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Noting that ICERD was the first of the major human rights treaties to be accepted and applied in the territory, he said it had always been regarded with particular importance by the Government and people of Hong Kong.
ICERD has since been followed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the conventions on torture and the rights of the child, while the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women will shortly join the list.
Mr Wong updated members of the Committee on a number of developments in the territory following the submission of the 13th report to United Nations last August.
On the translation of the law into Chinese, he informed members that the process was progressing well.
"By December 31, 1995, we had prepared Chinese drafts of all the laws, including subsidiary-legislation, originally enacted in English only.
"The Bilingual Law Advisory Committee had examined a total of 275 ordinances and 190 had been declared authentic. The aim is to authenticate all remaining legislation before July 1997," Mr Wong said.
He also noted that the progress of the review of laws in the light of the Bill of Rights Ordinance (BORO) had been good and the number of amending bills had risen to 36.
Mr Wong said action was in hand to bring the provisions of a further four ordinances into line with the BORO.
"Provided that we can secure the necessary time slot, we intend to enact these amendments within the current legislative session," he said.
Further to the amendment to the Brewin Trust Ordinance which had been found inconsistent with the provisions of the BORO, the Wills Ordinance had recently been amended to remove a similar inconsistency.
"Previously, wills written wholly or substantially in Chinese by testators of Chinese race were exempt from the formal rules governing the valid execution of wills.