Hong Kong equality body told to back off from law changes to protect LGBTQ people

Equal Alternatives Fee’s (EOC) chairperson Ricky Chu Man-kin, talking on Friday at a panel dialogue on variety and inclusion as a part of the celebration of the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the Publish, stated that between 2020 and 2021 the physique had examined the “feasibility” of authorized modifications to guard LGBTQ rights.

“At the moment we have been already engaged on some legislative amendments analysis for greater than 18 months,” Chu stated.

“Then got here … recommendation from the Division of Justice – If the EOC have been to do this, then [it] can be performing ‘extremely vires,’” he stated, a Latin authorized time period which implies actions past the scope of a physique’s authorized powers.

“Confronted with that recommendation, we needed to change monitor,” he stated.

The fee was established in 1996 to implement anti-discrimination laws designed to cowl household standing, incapacity, race and gender.

However there is no such thing as a laws to guard sexual minorities from bias and prejudice.

The features and powers of the EOC listed in its web site embody conserving laws underneath evaluate and, when mandatory, drawing up proposals for amendments.

However Chu rejected ideas the justice division recommendation meant the fee was a toothless tiger or that its fingers have been tied.

He added that the organisation’s personal attorneys thought-about the justice division recommendation and got here to the identical conclusion.

“There may be nothing within the intercourse discrimination ordinance that empowers the EOC to look into legislative amendments on points exterior the ordinances,” Chu stated after the panel dialogue.

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He added the laws additionally prohibited the fee from different types of discrimination, comparable to prejudice based mostly on age.

“It’s not a matter of our fingers being tied, it’s a matter of authorized recommendation that we shouldn’t take a look at it in any respect,” Chu stated.

He added, as an alternative of proposing amendments, the fee was reviewing current legal guidelines, such because the Intercourse Discrimination Ordinance, to see whether or not there was something in current laws that could possibly be relevant to LGBTQ individuals’s empowerment and welfare, or to guard them in opposition to discrimination.

When Chu was appointed as chairman in 2019 he stated there can be a “change of method” to tackling LGBTQ issues.

He stated he wished so as to add protections to current laws quite than campaigning for a single recent legislation, as had been performed up to now.

Chu had stated the brand new method was mandatory after the fee’s failed effort to get the federal government to enact anti-discrimination laws to cowl LGBTQ individuals in 2016.

The Publish has contacted the Division of Justice for remark.

Additionally talking on Friday’s panel have been Abby Lee, the chairwoman of LGBTQ carnival organiser Pink Dot Hong Kong, Kriti Youngsters’s Centre founder Divya Gurung, and Sudesh Thevasenabathy, the pinnacle of variety, fairness and inclusion in Asia for insurance coverage agency Manulife.

Lee highlighted the “achievements and wins” for LGBTQ individuals in Hong Kong, comparable to current courtroom selections on housing rights and visas for spouses.

“It’s been an extended journey,” Lee stated. “However we’re lucky to have quite a lot of allies.”

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Hong Kong is the primary Asian metropolis to host the Homosexual Video games, a sports activities and tradition occasion based in 1982 which is open to individuals from all backgrounds and usually held each 4 years.

This yr’s occasion concerned about 2,400 athletes from greater than 40 jurisdictions who competed in a wide range of occasions, together with dragon boat racing, mahjong, and tennis.

The occasion, which began on November 3, is being co-hosted by Guadalajara, Mexico and ends on Saturday..

“It’s a really exhilarating and touching second for us to see this being delivered,” Lee stated. “To see how the neighborhood – and never simply the LGBTQ neighborhood, however the entire neighborhood right here in Hong Kong and throughout the globe – has come collectively in Hong Kong to have fun unity and variety in sports activities.”