• by IPS Correspondents (hong kong)
• Monday, November 21, 1994
• Inter Press Service

HONG KONG, Nov 21 (IPS) - A U.N. human rights committee Monday begins examining a British report on human rights in Hong Kong, amid growing concern here that the obligation to report to the world body will be dropped after the colony's 1997 handover to China.

Indeed, a delegation of Hong Kong government officials and a separate team of Hong Kong legislators have left to attend the sessions of the U.N. Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva because of what they say is Beijing's worrying attitude on human rights.

Members of the two delegations say they intend to press upon the United Nations the importance of continuing the reporting procedure after Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule.

China is not a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights or the International Covenant on Civil Rights. It says it has no obligation to report to the relevant U.N. committees because it does not intend to become a signatory.

But Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten has retorted that China is obliged to report to the United Nations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the 1984 treaty signed by Britain and China on the handover, as well as the Basic Law, Hong Kong's post-1997 mini- constitution drawn up by a Beijing-appointed drafting group.

"As far as the British government and the Hong Kong government is concerned the reporting obligation is stated very clearly in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law," a Hong Kong government official says.

Officials say China agreed in the Joint Declaration that the Covenants which at present apply to Hong Kong through Britain's membership would remain in force after 1997.

Only sovereign states can report to the United Nations on their implementation, which means the post-1997 Hong Kong government will have to rely on Beijing to report to the world body.

But even if a formula were found through negotiations either with the United Nations or between Britain and China to oblige Beijing to report to the world organisation after 1997, activists believe independent human rights groups would be needed here to counter-balance any attempts by Beijing at "whitewash".

Last May, however, opposition from China led the Hong Kong government to reject a proposal to set up a government-funded Independent Human Rights Commission to monitor the situation here.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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