COUNTRIES in the Commonwealth will be subjected to a last-ditch push before 1997 to embarrass Britain over the plight of Hong Kong's potentially stateless ethnic minorities.
The issue will be raised at a forum next month in Delhi of the influential Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Hong Kong's representative at the meeting will be Professor Yash Ghai, an expert in constitutional law.
One of the aims of the meeting on December 11 and 12 is to follow up earlier concerns that not enough is being done to reduce risks that 7,000 members of Hong Kong's ethnic minorities may face after 1997.
The commission has discussed the issue before and, following a decision to help the minorities, did much behind-the-scenes lobbying on behalf of the principally ethnic-Indian group seeking full British citizenship.
'There is a feeling that, if pressed, the British Government will give way eventually,' said Derek Ingram, a British representative on the nine-member commission.
Mr Ghai, now writing a book on the Basic Law, said one goal - presenting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) with a call to grant full British citizenship to the ethnic minorities - would be aimed at embarrassing Britain.
The next CHOGM conference is in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1996.
