ON October 19 and 20, the United Nations Human Rights Committee will hold hearings in Geneva on the British Government's Fourth Periodic Report on Hong Kong regarding the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
To signify the importance the committee attaches to Hong Kong, the two-day hearing will be devoted entirely to the colony. This is unprecedented because previous hearings focused on all British colonies, including Hong Kong.
China, which is not a party to the ICCPR, has said it will not submit periodic reports on Hong Kong to the UN after it takes over the colony and this month's hearing may well be the last.
Last November Hong Kong came under the scrutiny of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Hong Kong delegation, led by Solicitor-General Daniel Fung QC, was criticised by the committee on issues ranging from post-1997 reporting requirements, failure to enact comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, the housing needs of the so-called 'cagemen', and discriminatory treatment of Vietnamese asylum-seekers and Filipino domestic helpers.
In a clear effort to avoid repeating last November's embarrassing experience, the Hong Kong Government recently invited UN Human Rights Committee chairman Francisco Aguilar Urbina, of Costa Rica, and Christine Chanet, of France, to visit Hong Kong to be briefed by senior officials.
Having attended the last two Human Rights Committee hearings on Hong Kong in 1988 and 1991 with Non-Government Organisation representatives, I am convinced the occasion provided a valuable forum to scrutinise the colony's human rights record.
Committee members were both fascinated and exasperated by the Hong Kong dilemma. They expressed the hope that China would accede to the ICCPR and were concerned that the committee might not be able to receive reports on Hong Kong after 1997. If that happened, they feared it would set a damaging precedent.