The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has successfully completed its work in the first term and will move forward with confidence and the experience gained in the past five years, said Elsie Leung, the HKSAR's secretary for justice.
Leung said she would seek to maintain a pledge of high performance standard in order to ensure the government operates in a manner that upholds the law to the highest standard.
She made the remarks to Xinhua in an exclusive interview recently, just after she had been appointed a principal official to continue to head the HKSAR Department of Justice on July 1.
She added that since Hong Kong also aspires to be the regional leader of legal services, "Hong Kong will continue to be judicially independent and will endeavor to provide more opportunities to legal professionals," she stressed.
"I will continue to work with the legal profession and the judiciary. We all share the common goal of raising the standard of the legal services here to allow citizens better access to such services," she said.
Leung said she feels deeply honored by the appointment, saying that she will continue to work closely with her colleagues in the civil service in thrashing out the details of the department's new objectives and targets.
Leung participated in the work on the establishment of the HKSAR in 1997 by advising then HKSAR Chief Executive-Designate Tung Chee Hwa on the incidental legal matters. On July 1, 1997, she officially became the HKSAR's first Secretary for Justice.
Currently, her work includes filing prosecutions, drafting laws, advising various government departments and bureaus on legal matters, as well as being an ex-officio member of the Executive Council to advise on the government's policy making.
Leung said her work in the years to come will focus on improving transparency of criminal prosecutions and accountability to the public.
"On one hand, we continue to cherish the independence of the secretary for justice to file prosecutions and the well-established prosecution policy; on the other hand, we must do our best to protect the human rights of defendants of criminal litigation or criminal suspects," she said, adding that transparency will improve public understanding on these matters.
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2002)
