TNAG-2175-FCO40-3112-Hong-Kong-Bill-of-Rights-1990 — Page 243

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11

CONFIDENTIAL

Public emergencies (Clause 5)

24.

of

During public consultation, a number representations asked for clearer definition of a state of public emergency and clarification of the circumstances and authority under which a state of public emergency may be proclaimed. The question arises as to whether it was appropriate to include a public emergency clause in Bill at all.

25.

On reflection we propose that the clause should be retained for two reasons :

(a)

(b)

It is desirable that there should be provisions defining the circumstances under which derogation from the Bill would be permitted; and

If the clause were omitted and we amended the Emergency Regulations Ordinance So as to implement this part of the ICCPR, it would undermine our argument for a single piece of legislation to implement the ICCPR as a whole.

We therefore

propose to leave the clause in with the exception of subclause 5(3), the definition of "life of the nation" (see paragraph

above). We also propose to reword Clause 5(2)(a) So as to avoid any reference to 'Government' which could appear to ascribe to the HKG obligations which properly rest with the CPG after 1997 and could therefore be sensitive to the chinese.

CONFIDENTIAL

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