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increasing the resources for human rights education by creating a dedicated team and allocating $20 million for their work over three years starting in 1995-96: in this regard it is worth reminding ourselves that last November the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights pronounced Hong Kong to have done more than any other country in promoting public education and understanding of human rights;

enacting legislation against sex discrimination, establishing an Equal Opportunities Commission and seeking to extend the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women;

introducing legislation to prohibit discrimination on the ground of disability;

extending to Hong Kong the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

introducing legislation in the area of data protection.

I can go on Mr President. All of the measures that the Chief Secretary and I have mentioned indicate in the clearest possible terms that the Hong Kong Government is passionately committed to enhancing and promoting human rights protection ensuring the continuation of the rule of law in Hong Kong.

THE COURT OF FINAL APPEAL

Mr President, I would like now to turn to the Court of Final Appeal, a matter deliberately painted as one of controversy by certain members today. The suggestion that the agreement reached at the Joint Liaison Group last month was, as claimed earlier on, a "rotten deal", and that the Court of Final Appeal Bill will undermine the future rule of law in Hong Kong, are bizarre in the extreme. These suggestions are wholly irresponsible having no foundation whatsoever in fact or evidence, are totally misleading and very damaging to confidence in Hong Kong's future.

Since 1988, the Hong Kong and British Governments have been doing their utmost to ensure that a proper Court of Final Appeal will be established in Hong of purpose Kong, in such manner as to avoid a judicial vacuum after 1997. The whole doing this is, of course. to protect the rule of law in Hong Kong and to ensure the continuity of the legal system. The agreement reached last month makes it possible for our aims to be achieved, provided (of course) that this Council passes the Bill that is now before it.

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