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on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women even after years of campaigning by women's groups and with the unanimous support of the Legislature.
It is also worth noting that when extension of the ICESCR to Hong Kong was made in 1976, the British government deliberately reserved from Hong Kong the provision on equal pay for equal value of work.
On the other hand, the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region explicitly preserves the "traditional" inheritance rights along the male line as practiced in the rural areas in the New Territories against the objection of civil right groups in Hong Kong.
6. Continued Applicability of International Covenants to Hong Kong after
1997
As a signatory country of the ICCPR, UK is obliged to submit periodic reports to the Human Rights Committee on the measures they have adopted to give effect to the rights recognized in the covenant and on the progress made in the enjoyment of those rights in UK as well as its dependent territories. Thus, human rights situation in Hong Kong is being monitored, though indirectly by means of the reporting system at the international level
As China will resume its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, the continued applicability of the international instruments has raised a lot of concerns and debates both locally and abroad.
According to Annex I of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the two United Nations human rights covenant as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force after China resumes the exercise of sovereignty on 1 July 1997. Article 39 of the Basic Law also states that "the provision of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Labour Conventions as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force and shall be implemented through the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region".
However, they have not indicated clearly the continued application of international monitoring system. This task thus falls within the consideration of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group and its sub-group on International Rights and Obligations. It is disappointed that no information has been given as to what progress has been made and what alternatives are being examined in the group.
Since China is not a signatory to the covenant, there is no obligation for China to submit periodic reports. As examination of periodic reports is a crucial enforcement machinery of the covenant, how to continue the monitoring and reporting procedures so as to secure the implementation of the covenant becomes a prominent problem. Although the Bill of Rights of Hong Kong has incorporated the provisions of the
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