CHAPTER X: THE DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE SYSTEM
Section I: The District Organisations
The intent and nature of the District Organisations
The term District Organisations refers to the Urban Council, the Regional Council and the District Boards. Some people feel that other organizations should be included in this definition, such as, village councils and other advisory bodies such as, area committees and village affairs committees. This chapter will use the former definition of District organisations. The latter definition covers the "Representatives of District-based Organizations" mentioned in Annex 1 of the Basic Law concerning the method of the selection of the Chief Executive.
There is no provision concerning district organizations in the Joint Declaration, but they do now exist in Hong Kong and the Urban Council has a very long history and they have a well defined influence and use in Hong Kong society. Therefore the Drafting Committee of the Basic Law made a section on District Organizations and inserted it into the draft. The provision was drafted by the Sub Group on the Political system of the Basic Law Drafting Committee.
Article 97 of the Basic Law lays down the organization, establishment and nature of the District Organizations and states clearly that "District Organizations which are not organs of political power may be established by the Hong Kong SAR". This refers to two main aspects: firstly, it agrees that district organizations may be established and secondly, it shows that the district organizations are non-political in their nature.
There were 6 main sets of opinions put forward by people in Hong Kong during the process of drafting the Basic Law concerning whether or not there should be district organizations after 1997 and if so, how they should be established. These are set out in the Table below:
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