HONG KONG, MACAU REACTIONS TO 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L HONG KONG 000417 SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL AND G/TIP; ALSO FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2014 TAGS: PHUM PGOV HK MC SUBJECT: HONG KONG, MACAU REACTIONS TO 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT Classified By: Consul General Joe Donovan for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) Hong Kong issued a largely pro-forma response to the Department's 2008 Human Rights Report on February 26. While the government did not directly dispute any of our findings, it highlighted the government's efforts to address the various social issues raised in the report such as racial discrimination, police conduct, trafficking in persons and freedom of the press. Significantly, the Hong Kong government conceded that "the existing method of returning the (Legislative Council) functional constituency seats is not consistent with the principle of universal suffrage", a deficiency the government intends to address in the transition to universal suffrage elections in 2017 and 2020. Hong Kong press covered those issues, as well as concerns expressed in the report regarding worker rights and violence against women. Media also seized on our fact-based commentary that more male sex workers were traveling to Hong Kong with lurid headlines proclaiming the Department's "warning" that "increasing numbers of homosexual prostitutes" were coming to Hong Kong. ¶2. (C) Democratic Party legislator Emily Lau took issue with our terming the 2008 Legislative Council elections "free and fair", given the limited franchise in the sectoral functional constituency elections, but accepted our explanation that our judgment was based on adherence to the laws on the books, and that we had elsewhere described the functional constituencies as undemocratic. Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor (with whom we consulted in preparing the report) had a number of concerns regarding issues such as intrusive physical searches of detainees by police, and have promised to provide detailed comments. We will be continuing these discussions in preparation of the 2009 report. ¶3. (U) Macau's government did not formally respond to the report, but media offered moderate fact-based coverage. Macau's English-language media in particular highlighted much of the report's TIP language, continuing a trend of increasing coverage of TIP issues. DONOVAN