TNAG-2168-FCO40-3105-House-of-Commons-Foreign-Affairs-Committee-inquiry-into-Hong-1990 — Page 91

BILL OF RIGHTS

Background

1. The public consultation period on the draft Bill of

Rights ended in Hong Kong on 6 June. The Hong Kong

Government are now studying public comments with a view to

introduction of legislation into the Legislative Council

later this month. There will be an opportunity for further public debate during the passage through LegCo.

The Hong

Kong Government hope to enact the Bill by the Autumn.

2.

We are planning to amend the Letters Patent to provide

that the International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights (on which the Bill of Rights is closely based) as

applied to Hong Kong will remain in force. This will

reflect the wording in Article 39 of the Basic Law, which provides a similar constitutional undertaking for post-1997. This means that the rights contained in the Bill of Rights

will be given added protection and that legislation

inconsistent with the Bill of Rights (and therefore with the

Covenant) can be repealed or amended.

3. The Chinese have already agreed that the ICCPR shall

continue to apply to Hong Kong after 1997. The Joint Declaration and Basic Law clearly reflect this. Since the

Bill of Rights simply implements the ICCPR in local law, we

cannot see why the Chinese should have difficulty. They

have expressed reservations publicly that the Bill of Rights is intended in some way to be supreme over the Basic Law.

We have made clear that this is not the case: in fact the

Bill of Rights implements Article 39 of the Basic Law. We

have given the Chinese a number of detailed briefings to

reassure them and made clear we are willing to listen to any

comments they may have.

TOMAXC/2