Adam Hugill highlights the major legal protections against discrimination in Hong Kong. Four Discrimination Ordinances prevent against discrimination related to sex and pregnancy, disability, family status and race.
Moreover, he addresses the lack of progress in bringing forward additional legislation in the territory despite the efforts of the Equal Opportunities Commission to promote further anti-discrimination protection, in particular regarding sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
Visit our Wills of Concern campaign to find out more about how we are raising funds for AIDS Concern by writing wills for donations until end of 2019.
Adam Hugill簡述香港針對歧視的主要法律保障：四項歧視條例禁止針對性別和懷孕、殘疾，家庭狀況及種族的歧視。此外，他亦指出儘管平等機會委員會努力促進反歧視保障，在香港性取向和宗教信仰方面的保障仍然缺乏進展。
由即日起至2019年12月31日我們會以撰寫遺囑為關懷愛滋籌款。欲知詳情請參閱Wills of Concern。
TRANSCRIPT
Will Ripley
So this is a huge issue: preventing discrimination in the workplace. In Hong Kong what protections are in place?
防止工作間歧視是一件重要的事。在香港有什麼法例保障嗎？
Adam Hugill
Hong Kong has a few anti-discrimination protections in place. The first one to be enacted was the Sex Discrimination Ordinance and the purpose of that was to prevent against discrimination on the grounds of sex and pregnancy. Following that was the Disability Discrimination Ordinance which is to protect against discrimination on the grounds of disability, then there is Family Status which is to protect people who have responsibility for caring usually for children or adults. They were all enacted in about 1996-1997. Well after that – 12 years after that – Hong Kong passed the Race Discrimination Ordinance which is to protect against discrimination on the grounds of race and nationality. Compared to other Western or other developed jurisdictions, the anti-discrimination protection in Hong Kong is regarded as being pretty inadequate.
香港有數條保障人免受歧視的法例
首條制定的是《性別歧視條例》
目的在於防止針對某種性別或懷孕人士的歧視
然後就是《殘疾歧視條例》
以保護殘疾人士免受歧視
而《家庭崗位歧視條例》就保障那些在家庭中擔當照顧兒童或成人角色的人
這些條例均在1996-1997年間制定
12年後，香港通過了《種族歧視條例》
保護人免因種族或國籍而受到歧視
與西方或其他發展較完善的司法管轄區相比
香港的反歧視保障顯得相對不足
Will Ripley
Why do you think that is?
為甚麼？
Adam Hugill
Many other jurisdictions, including our close neighbour Taiwan, have protection on the grounds of sexual orientation, religious belief, age, language and many other grounds which are just not in place in Hong Kong.
在性傾向、宗教、信仰、年齡、語言及許多其他方面均有保障
這些在香港都是沒有的
Will Ripley
Is there an effort on the way in order to try and change that?
在香港有做過任何事情嘗試過改變嗎？
Adam Hugill
In 2014 the Equal Opportunities Commission, which is the government body in charge for protecting AIDS discrimination, undertook a review and, during that review, they took a wide range of opinions from society and they put together 70 proposals for the government to change.
在2014年，負責執行反歧視法例的法定機構平等機會委員會
曾經對香港的歧視條例進行檢討，他們廣泛諮詢社會意見
並向政府提交70項建議
Will Ripley
How many have actually been?
獲採納的有多少？
Adam Hugill
Eight of them have – out of 70! – actually been put forward, and that’s still ______
That was put in place in 2016 and three years later the government is still considering passing just eight of them
8項，70項之中有8項曾經提出討論
那是2016年提出的，3年後政府仍只在考慮通過當中8項
Will Ripley
What are the next steps?
下一步該怎樣？
Adam Hugill
The EOC – Equal Opportunities Commission – is committed to trying to promote further anti-discrimination protection with a particular focus on sexual orientation and religious belief but unfortunately there is not a lot of government buy-in for this, so I think it will be a long time in the future before we see that.
平等機會委員會將會進一步嘗試推動其他反歧視條例
尤其在性傾向和宗教方面
可惜這在政府中並未得到廣泛認同
所以我認為這還有很長的路要走
Will Ripley
What do you think is going to take to get this issue higher up on the agenda here in Hong Kong?
你認為怎樣才能讓政府更重視有關反歧視的議題？
Adam Hugill
I think that, because the government is so reluctant to push this forward, even though they make noises in that direction, the real anti-discrimination protection comes from the High Court and Court of Final Appeal, where a few decisions have taken place recently, and as a result of their decisions, and the quite progressive and liberal view at the Court of Final Appeal, rights and protections have been granted such a dependency visas, right to file joint tax, etc.
即使曾經引起輿論，政府仍抗拒進一步討論反歧視議題
真正的反歧視保障來自高等法院及終審法院
最近亦有數宗相關裁決
終審法院對此的態度相對開放
因此賦予權利及保障
例如受養人簽證、合併報稅等
Will Ripley
So really these legal battles can take years but they are still the most effective way to bring about change.
所以即使這些法律案件可能需要數年時間得出結論，但仍然帶來改變的最有效放法
Adam Hugill
Perversely, yes. A long legal battle is quicker than trying to go through the government.
聽起來不合常理，但對的，數年的法律抗爭也比促請政府立法更快
