Ten human rights problems of Hong Kong
since the change of sovereigntyannounced by "Democracy and Rights 2000"
on 10th December 1999, International Human Rights Day
1. Re-interpretation of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
On January 29, 1999, a Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA) ruling granted right of abode to the mainland offspring of the Hong Kong residents. The CFA also asserted that it has the rights to review the acts of the National People's Congress (NPC). Yet, the ruling was criticized by the central government, and then the Hong Kong government sought an unprecedented clarification of the ruling from the CFA and was unwilling to have the ruling executed. They commented that the ruling was an error. In order to stir up the people against the prospective migrants, the government inflated the mainland immigration figures, which meant to overburden Hong Kong. Furthermore, the government bypassed the CFA to seek a reinterpretation of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the NPC. The NPC resorted to overturning the ruling of the CFA. The rights of final adjudication by the CFA have been severely undermined. Yet, the government further stated that this incident implied that Hong Kong legal system is no longer a common law system.2. Democratisation
The handover has merely transformed Hong Kong from a British colony to a Communist one. First, the Chief Executive is selected by 400 people, all of whom are the only voters eligible to choose the Provisional Legislature members. Second, as was the case last year, the democratically-elected Legislative Council members were all thrown out while many political insiders were reelected by their respective "functional constituencies" and "election committee" to dominate the Legislative Council. The government not only reintroduced the appointed and official seats to the District Board, but also intended to abolish the two elected municipal councils. Apart from this, in rural representative elections, women are still subject to discrimination. How is this an improvement over colonialism?The political elections of Hong Kong, at all levels, have been devised to favor the interests of a small clique of insiders. The right of the common citizen to enjoy a just and universal one-person-one-vote election is ignored. This is a breach of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that the CCP and Tung Chee-hwa intend to centralize their power: they limit the voice of citizens; they are rolling back, rather than instituting, democratic reforms, and they are trampling underfoot the inalienable rights of the citizens.
3. Freedom of expression
Even before the transfer of sovereignty, the trend of self-censorship among members of the news media has been increasing. Now the pace is quickening. A number of journalists¡Ðin response to Tung Chee-hwa appeal for "non-politicization,"¡Ðplay down political issues as much as possible. Last year, a member of the Chinese People Political Consultative Conference, Xu Si-min, breathed fire at the Radio Television Hong Kong for not acting as a mouthpiece of the government; later on, the Information Coordinator of the Hong Kong government Lam Sui-lung criticized Zheng An-Guo for making remarks about the "two-states" theory on the RTHK Hong Kong Letter programme; the leftist newspapers then joined in to keep attacking Zheng and the RTHK. Freedom of speech and of the press was subjected to grave pressure. Under such circumstances, the RTHK suddenly announced the transfer of the director Chenug Man-yee to another position in Japan, a highly unusual career move.4. Right to decent standard of living
Since the handover, people have been suffering tough hard times: some laws which aimed to protect the rights of laborers were repealed by the Provisional Legislature; The government even seized the opportunity of maligning the Comprehensive Social Security Assistant Scheme recipients to slash payment; the housing problems such as cagehomes which have been dragging on for a long time remain unsolved. While the promise made by the Chief Executive to supply 85,000 residential flats has come of nothing, together with his pushing up of the property prices by putting a hold on land sales, those people who are the most in need of accommodation finally come to nothing. After the financial turmoil, the government rescued the financial markets rather than rescued the people. The unemployment rate thus continued to rise. The basic rights of the people to have an adequate standard of living for themselves (including adequate food, clothes and housing) are ignored.5. Discrimination
Whether it is visible or not, many forms of discrimination still exist in Hong Kong. Even though laws have been passed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race and physical disabilities, these laws are useless because the government is not willing to implement them and promote public awareness of equality. For example, discrimination on the basis of age and trade union status is prevailing in the labor market. Many employers openly refuse to hire women as shop assistants above the age of thirty. Also, it is shameful to see racial bigotry and homophobia, but we are not prohibited by law to mock the homosexuals, to name the Philippine maids bun mui, the Indians ah cha and the Westerner gweilo. As long as such prejudice continues at the highest levels of our society, and the government refuses to enact laws to curb discrimination, the struggle for social justice will never be complete.6. Equality before the law
A number of incidents reiterated that before the law people no longer enjoy equality. The rule of law has been undermined. For example, the Hong Kong Standard, a local English newspaper, was suspected of inflating circulation. The proprietor Sally Aw Sian, an old family friend of the Chief Executive and a member of the Chinese People Political Consultative Conference, was not prosecuted despite the fact that she was named as a conspirator to defraud in the three senior executives¡¦ indictments. But after the three executives were convicted, the Secretary for Justice decided not to prosecute Aw Sian on fraud charges, stating that because there was not enough evidence and feared that the charges would throw many people out of their job as she was an employer of more than a thousand people, thus it was not in the public interest to bring her to court.Another case arose when the New China News Agency failed to reply Emily Lau's request to see her personal files within the required time. It was a breach of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, but again by reason of public interest, Elsie Leung refused to make prosecution against the NCNA. The government has neglected the rules entrenched in the Basic Law that everybody should be equal before the law, and that the mainland agencies are required to abide by the Hong Kong law. Instead, the government introduced the "Adaptation of Laws Bill¡¨ to exempt the mainland agencies from abiding by more than five hundred Hong Kong laws.
7. Environmental degradation
For the past twenty years, Hong Kong population has grown and our economy has turned into one of the world financial centers. However, it has also made Hong Kong one of the most polluted cities in the world. The natural environment is subjected to such a great pressure that the pollution problem has come to a stage beyond endurance. Take air pollution as an example: it is estimated that 2,000 people die each year of illnesses related to air pollution; the economic loss of the society climbs to as high as one billion dollars a year. To cope with such serious environmental problems, the government just brought about temporary measures, for example, the government did not effect measures to support the use of liquefied petroleum gas in taxies so that the scheme was much behind schedule. Further, the government deals with the sewage problems only by making use of incineration and landfills, rather than promoting public awareness of the recycling. Some minor steps are crucial.Besides, the contamination of drinking water and the harbor is also a direct hazard to the health of the citizens and a hindrance to our economic development. In order to protect the rights of every citizen to live a healthy life, and to ensure Hong Kong continuous development, the government should put more resources into taking the environment into consideration when making policy.
8. Freedom of Religion
The Pope wanted to visit Hong Kong in November of 1999, but the CCP would not allow it. The Catholic Diocese in Hong Kong remarked that it posts a limitation to the Church in Hong Kong, [and] our chance to enjoy freedom of religion is being deprived.¡¨ The Assistant Bishop of the Catholic Church Chan Yat-kwan also expressed disappointment, yet he hoped that the government would adopt an open attitude concerning the diplomatic relations in this incident, and uphold the "one country, two systems" principle. As for the Catholics, the aborted Papal visit is a grave loss and disappointment. For all people of faith¡Ðand those who cherish freedom of religion¡Ðit constitutes a rejection of their ideals. On another, purely practical level, it damages the image of Hong Kong as an open, international city. Mr. To Yiu-ming, Assistant Professor of the Baptist University, said that the central government was in breach of Article 149 of the Basic Law, which clearly stated that religious organizations in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region "may maintain and develop relations with their counterparts in foreign countries and regions and with relevant international organizations." He added that the Hong Kong government not only failed to convey to the central government the concern of Hong Kong people over the freedom of religion, but also failed to defend such freedom entrenched in the Basic Law.¡¨9. Freedom of assembly and freedom of association
Soon after the change of sovereignty, the SAR government promptly promulgated the administrative guidelines on national security as well as the Public Order (Amendment) Ordinance and the Societies (Amendment) Ordinance. As it now stands, the Commissioner of Police need only consider the viewpoint of protesters (for example, any public procession supporting Taiwanese or Tibetan freedom) in order to consider that protest as constituting an imminent threat to the "Public order." He need not consider whether it will actually incite an occurrence of violence. Even if it is an academic meeting, he can prohibit such a procession. Furthermore, public processions are not permitted unless a "Letter of No Objection" is firsat obtained from the Commissioner of Police. This blatantly breaches the freedom of assembly and expression. The government hand-in-hand with the CCP ¡Ð has reduced the human rights of Hong Kong citizens to a category requiring governmental approval. Such limitations violate, in spirit and letter, the International Covenant on Human Rights. Indeed, a number of peaceful processions and demonstrations have been suppressed. For example, the police have ordered music to be played so as to drown out the protesters¡¦ chants, have wantonly arrested participants in the anti-World Bank protest, have seized the loudspeakers from the hands of protesters at the demonstration against Hu Jin-tau, the vice-chairman of the Chinese government, and have used several hundred police officers to physically block protests of no more than twenty people citizens.10. Abuse of power by the police
The extraction of confessions by force, the planting of "evidence", various abuses of power and unlawful conduct by police officers have figured in complaints filed against the police in Hong Kong. There have been a number of deaths in police custody under suspicious circumstances. In the absence of any credible, independent mechanism for dealing with them, complaints relating to these and other incidents have been handled by the police themselves. The law requires that investigations to assist coroners' inquiries into deaths in custody be conducted by the police. A large proportion of complaints are abandoned to the tedium of the complaints process, delays in investigations, fears of retaliation by police officers and a general lack of faith in the mechanisms for handling complaints. Even in cases where the complaints have been extremely persistent, justice has often not been done due to the partiality of the investigators and the difficulty of collecting evidence relating to incidents alleged to have happened within a police station or without the presence of witnesses. In the rare cases for which evidence has been overwhelming and irrefutable, and complaints have been upheld due to the relentless advocacy of the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC), the offenders have generally been given only light punishments, and have often only been disciplined internally. In a recent case, several police officers who should have been found guilty of torture were only charged for assault occasioning bodily harm cause the government insisted that there was not enough evidence to substantiate a charge of torture, an offence punishable by a life sentence. The government's refusal to enforce the Crimes (Torture) Ordinance in this instance calls into questions the effectiveness of this piece of legislation. The Government is determined to shield the police force from independent investigation. It has so far refused to vest any power of investigation in the IPCC, and a plan to turn the latter into a statutory body has been shelved.