TNAG-2118-FCO40-3024-Future-of-Hong-Kong-general-1990 — Page 104

Secretary announced this decision in the House of Commons on 16

February.

13. The introduction of 18 directly elected seats in the legislature in 1991 will mark an important step forward in the development of

democracy in Hong Kong. Our decision for 1991 is just 2 seats below

the proposal put forward by OMELCO but substantially more than the

10 seats which were originally envisaged in the 1988 White Paper.

In return for this small concession, we have secured from the

Chinese the improvements in the draft Basic Law outlined in paragraph 11 above.

14.

Although there were some protests from vocal minorities in Hong

Kong (the Liberals, student groups, etc) the overall reaction in the

territory was one of relief that confrontation with the Chinese had

been avoided. OMELCO issued a positive and balanced statement,

welcoming the removal of a major uncertainty for the territory's

future and stressing the importance of making a success of the 1991

elections. We hope that once the Chinese have seen the 1991

legislature working in practice, they will in time come to accept

our view that a higher proportion of directly elected seats should

be introduced in 1995 (when the last elections under British

Administration are due to take place) and maintained, with their

agreement, in 1997. We consider that it would have been foolish and

irresponsible to have devised a system which would have resulted in

a dead end in 1997.

Bill of Rights

15. As part of the process of rebuilding confidence in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Government have drafted a Bill of Rights which was published for a two month public consultation period on 16 March.

The aim of the Bill is to give clear effect in a single local law to

the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Once the

Bill has been passed, anyone who believes his rights under the

Covenant have been infringed will be able to seek redress in the

local courts.

the continued

The Joint Declaration and the Basic Law provide for

application of the Covenant to Hong Kong after 1997.

NESAFX (7)