(1)The Human Rights Watch/Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor delegation saw one Hong Kong prisoner, for example, with a warning outside his cell stating that he "would take every chance to escape as he strongly believed that he would be executed when the Chinese Government takes over sovereignty in 1997." Other prisoners expressed fear that prison conditions would deteriorate under Chinese rule. For a description of prison conditions in China, see, for example, Asia Watch, Anthems of Defeat: Crackdown in Hunan Province, 1989-92 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1992), pp. 74-111; Hongda Harry Wu, Laogai-The Chinese Gulag (Westview Press: Boulder, 1992).

(2) See generally Py Lo, "Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor Briefing Paper for the United Nations Human Rights Committee, October 1996.

(3)Yet, notably, only twenty of sixty seats in Hong Kong's Legislative Council are subject to direct popular election. The Human Rights Committee, the U.N. organ responsible for supervising the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), has concluded that the Hong Kong electoral system, which designates many seats via elections restricted to "functional constituencies," unjustly discriminates among voters on the basis of property and functions. Human Rights Committee, Comments on United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Hong Kong), U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.57 (1995).

(4)Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, signed December 19, 1984, entered into force May 27, 1985.

(5)The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, adopted on June 4, 1990 by the Seventh National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China at its Third Session.

(6)Oxfam Hong Kong, Submission to the Panel on Home Affairs, Legislative Council, on the Implementation of the ICESCR, July 6, 1996, p. 1.

(7)During a three-week period in March and April 1997, the delegation visited Stanley Prison, Shek Pik Prison, Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, Ma Po Ping Prison, Victoria Prison, Tong Fuk Centre, Sha Tsui Detention Centre, Pik Uk Correctional Institution, Tai Lam Centre for Women, Tai Tam Gap Correctional Institution, Hei Ling Chau Addiction Treatment Centre, and High Island Detention Centre.

(8)ICCPR, Article 7; Torture Convention, Articles 2 and 16.

(9)ICCPR, Article 10(1).

(10)ICCPR, Article 10(3).

(11)Fourth Periodic Report by Hong Kong under Article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/95/Add.5 (1995), p. 90.

(12)Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, Article 5.

(13)U.N. Human Rights Committee, General Comment 21, paragraph 3. The Human Rights Committee provides authoritative interpretations of the ICCPR though the periodic issuance of General Comments.

(14)Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, Section 9. See also Chim Shing Chung v. Commissioner for Correctional Services, 6 HKPLR 313, 323 (Ct. App. 1996) (interpreting the savings clause broadly to nullify any protections on prisoners' rights).

(15)China is party to the Torture Convention.

(16)Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, Sec. XIII. The Basic Law, which establishes the framework for China's relations with Hong Kong, includes a similar guarantee.

(17)Human Rights Committee, Comments on United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Hong Kong), U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.57 (1995) (statement by the chairperson on behalf of the Human Rights Committee); Human Rights Committee, Comments on United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Hong Kong), U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.69 (1996).