THE reluctance of the Government to bring about an effective environment for the enactment of the Bill of Rights could deal a blow to human rights in the run-up to 1997, an independent human rights watchdog warned yesterday.
The chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Ho Hei-wah, said it had detected signs of increasing self-restriction over the past year.
He cited the case of Martin Lee Chu-ming and Szeto Wah, who had difficulties in finding a solicitor to sue Simon Li Fook-sean, deputy chairman of the working panel for the post-1997 Hong Kong Government.
Commission spokesman Anthony Chiu Sin-wing urged the Government to discuss the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with China.
Hong Kong might lose the full protection of the two covenants after the change of sovereignty to China, which has not signed either article.
The commission also criticised the Government for not protecting people's rights from the power of the disciplinary forces.