Reference...WRR. 24.1/7....
Mrs. Taylor But$ 23/1
Can you attach
Mr Callan (UND)
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too paper we had lover your about tes European Commenting Бімбреа. Стисл
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION:
1.
2=
5
เก
мийская ри GCP 'dé. - please.
RIGHT OF INDIVIDUAL PETITION
Thank you for letting me see your draft.
Dim
...2/2.
Hong Kong sticks in one's throat, as always when this question.
comes up.
3. The provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (and ipso facto the right of individual petition) have never been extended to Hong Kong. I suspect that Mr Bowden knows this very well. But, even if he did not and this were not the point of his question, it would be disingenuous to ignore the fact.
4.
The other Dependent Territories to which the Convention has not been extended are Pitcairn, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory and the New Hebrides. The Human Rights lobby are no doubt less concerned with the scandal of Pitcairn's population of 61 shamelessly deprived of their rights than they are with the anomaly of Hong Kong's 43 millions. (British Antarctic Territory has no permanent population and was not in existence when the extension of the Convention to the Dependent Territories was first made in 1953. Likewise British Indian Ocean Territory, which has a floating population and only came into being in 1965. The New Hebrides Anglo-French condominium is sui generis.)
5. To cite the European Convention does not therefore answer Mr Bowden's question. I have not been able to determine why Hong Kong was originally excluded. Whether it should continue to be so is a matter outside my scope, and it may be that the question has already been fully considered and that Ministers are perfectly aware of the options.
6.
7.
I have suggested the following amendments:
a. Draft Reply Line 7.
After "nationality" insert "declared to be within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom". "Within the jurisdiction of
"is the phrase
used in Article 1 of the Convention: it is an essential qualification. For the purposes of the Convention the term "jurisdiction" is defined by Article 63, which requires that the Convention be expressly extended, by notification to the Secretary General, in order to apply to overseas territories. As this declaration has never been made for Hong Kong it would, I think, be proper to use the suggested wording.
Submission
New Paragraph 3.
"The European Convention on Human Rights has been expressly extended to the majority of overseas dependent territories (Hong Kong being the notable exception). All these territories have accepted and, Montserrat
/excepted
o 0/
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