TNAG-1386-FCO40-1834-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-citizenship-1985 — Page 101

HONG KONG

DRAFT ORDER IN COUNCIL

NOTES ON ARTICLES

ARTICLE 6: PROVISIONS FOR REDUCING STATELESSNESS

1.

Article 6 makes provision for those who would otherwise

be stateless as a result of the ending of BDTC through a

connection with Hong Kong to becomes British Overseas citizens.

2. The provisions in Article 6 meet undertakinp given during the

debates on the Hong Kong Bill for avoiding or reducing state-

lessness. The underlying principle is that no former BDTC, nor

any child born on or after 1 July 1997 to such a person, should

be stateless as a result of the Joint Declaration. This principle

was extended in the Committee Stage of the Hong Kong Bill in the

House of Lords to the grandchildren of former BDTCs if they are

born stateless (Official Report: Volume 461, Number 60,

Columns 237 and 238). The provisions in respect of these grand-

children parallel those of section 17(2) and (3) of the British

Nationality Act 1981.

3.

Article 6(1) provides that those Hong Kong BDTCs who have

not acquired BN(0) status, for whatever reason, should auto-

matically acquire British Overseas citizenship on 1 July 1997

if they would otherwise be stateless.

4.

Article 6(2) confers British Overseas citizenship at birth

on children born on or after 1 July 1997 to former Hong Kong

BDTCS if those children would otherwise be stateless. It covers

such children both of Hong Kong BDTCs who became BN (0)s, and of

those who failed to acquire BN(0) status, and who themselves

became British Overseas citizens under Article 6(1).

5.

It was

Article 6(3) and (4) fulfil the Government's commitments

to second generation children if they are born stateless.

proposed during the passage of the Hong Kong Bill that the

automatic provisions made for the first generation should not

apply to these children, but that they should have an entitlement

to registration as British Overseas citizens parallel to the

entitlement to registration as British Dependent Territories.