The Secretary for Justice yesterday sought to play down UN Human Rights Committee findings on the Government's decision to seek a reinterpretation of the Basic Law on right of abode. Elsie Leung Oi-sie said the committee had merely expressed worries that judicial independence would be impaired. 'It's not about something that has already happened. [Committee members] are not saying judicial independence has been affected. What they said was that they were afraid it would happen,' Miss Leung said. She likened such worries to those expressed before the handover that freedoms and human rights would not be protected after the change of sovereignty. 'What they feared did not happen,' she said. In its report last week, the committee expressed serious concern over the decision to ask the National People's Congress Standing Committee to reinterpret two Basic Law provisions. Shiu Sin-por of the One Country, Two Systems Research Institute, who was co-hosting Commercial Radio's Teacup in a Storm, said delegates from local non-governmental organisations had misled the committee during an informal meeting in Geneva. During a phone-in with Ho Hei-wah of the Human Rights Commission, Mr Shiu insisted the coalition of pro-democracy delegates had presented a lopsided view. However, pro-democracy legislators who attended the committee hearing in Geneva said they found it irresponsible for the administration to claim the findings were based on misunderstandings. Emily Lau Wai-hing of The Frontier and Democrats James To Kun-sun and Albert Ho Chun-yan plan to invite officials to discuss the findings in detail.
