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Jane Moir

ACTIVISTS are being prevented from seeing the first report on Hong Kong's human rights since the handover, flouting a United Nations request for it to be published.

 Repeated pleas for the report to be available for scrutiny before it is submitted to the UN in Geneva in August have been ignored, prompting activists to say officials are either unaware of their responsibilities or being deliberately obstructive.

 Others say such intransigence shows the Government is not interested in gathering information and opinions on the rights situation, merely in meeting its UN commitments.

 Human Rights Monitor director Law Yuk-kai said: 'I really feel it may not be a very useful exercise. They don't even want to release this kind of core document.'  The paper released to non-government organisations for consultation was 'not a draft - it was draft headings', he said. Consultation ended last week.

 A Home Affairs Bureau spokesman said the completed report would go to the Chief Secretary's office, which would give it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which would forward it directly to the UN.

 Amnesty chairman Alan Abrahams said: 'We are not happy with the procedure. A lot of human rights issues are about procedures as much as results.

 'It just seems incredibly careless. They have got to stop and think a little before they do this. It may be just sheer carelessness and an element of arrogance.'  Human Rights Commission spokesman Mary Yuen Mei-yin noted the Government itself had said the UN advised it to seek consultation with non-government organisations before submitting the report.

 'Maybe they don't know what they meant by real communication or consultation,' she added.

 'They have made it just a process to meet requirements of the UN, a formality.'  The report covers the implementation of the international covenants on civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights.



Secrecy over rights report condemned