TNAG-2487-FCO40-3618-Future-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1992 — Page 205

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The Main Documents

The Mission

three documents.

was primarily concerned with the impact of

These are

(1) the Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, signed by the Governments of the United Kingdom (UK) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in December 1984 and ratified in May 1985. The Joint Declaration has the status of a treaty between the UK and the PRC. By the Joint Declaration the UK agreed that on the 1st July 1997 (the date when the lease of the New Territories expires) the UK will restore to the PRC not only the New Territories but Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The PRC declared in the Joint Declaration its basic policies regarding Hong Kong; under these policies (which constitute the "one country-two

principle) systems"

Hong Kong is το retain its capitalist system and life-style for 50 years and will constitute the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).

(2)

(3)

the Basic Law of the SAR, promulgated by the National People's Congress of the PRC in April 1990. This document will form the constitution of the Hong Kong SAR after the 1st July 1997. The Basic Law is described in the Joint Declaration as the method by which the basic policies of the PRC towards Hong Kong, elaborated in the Joint Declaration, will be

as

implemented.

the Bill of Rights Ordinance. This was enacted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and took effect in June 1991. Its effect is to make the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR), to which the UK (but not the PRC) is a signatory, part of the domestic law of Hong Kong.

The Mission's Terms of Reference

The Mission's Terms of Reference called upon it to examine (in brief)

(1)

(2)

(3)

to

self-

the nature and extent of the rights determination of the people of Hong Kong, and the extent to which the UK had fulfilled its obligations to implement those rights.

the extent to which, after the 1st July 1997, the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law will adequately protect the rule of law and the fundamental human rights of the people of Hong Kong

the

extent to which the Bill of Rights Ordinance adequately protects the rule of law and the fundamental human rights of the people of Hong Kong.