TNAG-2556-FCO40-3731-Hong-Kong-Bill-of-Rights-Societies-(Amendment)-Bill-1992-1992 — Page 70

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CONFIDENTIAL

HKC 241H RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

2 0 MAY 1992

DFSK 11. MAY 1992STRY

INDEX

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Thank

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Mr Burns PS/Mr Goodlad

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17/5.

19/5

FROM: P F Ricketts, HKD

DATE: 8 May 1992

A 1915.

cc: PS/Mr Patten

Sir J Coles

Miss Barrett,

Legal Advisers

Mr Wye, RAD

HONG KONG: BILL OF RIGHTS: THE SOCIETIES ORDINANCE

1.

Minister

72

I understand that the Minister would like a note on the

background to Hong Kong telno 1224 attached, recording a briefing given by the Political Adviser in Hong Kong to the Chinese side about changes to the Societies Ordinance.

2. The Bill of Rights (BOR) was conceived as one of the

measures to restore confidence in Hong Kong following Tiananmen Square. The aim was to strengthen civil liberties by consolidating the International Covenant on Civil and

Political rights (to which China is not a party), into the

laws of Hong Kong. For this very reason, China has been opposed to the Bill of Rights from the outset. When the BOR

entered into force in June 1991, the Chinese reserved the

right to examine it in light of the Basic Law after 1997.

They are (inevitably) worried that it will be used as a

pretext to introduce all sorts of libertarian changes to

Hong Kong's laws.

3. When the BOR was adopted, it was recognised that there

were six Ordinances in particular which probably contained provisions which would be open to challenge in the Courts as incompatible with the BOR. A freeze period of one year was

ALKADJ/1

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