XN000022-1996-02-07 — Page 6

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Human rights education important in HK: Solicitor General

Hong Kong is very conscious of the importance of human rights education and since the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1991, has started a programme of public education in human rights, the Solicitor General, Mr Daniel Fung QC, said in Chicago on Tuesday (February 6).

Addressing a luncheon meeting of the Chicago Bar Association during his tour of the United States, Mr Fung said Hong Kong was especially proud of its human rights programme which reflected the social change Hong Kong had experienced since the signing of Joint Declaration 14 years ago.

"We were given high praise in November 1994 when the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights examined Hong Kong, and pronounced us as having done more than any other country or territory in propagating human rights and in promoting human rights education for its people," Mr Fung said.

Government action included the supply of teaching kits and videos to all Hong Kong's high schools so that students were taught human rights in lay terms as part of their civic education, he said.

The Solicitor General went on to explain to his audience of US attorneys and other professionals that the law had become part of daily life in Hong Kong today.

"The people of Hong Kong take the law for granted today in Hong Kong in much the same way as the people in the US take it for granted," Mr Fung Said.

"If you were to ask whether the law really is an invisible but indispensable component of Hong Kong people's everyday lives, in other words, whether Hong Kong is a civil society, speaking today, in 1996, I would give you a categorical affirmative response: there has been a sea change in public attitudes over the past 14 years.

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Following the speech, Mr Fung briefed the editorial page editor of the Chicago Tribune and gave a lecture to the North Western University Law School. He finished the day's programme with a live interview with CNN World News.

After Chicago, Mr Fung will travel to California on the final leg of his US speaking tour which also included Washington DC, New York and Atlanta.

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