4. Memorandum from Mr Robin Tso, BritishHongKong
I am writing to you on behalf of BritishHongKong,
an organisation in Scotland. Our aim is to lobby on behalf of
all British Nationals (Overseas) of all ethnicities for the basic
human rights that we deserved as British Nationals, ie the right
to abode in the UK and the right to full British Citizenship.
Recently, Lord Goldsmith QC completed a Citizenship
Review which addressed various issues relating to the different
categories of British nationalities and their rights and responsibilities.
Our organisation has produced a formal response to Lord Goldsmith's
review to express out views and concerns. As suggestions from
this review are likely to be debated as part of the upcoming Citizenship
and Immigration Bill, I have attached a copy of this response[16]
with this letter for your information.
A summary of our main points:
(1) We welcome Lord Goldsmith's suggestion
to allow British nationals to register for British citizenship
in order for the categories of British nationality to be reduced
and to equalise the rights among all British nationals.
(2) We are disappointed that Lord Goldsmith
had not extended this recommendation to British Nationals (Overseas),
citing the Joint Declaration with Chinas as a potential barrier.
(3) However, the part of the Declaration which
refers to BN(O)s is a unilateral declaration by the UK. Thus its
legal standing is questionable.
(4) We suggest that the UK take action to equalise
the rights of BN(O)s in ways that do not cause problems with the
Joint Declaration (if these problems do exist). A list of our
recommendations can be found in our enclosed full response.
(5) We also appreciate Lord Goldsmith's reminder
to consider the ratification of Protocol 4 of the European Convention
of Human Rights in any future changes to British nationality laws.
15 May 2008
16 Not published here. Back
|
