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PRESS RELEASE
Embargoed until 1700 hours on Tuesday 28 April 1992
JURISTS SAY WHITEHALL IGNORED HONG KONG'S RIGHTS
The British government showed a disturbing lack of concern for the human rights of Hong Kong citizens when it negotiated the agreement with China, concludes a report issued
today by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
The report, "Countdown to 1997: A Mission to Hong Kong", says the United Kingdom was not entitled to hand over these British citizens to China without giving them the right to
self-determination. Under international law, the inhabitants
should have been allowed a referendum to approve or reject the
Joint Declaration before it was signed by the British and
Chinese in December 1984. In principle, the report says, the government has an obligation to provide rights of abode in the United Kingdom or in acceptable third countries to British
dependent territory citizens who wish to leave Hong Kong.
Moreover, the jurists faulted the government for not
objecting to the unsatisfactory provisions of the Basic Law,
which was promulgated by China in 1990 and will be the post-
1997 constitution of Hong Kong.
With the Basic Law, China in many respects is evading
obligations it accepted when it signed the Joint Declaration,
the report says.
/continued.....