Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 24 June (HL16327), what discussions they have had with the United Nations to ensure that the Sino-British Joint Declaration, ratified by the governments of China and the United Kingdom in 1984 and registered with the United Nations in 1985, is adhered to.

The UK is fully committed to upholding the legally binding Joint Declaration of 1984. In our national ‘Item 2’ statement at the 42nd session of the Human Rights Council in September we re-iterated our support and call for all to respect the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ framework, including the rights and freedoms in the Joint Declaration. We also underlined that meaningful political dialogue, under Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, is essential.