DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
10. Miss Cooper welcomed the abolition of the death penalty in the
Caribbean Dependent Territories. What chance was there of Bermuda following suit? In Hong Kong, Amnesty International hoped that
abolition of the death penalty would be written in to the Bill of
Rights or legislation for 1997. The Secretary of State commented
that there had been less of a row in the Caribbean Dependent
Territories than we had expected. Bermuda was difficult but not
impossible. We should leave Sir John Swan to get on with it.
There had been a slight complaint from the Bermudan Parliament at
UK pressure.
11. As for Hong Kong, there was no point in trying to legislate.
Everyone would be against, be they pro- or anti-Peking. In any case
it would not prevent post-1997 reintroduction of the death penalty.
In the meantime we would continue our policy of commutation of death
sentences. Mr Bull again argued for safeguards post-1997.
Had we
raised it with the Chinese? The Secretary of State replied that we
had not. He doubted the value of legislation in advance. Even the
Bill of Rights, which was still with LegCo, would not provide an
absolute guarantee. When the time came it would depend on Chinese
perceptions of their interests in preserving assets as a whole in
Hong Kong post-1997. It was essential for bodies like Amnesty
International to keep up the pressure.
COMMONWEALTH
12. Mr Bull handed over a paper on human rights in the Commonwealth,
which he hoped the Secretary of State would draw on at the High
Level Meeting in June. It focused on human rights education and the
role of NGOs. The Secretary of State replied that he thought this
was the year in which the Commonwealth would have to start thinking
about its future, if the South African issue was indeed receding.
He thought that helping Member States to improve decent government,
including human rights, had to be done sensibly. This was why it
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