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MR. HUI.
Sir,
DRAF
DRAFT
DRAFT SPEECH BY HON HUI YIN FAT LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 22.6.88
Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 1987
The enactment of law must always serve the ultimate purpose of maintaining order, peace and social well-being of a
· society. Hong Kong takes pride in its effective legal system
which guarantees public interest while protecting the rights of
that is the individual the right to freedom and security of
persons. In supporting the Bill in motion, which has undergone extensive amendments during the past year, I wish to pinpoint only a few provisions which still remain restrictive to the personal liberty of mental patients.
Under the Bill, the power given to the police to remove anyone seemingly suffering from mental disorder to a
place of safety still gives cause for concern. For a police officer to decide on a person's state of mind, albeit he has reasons to support him, not only overfestimates his ability to judge, but also undermines the argument advanced by the Administration that the detention of mental patients is
essentially a matter of medical opinion. Section 71B (1) of the
Bill, as it now stands, will still be subject to abuse by the police. By giving the police the power of arbitrary arrest, the Bill carries an ominous threat to human rights and personal
liberty that may develop into draconian actions of the police
in times of crisis. Since social workers are bounded by our professional ethics to protect the community against practices and conditions harmful to human welfare, it is my responsibility to speak up for the repealing of Section 71B of the Bill. If, however, this section must remain, I would espouse the Bar Association's stance that the police's right of
entry be restricted to public places. In the case of
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