APPENDIX 35
Memorandum submitted by Hong Kong Confederation
of Trade Unions
It was nice meeting you and your committee members
on 23 June. Although the meeting was really too short to allow
adequate discussion on many important and complex issues, we welcome
your attempt to meet with some members of the NGOs in Hong Kong
who are working on human rights issues.
Per your request, please find below a brief
summary of our issues of concern on trade union and human rights
in HK and China:
It is of utmost importance that the HKSAR government
should fully implement the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Conventions No 87 and 98. Although Hong Kong had ratified these
two conventions when it was still under the British rule, there
are various legislative restrictions on freedom of association
of trade union organising in Hong Kong. Furthermore, collective
bargaining is not protected by law in Hong Kong and as a result
labour unions have found it extremely difficult and almost impossible
to exercise this fundamental labour rights (ILC 98) with their
employers' counterparts. Our union centre has lodged a complaint
with the ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association in November,
1997. The case [Case 1942] had been accepted and heard. In its
deliberation over the HKSAR government's reply to the complaint,
the CFA in November 1999 had once again expressed its regrets
about the non-implementation and infringements of the ILO 87 and
98 in Hong Kong and urged the government to fully observe its
obligations. We agree with the ILO conclusion that the HKSAR government
should seek immediate correction to its current practices and
legislation concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining
of labour unions.
We are also very concerned about the interpretation
and implementation of Article 23 of the Basic Law of HKSAR on
subversion. We fear that the government attempt to institute this
clause in the HKSAR legislation would lead to immediate abuses
and suppression of social and political rights among some more
"dissident" chapters of the civil society in Hong Kong.
More critically, the HKSAR government remains
as unaccountable and undemocratic as it was prior to the handover
of sovereignty in 1997. In order to allow the sound functioning
of a civil society and the protection of social and political
rights in Hong Kong, the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive
should be immediately open to direct election of one-person-one-vote
by all citizens of the HKSAR. The current undemocratic system
allows for abuses of power of the government administration and
the monopoly of power by the business and political elites.
Other than Hong Kong, we are also very concerned
about the rampant violation of ILC87 and 98 in mainland China.
Detention of labour organisers and civil rights activists had
increased in the last few years. Long prison terms of up to 13
years had been imposed recently by the Chinese government on organisers
of peaceful labour protest actions and even just dissemination
of news to outside bodies. We urge you to take this matter of
most urgent concern to the Chinese government.
We think it is most important that your committee
would raise these issues and find ways to facilitate the redress
of these violations of human and trade union rights in the HKSAR
and in mainland China.
We urge that your committee would make sure
that the British government do genuinely fulfil its pledge to
make human rights a core mission of its foreign policy. "Business
should certainly not be carried out as usual" with regimes
which impose systemic repression of human rights in their countries.
If this is the case, then the British government and your committee
would have to make much more intervention to the HKSAR government
and Chinese government so that the current serious violations
of labour and human rights will be arrested.
We look forward to hearing from you about your
follow-up actions on these matters.
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