TNAG-2497-FCO40-3633-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Macao-(Macau)-1992 — Page 36

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Macao: Strengthening Human Rights Safeguards

consider communications from private individuals who claim to be the victims of violations of rights set forth in the Covenant.

Although Portugal has not submitted a separate report on Macao to the Human Rights Committee, the applicability of the ICCPR to Macao and the necessity for Portugal to report on Macao have been repeatedly stressed by the members of the Committee in their dialogue with the representatives of Portugal.3

3

Because of the current state of the Draft Basic Law and because the People's Republic of China has not ratified the ICCPR, the safeguards provided by the reporting obligations of Portugal under the ICCPR and the individual complaint procedures may be unavailable to Macao residents after 20 December 1999.

3 The record of the meeting of the Human Rights Committee on 1 November 1989 shows that at the close of consideration of the second periodic report of Portugal under Article 40 of the ICCPR, the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee expressed the following: "Turning to the problem of Macao, he had no doubt that the provisions of the Covenant were applicable in that territory... As to whether a special report should be submitted on the subject, it was clear from article 40 of the Covenant that the periodic reports of Portugal should deal also with the situation in Macao, either in a separate annex, or in the report properly speaking." U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/SR.937, 6 December 1989.

Al Index: ASA 27/01/91

Amnesty International November 1991