LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 2010/95-96
Ref : CB2/PL/HA

LegCo Panel on Home Affairs

Minutes of Working Group Meeting
held on Wednesday, 26 June 1996 at 6:00 p.m.
in Conference Room A of the Legislative Council Building

Members Present :

    Hon HO Chun-yan (Chairman)
    Hon Emily LAU Wai-hing
    Hon James TO Kun-sun
    Hon Bruce LIU Sing-lee
    Dr Hon John TSE Wing-ling

Staff in Attendance :

Mrs Justina LAM
Assistant Secretary General 2
Mrs Anna LO
Chief Assistant Secretary (2) 2
Ms Doris CHAN
Chief Assistant Secretary (2) 4
Mr Raymond LAM
Senior Assistant Secretary (2) 6
Mr Alfred CHAU
Senior Assistant Secretary (2) 4

Initial Report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in respect of Hong Kong under Article 44 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Members noted a table of enrolment of students by district (Appendix A) obtained from the Education Department. The meeting then went through the 2nd draft submission (Appendix B) to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child paragraph by paragraph and agreed on the revisions to be incorporated in the 3rd draft submission (Appendix C).

2. Ms Emily LAU Wai-hing made the following suggestions to improve the draft submission on the Supplementary Report under the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

  1. it should include members’ gratitude to United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) for accepting the request of the House Committee delegation for a supplementary report, and should express disappointment that the Hong Kong Administration’s had made little progress to address the concerns of UNHRC;
  2. it should include members’ request for hearings on reports from non-government organizations on Hong Kong after 1997;
  3. regarding the proposals made by the Legal Affair Sub-group of the Preliminary Working Committee in relation to the Bills of Rights Ordinance the submission should deplore the weak position taken by UK Government to leave the matter to Hong Kong Special Administration Region;
  4. on electoral matters, the submission should condemn UK Government and Hong Kong Administration’s insistence that the electoral arrangements conform to the ICCPR and their failure to comply with UNHRC’s recommendations;
  5. regarding freedom of expression, the present paragraph should be extended to highlight that it was the responsibility of the UK Government to amend all existing laws before 1997 so that freedom of expression and freedom of the press would be protected;
  6. concerning the setting up of Human Rights Commission, the submission should articulate support for UNHRC’s recommendations and regret the HK Administration’s stance; and
  7. a section should be included requesting a concluding report to be prepared by UK Government as at 30 June 1997 to review the implementation of ICCPR in Hong Kong under British rule.

3. Mr James TO Kun-sun made the following suggestions for improvement:

  1. The draft submission should refer to the meeting with Foreign Secretary of UK in Hong Kong and the UK Government’s refusal of Members’ request to advise the minorities community in writing of the kind of circumstances that would qualify them for admission for settlement in U.K.; and
  2. The paragraph on the Complaints Against the Police Office (CAPO) should be strengthened by adding the Governor-appointed Independent Police Complaints Council’s proposal that CAPO should be headed by a lay person and some non-police investigators should be appointed.

4. As regards Provisional Legislature, Mr LIU Sing-lee suggested that details about the debate of the motion in the Legislative Council such as the date and the number of votes for and against should be presented.

5. Concerning comments from non-government organization’s submissions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press, Members agreed not to abstract statements from China, which, if included, would involve lengthy description of the background of those statements.

6. Mr Albert HO Chun-yan suggested and members agreed that the general attitude of UK and HK Governments on UNHRC’s recommendations should be highlighted in the draft to reflect their disagreement with the UNHRC’s recommendations, insistence on their own interpretations and as a result a bad precedent was established for China.

7. Members agreed to circulate the revised draft to other members and to discuss it at the Panel meeting to be held on 28 June 1996.

8. Members agreed that the revised draft submissions would be faxed to Panel members on 27 June 1996. Endorsement would be sought from the Panel under “Any other business” of the Panel meeting on 28 June 1996.

CAS(2)2

Any other business

9. Members agreed that, in order to allow more time for the non-government organisations to prepare their written submissions, the public hearing on the Third Periodic Report in respect of Hong Kong under Articles 2 to 16 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would be rescheduled from 29 June 1996 to 6 July 1996.

10. The meeting ended at 7:30 p.m.

LegCo Secretariat
21 August 1996

Last Updated on 19 Aug, 1998