judge in upholding guaranteed rights, such as those
contained in the Bill of Rights Ordinance. Mr Peter Bailey,
past Deputy Chairman of the Australian Human Rights
Commission explained the functions of that Commission.
There
has been a debate in Hong Kong as to whether
to whether a Human Rights
Commission should be established to provide more ready access by individuals to basic rights which they might not be
prepared to enforce in courts of law. Professor Theo van
Boven of the Netherlands explained the crucial rôle of
non-governmental organisations in supporting individuals in
the assertion of their basic rights. A number of
participants from the floor questioned whether Hong Kong
citizens, unused to a régime of rights, and brought up in the Confucian tradition of respect and in a colonial
environment, would suddenly be converted to the assertion of
rights on the eve of their absorption into China.
- 4 -