TNAG-2497-FCO40-3633-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Macao-(Macau)-1992 — Page 37

Macao: Strengthening Human Rights Safeguards

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Amnesty International's recommendations on the continued application of the ICCPR in the Macao Special Administrative Region

As outlined above, the residents of Macao currently enjoy the protections provided by the ICCPR and its two Optional Protocols. The PRC has neither signed nor ratified either of the International Covenants nor the two Optional Protocols to the ICCPR. However, it has ratified the Convention against Torture, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as 17 of the 171 treaties of the International Labour Organization.

In the Joint Declaration on the Question of Macao issued in 1987 by the Governments of China and Portugal, the PRC declared its basic policies toward Macao, which include:

"(2) ... The Macao Special Administrative Region will be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.

"(5) The laws currently in force in Macao will remain basically unchanged. All rights and freedoms of the inhabitants and other persons in Macao, including those of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of travel and movement, of strike, of choice of occupation, of academic research, of religion and belief, of communication and the ownership of property will be ensured by law in the Macao Special Administrative Region ..."

The Joint Declaration states in Annex I, "International agreements to which the PRC is not a party but which are implemented in Macao may remain implemented in the Macao Special Administrative Region". The Draft Basic Law stipulates that "the laws currently in force in Macao shall remain basically unchanged".

There is no specific provision in the Draft Basic Law for the continued application of the ICCPR and its two Optional Protocols. For the Covenant to remain in force, all of its interdependent provisions must remain in force, including both the specific rights it protects and the mandatory monitoring procedures it provides.

The Draft Basic Law is unclear as to how the status of the ICCPR will "remain basically unchanged" in Macao after 1999. The Draft Basic Law is silent on both the continued application of the Covenant's fundamental human rights protections and the

Amnesty International November 1991

Al Index: ASA 27/01/91