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HONG KONG: CLOSED CAMPS FOR VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Mr Freeland, Mr Edwards and I have discussed your minute o: 23 September and the papers attached to Mr Edwards' minute of 10 August. Since we have already been questioned in Parliament and Justice has now taken up the matter, we may expect substanti difficulty if we do not solve the problems created by Hong Kong' recent law.
<. Hr Edwards and I have of course already advised that the draft bill which was shown to us would infringe Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 19 December 1966 (TS No 6 of 1977). We did not at the time know at Attwined
the Rules to which Justice now refer in their letter to the (C) Attorney General of Hong Kong of 14 July. The existence of such
Rules now raises the question of the compatibility of the law with Article 10 of the Covenant which provides that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and wit respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. Although we have not seen the law as finally enacted or the text of the Rules there seems to be a clear breach of Article 9 and possibly a breach of Article 10 as well,
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Do car as concerns Article 9, it is possible that Hong Kong may have been misled, on reading paragraph 2 of FCO telegras number 188 of 29 June, into thinking that an administrative reme of the kind referred to in Article 2(3) of the Covenant, would t÷ sufficient. That is however not so. Article 2 requires the establishment of machinery to deal with breaches of the Govanan However the substantive provision is in Article 9(4) which re that a person who is deprived of his liberty shall be entitled take proceedings before a court. FCC telegram number 482 of 25 June, and lie Edwards's minute of the same date, explain why such a count must be enabled to review the merits of a decision taken an administrative authority to imprison a person.
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I Divulo also mention one of the reservations we made when ravifying the Covenant. This reads:-
#he Government of the United Kingdom reserve the right to continue to apply such immigration legislation govet entry into, stay in and departure from the United Kingdom as they may deem necessary from to time and, accordingly,
COMFIDENTIAL
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