Page:Hong Kong Basic Law consultation report vol. 1.djvu/126

 contravene the applicable provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and international labour conventions."

( 6 ) A member suggested that this article be rewritten as: "The provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights and international labour conventions as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force.

"The provisions of the above-mentioned effective international covenants shall be implemented through the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

"The rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents shall not be restricted unless prescribed by law. Such restrictions shall not contravene the provisions of the preceding paragraph of this Article."

Reasons: ( i ) As a drafter explained that those provisions of the international covenants applied to Hong Kong were effective even without legislation, the provision "shall be implemented through the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" could be deleted. If the legislature does not enact laws to implement the provisions of the effective international covenants, it will not "contravene the provisions of the preceding paragraph of this Article" according to the present wording. Under such circumstances, the rights and freedoms of residents will not be given adequate protection.

{{dent|1em|0|( ii ) Even if the provision "shall be implemented through the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" were deleted, the provisions of this article would not obstruct the application of any new provisions of international covenants in the HKSAR because the present wording simply cannot provide protection in this regard.

( 7 ) A member held that the term "international labour conventions" was a proper noun and should therefore be in capital letters as were the names of the other two international covenants.

( 8 ) A member held that the best arrangement was to present those effective provisions of international covenants in an annex to the Basic Law.

Reason: Although it was noted that the incorporation of the international covenants in the Basic Law was an act {{c|124}}