Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09HONGKONG417
2009-03-06 08:07:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Hong Kong
Cable title:  

HONG KONG, MACAU REACTIONS TO 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS

Tags:  PHUM PGOV HK MC 
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VZCZCXRO1635
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHHK #0417 0650807
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 060807Z MAR 09
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7063
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
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).

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