Dr Wilson
PS
HKK 040/57.
OVHAN 1985
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Ham.
m.sh.
Far Eastern Department
From:
I C Orr
07/
Date:
3 January 1985
cc:
UND
HKD
ыл
(486)
LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER BY AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: CHINA
1.
Α
No 10 have asked for a reply to a letter of 12 December from Amnesty International to the Prime Minister (Mr Powell's letter of 12 December to Mr Ricketts).
N.T.
2. The Joint Declaration on Hong Kong contained excellent provisions aimed at preserving the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong. It is tempting to refer to this in the reply. However, there are stronger reasons not to do so. First, the most relevant passages (eg on the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights remaining in force in Hong Kong) are in Annex I. The Chinese insist on treating this publicly as a unilateral statement of Chinese policy. It would therefore be dangerous for the Prime Minister to appear to claim credit for important points gained in the negotiations in a letter which could be made public. Second, Amnesty could counter that HMG is cynical in accepting assurances on paper about Hong Kong which are untrustworthy as long as serious violations of human rights are allowed in China by those who gave the assurances.
3.
I submit a draft reply together with a self-explanatory draft letter to No 10. HKD and UND concur.
Iain C.PW
Co
I C Orr
Far Eastern Department
CONFIDENTIAL
Page 75Page 76
DSR 11 (Revised)
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