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The Committee welcomes the enactment of the Crimes (Torture) Ordinance, which gives domestic effect to part of article 7 of the ICCPR.
The Committee has also raised a number of issues and made some recommendations concerning the electoral system, a Human Rights Commission, the living conditions of Vietnamese migrants, the investigation of complaints against the Police, the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, and the Chinese version of charge sheets and court documents.
The spokesman said the Government would consider all the points made by the Committee carefully.
In fact, he said the Government had already taken steps to address some of the issues of concern raised.
For example, he said, preparing bilingual charge sheets was now a standard practice in all magistrates' courts and the District Court and the practice would be extended to the High Court in December.
On investigation into complaints against the Police, the spokesman said as the Secretary for Security told the Legislative Council yesterday (Thursday), the Security Branch was discussing with the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) arrangements to implement, on a trial basis, the Lay Observers Scheme, under which investigations by the Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO) would be observed by upright citizens, and arrangements to second a suitable directorate-grade Administrative Officer to the IPCC to enable it to observe and review more closely CAPO procedures.
"So it is a step in the right direction," the spokesman noted.
As regards the screening of Vietnamese detainees, the spokesman said the refugee status of these people was already expeditiously determined by the Immigration authorities with an appeal to an independent Refugees Status Review Board and a further right of Judicial Review to the High Court with legal aid being provided.
On the Committee's concern about legal aid for Bill of Rights cases against the Government and public officers, the spokesman said the Director of Legal Aid's discretion to waive the means test in criminal cases had recently been extended to Bill of Rights civil cases.
End/Friday, November 3, 1995