TNAG-2721-FCO40-3927-Hong-Kong-elections-nationality-restrictions-1993 — Page 22

File No.

3

Page..

6.

Nor

do I think

we

reservation

in pray made by the UK when ratifying the ICCPR "not to

could

aid

the

or

BOR

apply sub-paragraph (b) of Article 25 in so far as it may require the establishment of an elected Executive Legislative Council in Hong Kong". As you know, we rely on

this reservation,

reflected as

in

S. 13 of the

Ordinance, to support our present dual system of functional and geographical constituencies which does not fully comply with ICCPR Article 25 (BOR Article 21), in particular the

that requirement

elections be by

and universal

equal

suffrage. It would be quite another matter to argue that we are free to ignore the principle of non-discrimination, enshrined in Article 2 of the ICCPR and incorporated in

Article 25, by reference to a reservation' merely designed

to

1

relieve the UK of any obligation to establish an elected LegCo. The fact that the Government is not obliged to provide for an elected LegCo does not mean that if it does decide to introduce elections it can impose discriminatory

restrictions in relation to them.

•

1.

*

categories

of

The same thing may be said of Article VII (2) of the Letters Patent which provides that the law of the

Colony. may

provision for different

Elected Members and separate provision as regards the and disqualifications

make

constituencies,

qualifications

relating to such categories of Elected Members. While this obviously contemplates distinctions between different. categories of elected members in the way of qualifications, I doubt that this would impliedly justify distinctions of the kind mentioned in ICCPR Article 2. (I accept, however, that the existing functional constituency scheme is to some extent based on status distinctions.)

་