TNAG-2487-FCO40-3618-Future-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1992 — Page 211

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so

(i) informing and educating the public on human

rights issues

(ii) advising and assisting claimants or potential claimants for redress under the Bill of Rights Ordinance and

(iii) bringing proceedings in their own name under

the Ordinance.

(38) The independence of the Legal Aid Department must be

ensured.

(39) The Government of the PRC will be obliged by the Joint Declaration to report to the UN Human Rights Committee under Article 40 of the ICCPR on human rights in Hong Kong after 1997.

(40) The foregoing obligation can only be implemented if the PRC ratifies the ICCPR, at least in relation to Hong Kong.

(41) An independent body should be set up as soon as possible, either by the ICJ or by a consortium of human rights organisations, to monitor human rights developments in Hong Kong.

(42) The United Kingdom should accept on behalf of Hong Kong

the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.

(43) The Basic Law is inconsistent in many important respects with the obligations accepted by the PRC by its signature and ratification of the Joint Declaration; in the case of the method of election of the Chief Executive, although not inconsistent with the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law fails to provide an acceptable system.

(44) The PRC should modify the Basic Law accordingly.

(45) The Government of the United Kingdom, as the other party to the Joint Declaration, should use all means within its power to press the PRC to make the necessary amendments to the Basic Law.