SECRET
FM FCO
TO PRIORITY HONG KONG
TELNO 462
OF 131157Z MAY 93
SECRET
HKA 016/1
17 MAY 1993
DESK
36
057176
MDLOAN 3603
TOP COPY DIST?
INFO PRIORITY UKREP JLG HONG KONG, PEKING
22
YOUR TELNO 487: LOCALISATION POLICY
1. Apologies that it has taken us some time to let you have our comments on this difficult issue. We have consulted our Departmental Legal Adviser who agrees generally with the opinion given to you by Mr David Pannick, QC. She has commented that his advice seems very sound. We also mentioned the subject briefly to our legal consultant (who deals with HMOCS issues) who suggested that your Lawyers might wish to check UN doctrine on discrimination in employment. He quoted the following references: General Comments on the Human Rights Committee of the UN on Discrimination, para 10 of CCCPR/L/21/REV ADD1. Apparently there was a case in Uruguay which may be relevant -see 198 of 1985 reported on page 221 of Selected Decisions of the Human Rights Committee Volume II. You may wish to pass these references to your lawyers.
2.
Since receiving TUR we have seen the AECS public submission to the LegCo Public Service Panel. This presents a well argued case and it appears that the AECS are not going to let the matter drop. Judging from para 43 of the submission they are reluctant to go to court, not least because of the potential cost involved, but could secure considerable support among their membership if they decided to do so.
3.
In our view the localisation policy has served its purpose and is now outdated except to the extent that it helps to prepare Local officers to fill the most senior posts by 1997.
the force of argument in the AECS view that a foreign national who has been ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for seven years (and who would therefore qualify to become a permanent resident under Article 24 of the Basic Law in 1997, or before then if the Immigration Ordinance can be amended) should be regarded as a Local officer if they are prepared to change to Local terms.
4. The difficulty with revising the policy is, as you point out,
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