In their observations on previous reports both before and after 1997, the UN Human Rights Committee has expressed the clear view that Hong Kong’s electoral system does not comply with Articles 2, 25 and 26 of the ICCPR. In particular, the functional constituency system is discriminatory in giving undue weight to the business community.
The Hong Kong Government’s position is that the ICCPR as applied to Hong Kong is subject to the reservation expressed by the UK Government in 1976. By that reservation, the UK Government reserved the right not to apply sub-paragraph b of Article 25 in so far as it might require the establishment of an elected Executive or Legislative Council in Hong Kong. At the recent hearing in New York, the Government’s delegation apparently stated that the reservation was a way of protecting the given situation in order not to go straight to full universal suffrage. The Committee has previously rejected this argument and has made it clear at the New York hearing that it will do so again. (more…)