constituencies covering various professions and sectors. The
electoral franchise in respect of the electoral college is based on
membership of the municipal councils and the district boards,
whereas for functional constituencies it is based on membership of
the relevant professional body or an organisation forming part of
the relevant constituency. Having reviewed the decisions of the
1988 White Paper on the Development of Representative Government,
the Government decided to introduce a geographically based system of
direct elections to elect 18 members to the Legislative Council in
1991.
D Invocation of provisions of the Convention
9. The Convention does not, of itself, form part of Hong Kong law.
Short of an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom or any order
by the United Kingdom, the Convention could not become part of Hong
Kong law unless the Legislative Council in Hong Kong implements it
through legislation. The Government is satisfied that racial discrimination is not a problem in Hong Kong. The Royal Instructions, in conjunction with the Bill of Rights currently being drafted, (see paragraph 3 above) will provide a sufficient guarantee
that there is no discrimination in law. The Government does not,
therefore, consider it necessary to implement the Convention in the
form of law.
10.
E Demographic composition of the population
According to the most recent estimate, the population of Hong
Kong in mid-1990 was 5,754,800.
11. There is no up-to-date information on the racial
characteristics of the population of Hong Kong. Information on
place of birth, which is not the same as race, was elicited in the
1991 By-Census. According to the 1991 Population Census, 5,522,300
residents were enumerated, of whom 3,299,600 (59.8%) were born in
Hong Kong, 1,967,500 (35.6%) in China, including Macau and Taiwan,
and the remaining 255,200 (4.6%) in various other countries.
SAOABA