BACKGROUND
HUMAN RIGHTS
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1. Christine Loh's note (attached) raises the question of
Chinese accession to the International Convention on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR). She argues that if China did not accede to the Convention, the undertaking in the Joint
Declaration that it should continue to be in force for Hong
Kong after 1997 could not be guaranteed. The technical details of a method for accession in respect of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region alone are being explored with
the Chinese. When the ICCPR was raised with China in the
Troika, it was on general Human Rights terms, without
reference to Hong Kong.
2. Christine Loh and Emily Lau spoke at the launch on 22
January of the Article XIX report Urgent Business: Hong Kong, Freedom of Expression and 1997. The article in question is Article 19 of the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights.
This report calls among other things for amendment to the
Basic Law, amendment to Hong Kong Ordinances, which it claims
are incompatible with the Bill of Rights, a Freedom of
Information Bill and the establishment of a Human Rights
Commission. To date this launch has not generated much press interest in the UK.
NATIONALITY ISSUES
British Nationality Scheme
Established by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990 to give British citizenship to 50,000 key people in the private and public sectors in Hong Kong. The pace of
3.
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BACKGROUND