HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
18 November 1992
99
香港立法局
一九九二年十一月十八日
99
MR MARTIN LEE: Mr Deputy President, the issue before us today is quite simple. It is one of honour and decency: is the British Government prepared to honour its moral and legal obligations to the citizens of Hong Kong?
The position of this Council is very clear. We in this Council have repeatedly stated over the years that all British citizens in Hong Kong whether they are BDTCs, BNOS or formerly CUKCS or whatever should possess the right of abode in the United Kingdom for that was a right that many of us were born with and which was subsequently taken away from us by a series of revisions to the United Kingdom nationality laws. Anything less than full British citizenship represents a failure of Britain's moral obligations to her own citizens and a breach in her legal obligations under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. I cannot accept the argument that because Britain has refused to fulfill her obligations, we should no longer press Britain to do what is morally and legally right.
The failure of the British Government to abide by its commitments to its citizens in Hong Kong is shameful. Since Mr McGREGOR's motion today applies only to the non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, I shall focus on this group. Yet, I would like to state clearly at the outset that I make no distinction between Britain's duties towards her Chinese and non-Chinese citizens in Hong Kong.
The British Government's position on the nationality of the non- Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong has been marked by an excessive legalism by which it has sought to cover its shameful intentions with a welter of legal technicalities. According to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, to which Britain is a signatory, each contracting state is under an obligation to ensure that no person shall become stateless as a result of a transfer of sovereignty over a part of its territory. In order to comply with the Convention, Britain has invented two new categories of citizenship: British National (Overseas) and British Overseas Citizen. This would enable her to claim that, as the holders of such British passports in Hong Kong, including the ethnic minorities, will still have British nationality after 1997, they will not be left stateless.
Such an argument is flawed. For, beneath the glittering surface of BNOS and BOCs lies the ugly reality that non-Chinese holders of BNO and BOC passports will in fact be stateless. As human rights law expert
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