TNAG-2174-FCO40-3111-Hong-Kong-Bill-of-Rights-1990 — Page 136

HONG KONG JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION

香港記者協 會

SUBMISSION ON THE DRAFT HONG KONG BILL OF RIGHTS ORDINANCE 1990

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), in a letter to the Chief Secretary, Sir David Ford, dated 17 November 1989, welcomed the government's plan to enact a Bill of Rights.

We have studied the draft Bill and found a number of severe shortcomings. Some of them relate to the draft Bill itself; others to the way it will be implemented both before and after 1997. We state our views below:

1)

in

Supremacy and entrenchment:

Hong

We note that the Attorney General, Mr Jeremy Mathews, was quoted that the government release on 13 October 1989 as saying a Bill of Rights will be supreme over all laws enacted by the Kong legislature. The Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Michael Suen, was quoted in the same release as saying that entrenchment had to formulate the exact form of government

Mr

the

for

the Bill.

the

3

When the draft Bill was published on 16 March 1990,

clauses provided it with a special status through government and 4. The government also stated its intention to amend the Letters Patent to entrench the International Covenant and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Hong

document.

on Civil Kong's constitutional

However, in our view, this is not enough.

the The amendment of Letters Patent will not entrench the Bill itself, and will not prevent a future legislature from scrapping the Bill, or amending it.

We believe that the Bill should be entrenched, alongside the ICCPR, in the Letters Patent. We further believe that the Letters Patent should state that the Bill can be amended only by a two-thirds majority vote of the Legislative Council.

Here we would like to call on the British government to persuade the Chinese Government to accept similar provisions in the Basic Law so as to ensure convergence with the amendment we propose for the Letters Patent. Such changes would enhance the status of the Bill,

and ensure that it cannot be tampered with, or repealed,

with ease.

ADDRESS: 3/F, BLK B, MERCANTILE BUILDING,

8 O'BRIEN ROAD, WANCHAI

HK

會 址:香港灣仔柯布連道八號銓利大廈四樓B座

TEL/5277325 5295691

BE/FAX: 5277325

P.1

GPO BOX : 11726 香港郵政總局信箱——七二六號

Affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists 本會爲國際記者聯會成員 1

ASSOCIATE UNIONS/ 海外聯繫組織 Australian Journalists Association National Union of Journalists

(Great Britain & Ireland)

The Newspaper Guild (US & Canada) New Zealand Journalists Union