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UN Human Rights Committee raises concern over HK's human rights issues 21st Mar 2006 A group of Ngos from Hong Kong met with Committee members from the United Nations Human Rights Committee who later expressed their concerns to the Hong Kong Government representatives led by Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Bureau Carrie Lam, over the status of various rights issues which they felt did not comply with certain articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at the UN hearing on the 2nd report on the Hong Kong SAR of the PRC in light of the ICCPR. The UN hearing started off in the afternoon (21st March 2006) with the Chairperson of the Committee criticizing the Hong Kong government for responding to the UN Committee¡¦s list of questions from December 2005 just a few days before the hearing and not in all official languages, leaving Committee members with little or no time to fully digest the government¡¦s response. Others thanked ngos for their briefings and supplementary information which assisted in their better understanding of the situation. Several members were concerned over the interpretation of the Basic Law. The Irish representative (Mr. O¡¦Flaherty) was concerned that the interpretation of the Basic Law may become a standard device used in the legal system of Hong Kong. He questioned how the NPCSC interpretation was in compliance with the ICCPR, whether any human rights advice had been given to the NPCSC, whether there had been any human rights vetting for interpretation, and given the extraordinary impact interpretation has on the public, whether public consultation had been conducted. He was also concerned as to whether there was any protection against the Standing Committee from operating in an ultra vires manner. Concerns were also raised over the electoral changes made in the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive elections. There were expressions of doubt as to whether the interpretation of the Basic Law on April 26th, 2004 were compatible with Article 25 of the ICCPR as well as Article 45 and 68 of the Basic Law. He described this as an unfortunate movement backwards and not forwards to the universal suffrage goal. The UK representative (Sir Nigel Rodley), having apologized for the failure to introduce a democratic system in place before the handover, and expressed interest in knowing why Hong Kong as such a sophisticated city, which is so well governed and with an educated population would be assumed not to be suitable for democracy. The lack of plans to legislate on the Article 23 issue was raised. However one of the delegates asked the Hong Kong government to clarify whether the reason for the withdrawal of the Article 23 bill was that it was too lenient as suggested by Donald Tsang in June 2005. Other Committee members, raised concerns over the notification system regarding Hong Kong people detained on the Mainland, and pointed out that as there was no consular protection available, the State Party should have a positive duty in accordance with the ICCPR to provide assistance from the Hong Kong side. There was a call for the Public Order Ordinance to be reviewed in light of a recent court decision resulting in the concept of ¡§ordre public¡¨ in being struck down. Collective bargaining was another area of interest, with one member pointing out that democratic participation started up from the ¡§shop floor¡¨. The NGOs took the view that the members¡¦ questions were pertinent and reflected that they were well informed on the situation of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government was keen to reiterate that it did take the Committee¡¦s comments seriously stating that on issues relating to the Falungong, their application to use an LCSD facility in May had just been granted, the much discussed racial discrimination bill will be introduced before Legco in July 2006. We expect that the Hong Kong delegation will have to ¡§burn
the midnight oil¡¨ in order to give an elaborate and well considered
response to the questions raised. The Hong Kong government will be responding
to these concerns tomorrow morning. The hearing continues. Delegation of NGOs include: The Democratic Party Deputy Chairperson Albert Ho
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