Hong Kong's electoral framework has come in for scrutiny at a US human rights panel meeting last week amid the pro-democracy protests in the city. Photo: Reuters
Emily Lau: UN to ask Beijing to explain HK election framework
Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau said on Sunday that the United Nations will send letters to the governments of both Beijing and Hong Kong, asking them to explain how the framework for Hong Kong’s 2017 chief executive election will conform to the international covenant, Apple Daily reported.
After returning from the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Lau told street protesters in Admiralty that she told the members of the UN committee that the framework set by Beijing for the Hong Kong election was against UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the report said.
As the committee asked China for implementation of universal suffrage in Hong Kong in March last year, the meeting put the issue in its agenda for a 30-minute discussion, she said.
Although the committee’s suggestions are not legally binding, they are recognized by the UN and therefore China should pay heed, Lau was quoted as saying.
Asked if the UN’s move would constitute foreign interference — as Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has claimed, Lau said that would be a totally absurd contention. As the Hong Kong government has sent delegates to the UN’s conference on women affairs held on the same day, Leung should not have double standards, she said.
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