Kong Special Administrative Region to the various obligations under the Covenant, particularly the obligations to make periodic reports to the UN Human Rights Commission.
7. The Hong Kong Government completed in March this year a review of laws which were alleged to threaten press freedom in the light of the Bill of Rights Ordinance. It concluded that press freedom is secure under Hong Kong law. However it also found that a number of provisions are either obsolete or seem to be at odds with the Bill of Rights Ordinance, and proposals will be made to either to repeal or amend them as soon as the legislative
programme allows. In addition, the Law Reform Commission has considered a number of matters concerning privacy, data protection and access to personal records. A consultative document on these issues has been published. As an interim measure, new arrangements will be introduced in April to allow private individuals to check personal data provided by them and held by
the Government.
8.
The Committee recommended (2.10) that the penalty of capital punishment should be reviewed before 1997. The Executive Council
approved a proposal to abolish capital punishment in October, 1992, and the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1992, including a clause abolishing the death penalty, is now at the Committee stage in the Legislative Council.
The Basic Law
9.
The Committee's recommendations on the relationship between the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law were considered in detail in the Government's observations in May 1990, after the final version of the Basic Law had been promulgated. The Chinese have stated publicly that the Basic Law cannot be amended before it comes into force on 1 July 1997.
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