TNAG-2786-FCO40-4005-Hong-Kong-UK-Parliamentary-and-other-interest-in-constitutio-1993 — Page 54

HKCC012/5. RECEIVED IN RACISTRY

10 JUN 1993

DESK OFFICER INDEX

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

London SW1A 2AH

9 June 1993

Mr Chan Hung

Joint Association of People's Organisations

for Promotion of Democracy

9/F Good Hope Building

618 Nathan Road

Kowloon

HONG KONG

From The Minister of State

Mr Marshall

Dead Chan.

15

Thank you for your letter of 29 May about constitutional

I am afraid that I was unaware arrangements in Hong Kong.

that you were trying to present a petition at Kai Tak or I would have accepted it there. As you know, I subsequently

accepted a petition from your organisation outside the Legislative Council building.

On your first question, the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as applied to Hong Kong were incorporated into Hong Kong law by the Bill of Rights Ordinance. The United Kingdom and China agreed in the Joint Declaration that the provisions of the ICCPR as applied to Hong Kong will remain in force after 1997. Much work has been done to ensure that the laws of Hong Kong do not conflict with the provisions of the Bill of Rights (and by extension the provisions of the ICCPR as applied to Hong Kong), and the Letters Patent have been amended to provide that no law of Hong Kong shall be made that restricts the rights and freedoms enjoyed in Hong Kong in a manner which is inconsistent with the ICCPR as applied to Hong Kong.

You will know that the UK made a reservation in respect of Hong Kong when ratifying the ICCPR, to the effect that Article 25 does not require the establishment of an elected Executive or Legislative Council in Hong Kong. However, we and the Hong Kong Government have long been working to develop Hong Kong's system of representative government, including the introduction of direct elections to the Legislative Council on the basis of universal and equal suffrage. The functional constituency elections provide an additional channel to allow for the representation of professional and economic sectors which are significant and of importance to the community.

/In

76