In a retrogressive step causing confusion and further erosion of the public's confidence, the Government has introduced a bill to repeal the Bill of Rights (Amendment) Ordinance 1997.
The 1997 amendment, introduced by Lau Chin-shek as a private member's bill and passed in Legco in June, 1997, is exceedingly simple and straightforward. It adds subsections (3) and (4) to Section 3 of the Ordinance, the effect and impact of which is that once a legislation is repealed for contravention of the Bill of Rights, it is repealed altogether, for all purposes.
Far from what government officials are telling the public, the amendment does not extend the Ordinance to make it binding not only on the Government and public bodies but also as between private individuals. This limit of the Ordinance, stated in Section 7, though strongly criticised by human rights advocates, is not affected by Mr Lau's amendment.
One would have thought Mr Lau's amendment wholly unobjectionable. Hong Kong's statute books should not contain any law which contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). That no law should be passed which contravenes the ICCPR was provided, before the handover in the Letters Patent. Since July 1, it is provided under Article 39 of the Basic Law.
Indeed, after the Bill of Rights Ordinance was passed in 1991, the Hong Kong Government undertook a review of all pre-1991 legislations to identify those parts which were inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and took steps for their repeal or amendment.
As a result of that exercise, many laws affecting the freedom of the press, freedom of expression, assembly and association, or that were inconsistent with the presumption of innocence were repealed or amended. The exercise was maintained all the way up to June 30, 1997. It was meant to be an on-going effort. The determination to ensure that Hong Kong's laws are entirely consistent with the ICCPR was declared by the Government then, and contained in Britain's report on Hong Kong to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations.
