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Macao: Strengthening Human Rights Safeguards
internationally-recognized human rights and the ratification by governments of international and regional standards for the protection of human rights.
Those internationally recognized human rights are embodied in international treaties and other instruments. The principal foundation of international human rights law is the International Bill of Human Rights, which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1966, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, adopted 1966) and the first Optional Protocol to the ICCPR (adopted 1966). The International Bill of Human Rights is an authoritative statement of the principal human rights obligations of all UN Member States under the UN Charter. The ICCPR and the ICESCR have been ratified by more than 95 nations with a wide variety of legal systems. The Covenants and the first Optional Protocol presently apply to Macao by virtue of their ratification by the Government of Portugal and have the status of domestic law under the Portuguese Constitution. In addition, Portugal has ratified the second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, thus pledging to abolish the death penalty in Macao during peace time.
Amnesty International's main concerns are:
(1) that all people in the Macao region continue to be protected by the provisions of the ICCPR and its two Optional Protocols, the ICESCR and other human rights treaties which currently apply to Macao;
(2) that all people in Macao be afforded effective guarantees against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(3) that the right to life be guaranteed to all people in Macao;
(4) that all people in Macao be guaranteed the right to a fair trial;
(5) that all people in Macao be afforded those rights which will safeguard them against being detained as prisoners of conscience; and
(6) that during any declared state of emergency all people in Macao retain all rights which are non-derogable under the ICCPR, including the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to be free from arbitrary deprivation of life, and the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Al Index: ASA 27/01/91
Amnesty International November 1991