1. Introduction :
In the past, the human rights situation in Hong Kong failed to catch the eyes of the international community mainly for two reasons:
First, its economic success tended to attract admiration from outsiders rather than queries about the corresponding human suffering which were blanketed by its prosperous outlook.
Second, a human rights culture has never been cultivated among the colonized population. The teaching of human rights along with political ideologies were tabooed areas in the educational system. The general public have a low awareness level about the concept of human rights and are often insensitive to their own victimization. Without a formal mechanism, such as a Human rights commission, there are no channels at the local level to redress human rights violations. At the international level, due to its dependent status, Hong Kong issues were often given very low priority and intermingle with UK. issues in reports presented to UN. and other international meetings. The voices of Hong Kong people were habitually filtered and muffled both at the local level and abroad.
The aim of this report is to present an accurate picture of the human rights situation in Hong Kong from our perspectives as Hong Kong citizens. Our discussion and analysis are basically based on comparing existing human rights condition in Hong Kong against the international standards and provisions under the two International Covenants, namely, the ICCPR and ICESCR. Emphasis is placed on our concerns over the effectiveness of the existing UN reporting system in the light of Hong Kong's 'Dependent territories" status now and the implications after the reversion of its sovereignty to China in 1997.
2. Application of International instruments
2.1 The extension of International Instruments to Hong Kong
As a colonial city state under British rule, Hong Kong cannot ratify nor accede to any international human rights treaties in its own capacity. Nevertheless, multilateral treaties ratified by the United Kingdom, as stipulated by the UN Charter should be extended to its dependent territories, including Hong Kong. Until July 1992 UK. has ratified 17 covenants, among which some have been extended to Hong Kong, namely:
a) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
b) International covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
c) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
d) Convention on the Political Rights of Women;
e) Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons;
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f) Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slavery Trade,
and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery
g) Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness;
h) Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of
Marriage
i) International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; j) Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment.
2.2 Reservations
Most of the treaties including both the ICCPR and the ICESCR are extended to Hong Kong with a number of Reservations or Modifications. For ICCPR, the following reservations are imposed:
a) Article 1: Right to self-determination
b) Article 10: Persons deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity
c) Article 12: Right to leave any country and to enter one's own country
d) Article 13: Deport an alien only in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance
with law.
e) Article 20: Propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law
f) Article 24: Children's rights
g) Article 25: Right to take part in the conduct of public affairs
The United Kingdom also reserve the right to postpone the application of article 7(a)(i) concerning equal pay to men and women for equal work in the private sector, and reserve the right not to apply article 8(1)(b) of the ICESCR concerning the right of trade unions to establish national federations in Hong Kong.
2.3 ILO Conventions
The following ILO Conventions were ratified by UK. and extended to Hong Kong without modifications:
a) No.98: Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention;
b) No. 105: Abolition of Forced Labour Convention;
c) No. 122: Employment Policy Convention.
The application of ILO Conventions will be discussed in greater details in our section on Worker's Rights.
Among those conventions which have not yet been extended to Hong Kong, the most controversial one is the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women". This will be discussed in greater details in the section on Women's rights.
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As mentioned in the above paragraph, the provisions under ICCPR are limited as a result of the imposition of reservations when it is extended to Hong Kong. In the following, we hope to draw attention to three of the most controversial issues under this umbrella. First of all, we will take a look at the deprivation of political rights, secondly, the rights to access to information and thirdly the Bills of Right of Hong Kong, which served to incorporate the essential provisions of ICCPR to a domestic legislation.
3. Political and Civic Rights
3.1 Political rights
For the past 150 years of colonial rule, Hong Kong citizens have been deprived of the most essential political rights stipulated by the ICCPR. By denying its citizens the right to vote, the Hong Kong government has maintained a highly centralized power structure dominated by the ruling elites which consists of senior civil servants and a select group of local business men and professionals. Before 1985, all members of the Legislative Council and were appointed by the governor. These members who represented the business and professional sectors supported the status quo. The policy- making power was concentrated in the hands of the Governor and senior civil servants. The interests of the lower socio-economic groups in society were not represented or sufficiently taken into account in the decision-making process.
Some form of universal suffrage was only introduced as laté as 1982. Hong Kong citizens who were over the age of 21 and had resided in Hong Kong for at least seven years could directly elect one-third of the representatives to the District Boards. The District Boards are only advisory bodies to the government on matters related to environmental improvement, recreation and cultural activities. The introduction of the District Board Scheme was interpreted as the first step towards the decolonization of Hong Kong which marked the beginning of the transitional period leading to a return of rule to China in 1997.
In 1982, the British and Chinese government began their negotiations on the future arrangement of Hong Kong. The Sino- British Joint Declaration was signed on 19 December, 1984. However, during the negotiations, the right of the Hong Kong people to participate in the discussion over the future of Hong Kong was totally disregarded by the British and Chinese governments under the pretext of sovereignty. The right to self- determination was never offered to the Hong Kong people.
Although Hong Kong has an advanced communication system, high literacy rate and a homogeneous population, the people of Hong Kong were always being told that they were not ready for democracy. In the first section of Annex I of the Joint Declaration, it is stated: "The legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be constituted by elections. The executive authorities shall abide by the law and shall be accountable to the legislature". The Hong Kong people read this as a clear signal that democratic practices were to be introduced to involve people participation in public affairs.
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