(HRW/IFEX) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) today condemned a draft law the Hong Kong government is rushing through the Beijing-selected legislature which would constitute an exceptionally grave setback to the rule of law in China’s new Special Administrative Region (S.A.R). The bill, which would exempt both the S.A.R. government and organs of the Chinese government […]
(HRW/IFEX) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) today condemned a draft law the Hong
Kong government is rushing through the Beijing-selected legislature which
would constitute an exceptionally grave setback to the rule of law in
China’s new Special Administrative Region (S.A.R). The bill, which would
exempt both the S.A.R. government and organs of the Chinese government from
many local laws, has far-reaching implications. It could, for example,
exempt a government official or agency accused of committing an offense
against a citizen from prosecution. Despite this fact, the law, which is
currently being rushed through the appointed legislature, has been described
by the government as merely “technical” in nature. “This bill essentially
reverses the very premise upon which Hong Kong’s legal structure and legal
future are grounded, that is, the presumption that government is accountable
under the law,” said Sidney Jones, Executive Director of the HRW Asia
division. “Once that principle is eroded,” he maintained” the protection of
human rights is in grave jeopardy.”
Local human rights monitors and pro-democracy groups, including leaders of
the Democratic Party, have characterized the bill as undermining the letter
and spirit of the Sino-British treaty governing the handover of Hong Kong
and the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s “mini-constitution,” both of which require
executive authorities to abide by the law. There is very little chance that
this bill, once passed by the appointed provisional legislature, could be
overturned, since the new electoral laws make it unlikely that members of
pro-democracy parties will ever regain control of the legislature.
Background Information
The draft comes in the wake of two recent controversial decisions not to
prosecute proponents of the new government who violated local law. In the
first case, the Xinhua News Agency, a supporter of the Hong Kong Communist
Party, was not punished for refusing to turn over files on pro-democracy
activist and former legislator Emily Lau (as it was required to do under
Hong Kong’s Privacy Law). In the second case, the government refused to
prosecute Sally Aw, publisher of the “Hong Kong Standard” and member of the
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, who was accused of fraud.
