The Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission: Calling for a New Avatar

AnalysisThe Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission ('EOC') was set up to perform the important function of an independent body which would receive and investigate complaints of discrimination within the community and to help Hong Kong strive to become a society in which discrimination on grounds such as sex, disability, family status, and race would not be tolerated. Despite the broad powers of inquiry and investigation given to the EOC to enable it to effectively perform this critical role, its inherent limitations have resulted in the limited impact the EOC has had on the implementation of anti-discrimination laws in Hong Kong. This article discusses some of these inherent limitations and outlines the structural and substantive issues that have plagued the EOC in recent years. In view of these matters, it is argued that without an immediate change in the institutional design, membership and culture of the EOC, it is unlikely that the EOC will have any significant impact in the years to come. The article concludes with some suggestions on the changes that need to be put into place to help the EOC be born anew so that it can lead Hong Kong closer to substantive outcomes in anti-discrimination law and policy.published_or_final_versio

The Human Rights of Women in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Although Hong Kong is a party to the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and has enacted relevant protections to safeguard the rights and interests of women under the Hong Kong Basic Law (HKBL) and anti-discrimination laws, the existing framework of protection is inadequate in critical respects and fails to offer substantive protection. The paper critically examines existing law and policy governing women’s rights, highlighting the reasons for its failings and outlines recommendations for achieving substantive and transformative equality for women.published_or_final_versio

A principled approach towards judicial review: lessons from W v Registrar of Marriages

This article examines the role of deference in constitutional challenges in the context of minority rights claims. It reviews prevailing justi! cations against judicial activism, arguing that contextual considerations such as the existence of an institutional framework for inclusive governance are key to determining the appropriate role and indeed, duty of the court. Parting company with the court’s emphasis on deference and social consensus in W v Registrar of Marriages, it argues that courts have an elevated responsibility to determine interpretive issues on substantial grounds based on principle or meta-principles rather than structural grounds like deferral to majority views in minority rights claims. This imposes a greater burden on the judicial branch to serve as a conduit for minority representation in contentious constitutional issues and more broadly as a forum for deliberative participation by marginalised communities. Whilst it is essential that the safeguards of checks and balances be rigorously observed, a heightened level of scrutiny in such instances complements, rather than undermines the rule of law.published_or_final_versio

Developing capacities for inclusive citizenship in multicultural societies: the role of deliberative theory and citizenship education

Political frameworks such as assimilation, accommodation and multiculturalism that have sought to address difference have failed to achieve political equality and inclusion for immigrants, driven primarily by the flawed understanding of culture and identity in multicultural states. Offering a brief critique of these models, this essay advocates the use of deliberative theory in citizenship education as instrumental to building capacities for inclusive citizenship and cultivating belonging and inclusion in diverse societies. Deliberative practice enables the reconceptualization of citizenship as performative, involving responsibilities for dialogic engagement. Such capacities and responsibilities are indispensable for a just political order in multicultural societies. © 2012 The Author(s).published_or_final_versio

The Human Rights of Women in the Hong Kong Special Administration Region

Although Hong Kong is a party to the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and has enacted legislation to safeguard women’s rights, the existing framework of protection is inadequate in critical respects and fails to achieve substantive equal protection for women. This paper examines existing law and policy governing women’s rights and identifies the underlying causes for its continued failings. It identifies some of the key gaps that render women continually vulnerable to discriminatory treatment. This paper concludes by outlining recommendations for achieving the goals of substantive and transformative equality for women

"Article 1" [Discrimination]

This new edition of the Commentary on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW or the Convention) and its Optional Protocol appears a decade after the first edition

Hanging in a Balance: Freedom of Expression and Religion

When the liberty to freely express oneself is at odds with another\u27s right to freedom of religion, we are confronted with the classic dilemma of choosing between two equally fundamental, constitutionally and internationally protected rights. The contours of the said two rights however, are far from clear. Whilst freedom of expression is not an absolute right, its limits are controversial. Equally, while it is undisputed that freedom of religion is an internationally protected human right enshrined in various international instruments, there is no comprehensive international treaty which addresses as its subject the content and extent of the right of freedom of religion, thus it is uncertain whether it entails the right to have one\u27s religious faith and symbols protected from insult. The unsettled boundaries of dispute arising from the clash between two fundamental rights have led to bitter tensions between freedom of expression and concerns to protect and respect religious sentiments. Religious communities feel outraged that their religious beliefs and sacred symbols are mocked, insulted, attacked or vilified. Aggrieved believers argue that respect for religious beliefs and symbols is fundamental to, and part and parcel of, the right of freedom of religion and that freedom of expression, although equally fundamental, is not without its limits. On the other hand, the authors and creators of these controversial works argue that any law seeking to restrict their works amounts to a violation of the sacrosanct right of freedom of expression, which is the bedrock of any democratic society. These arguments require an exploration of the rationales underpinning the freedoms of expression and religion to determine the boundaries and limits of each of these rights. On the far right, the United States endows the freedom of expression with sacrosanct status, which can be limited only where there is a risk of imminent danger or physical harm to third parties or a threat of an imminent outbreak of violence. In marked contrast is the German model, where an individual\u27s religious sentiments, dignity and identity are protected from scurrility and ridicule and any form of degrading speech against any religion is outlawed. Lying between these two extremes are the European Court of Human Rights and the Australian systems which have endeavored to strike a delicate balance between respect for religious sentiments and free speech. This paper will bring these perspectives to bear on the challenge of balancing the rights offreedoms of expression and religion. Part I of this paper examines the content of the right to freedom of religion and whether it entails a right to protection from ridicule, scurrility, vilification and insults directed at one\u27s religious teachings, symbols or beliefs from the perspective of international human rights law. Parts II and III review the approach of regional and national \u27models of regulation\u27 (the United States, Germany, the European Court of Human Rights, and Australia) to examine the unique experiences of these systems and the benefits, pitfalls and complexities inherent in legislating against speech or conduct which \u27hurts\u27 the sentiments of groups or individuals, who find their religious beliefs the subject of provocative, insulting, vilifying or offensive expressions. To end this \u27clash\u27 between secular libertarians and the faithful, this paper argues that a contextualized approach should be adopted in individual cases to carefully examine the value of the speech concerned, the \u27harm\u27 caused by it, and the position of the targeted individuals, group or community in that particular society and generally. It is only through such a contextualized consideration of the rights concerned, can an appropriate balance be struck to secure the interests concerned

PKM PERBAIKAN ALAT TANGKAP IKAN JULUNG-JULUNG KELOMPOK NELAYAN DI KAMPUNG PALARENG KECAMATAN TABUKAN SELATAN KABUPATEN KEPULAUAN SANGIHE

Kampung Palareng Kecamatan Tabukan Selatan merupakan kampung pesisir yang memiliki sumberdaya ikan demersal yang cukup melimpah karena disepanjang perairan pesisir Kampung Palareng dikelilingi terumbu karang, sehingga masyarakat nelayan disekitar pesisir pantai ini menangkap ikan julung-julung dengan menggunakan alat tangkap soma giop. Alat tangkap soma giop untuk menangkap ikan julung-julung telah lama digunakan oleh kelompok nelayan penangkap ikan di Kampung Palareng, namun dengan keterbatasan umur alat tangkap soma giop yang sudah semakin usang dan rusak sehingga alat tangkap tersebut sudah banyak yang sobek dan talinya terputus sehingga sangat dikuatirkan, karena alat tangkap soma giop yang masih tradisional hanya ada di Kampung Palareng. Kegiatan ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kesejahteraan keluarga kelompok nelayan yang menjadi Mitra dalam memanfaatkan sumberdaya laut yang ada dan melihat permintaan akan kebutuhan ikan julung-julung yang cukup tinggi. Melalui kegiatan ini Mitra diharapkan dapat melakukan penangkapan ikan kembali dengan menggunakan soma giop yang layak pakai dengan diberikan bantuan untuk perbaikan alat tangkap yang dimaksud, dengan benar dan tidak berdampak burukterhadap lingkungannya khususnya terhadap kondisi terumbu karang disekitarnya. Tim PKM akan memberikan penyuluhan dan pelatihan dengan memberikan bahan untuk memperbaiki kembali alat tangkap yang rusak, juga memberikan pelatihan teknik pengoperasiannya. Produk yang akan dihasilkan berupa jurnal ilmiah dan produk alat tangkap soma giop yang akan diberikan kepada mitra. Dari kegiatan ini diharapkan dapat memberikan manfaat bagi masyarakat nelayan Kampung Palareng dalammeningkatkan perekonomian keluarga mereka. Juga akan diberikan penyuluhan dan pendampingan untuk mitra dalam manajeman pemasaran hasil tangkapan serta penyuluhan bagaimana menumbuhkan jiwa kewirausahaa

Building Inclusive Societies: The Role of Substantive Equality, Ideas of Justice and Deliberative Theory

The coexistence of cultural and religious minorities in liberal democratic systems presents various complexities. Faced with a choice between acculturation and assimilation, minorities routinely struggle for justice and experience discrimination and exclusion. Modern political discourse has traditionally drawn on ideas such as tolerance, accommodation and assimilation and group rights to protect minorities on the basis of attributes perceived to be constitutive of their cultural, religious or national identities. The chapter presents a brief overview of the difficulties inherent in political models such as liberalism, liberal multiculturalism and limited self-government used to reconcile the status of cultural and national minorities in plural societies. These frameworks fix the political subject into rigid categories, highlighting their lack of political sensibility given the fluidity of identity today. This chapter argues that immigrant minorities exhibit complex layers of identity that challenge the singularity and mono-dimensionality attributed to political loyalty, citizenship and political identity in an age of plurinational states. Drawing on theories of identity-matrixing, it is argued that the deconstruction of identity is indispensable to better understanding and effectively influencing the development of sentiments of loyalty, group affiliation and shared morality. This chapter draws on theories of justice, deliberative theory and principles of substantive equality to illustrate how belonging, commonality of purpose and loyalty can be cultivated through regular engagement with other groups in deliberative decision-making processes. Deliberative theory and substantive capacity-building measures to ensure meaningful participation have the potential to transform multicultural societies into multicultural polities by securing inclusive governance.published_or_final_versio

IbM Tuna Handline di Kampung Beeng Kecamatan Tabukan Selatan Tengah Kabupaten Kepulauan Sangihe

Kawasan perairan disekitar Beeng memiliki potensi sumberdaya ikan yang cukup melimpah karena kawasan tersebut belum tersentuh dengan teknologi penangkapan ikan skala besar dan hanya menggunakan peralatan seadanya dari nelayan setempat. Salah satu alat tangkap yang digunakan oleh nelayan Kampung Beeng adalah Tuna Handline yang oleh masyarakat lokal dinamakan latage. Mitra adalah kelompok usaha penangkapan yang anggotanya adalah nelayan penangkap ikan. Teknik penangkapan ikan oleh kelompok nelayan bisa dilakukan hampir setiap saat karena hanya dioperasikan di perairan sekitar Kampung Beeng dengan menggunakan Tuna Handline. Alat tangkap Tuna Handline yang dioperasikan saat ini oleh kelompok nelayan hanya ada 1 unit dan itupun bukan merupakan milik dari kelompok tersebut sehingga hasil tangkapan yang diperoleh juga harus dibagi dengan pemilik alat tangkap tersebut. Tujuan yang ingin dicapai pada kegiatan IbM Kelompok Nelayan penagkap ikan tuna adalah meningkatkan pengetahuan dan pemahaman mitra tentang bagaiman cara mengoperasikan alat tangkapTuna Handline terwujudnya masyarakat yang mandiri dengan cara mampu mengolah dan memanfaatkan hasil tangkapan ikan yang diperoleh, sehingga dapat meningkatkan nilai ekonomi masyarakat nelayan penangkap ikan tuna. Kegiatan IbM yang dilakukan adalah 1) persiapan kegiatan; 2) pelaksanaaan kegiatan penyuluhan dan pelatihan pembuatan alat tangkap handline; 3) evaluasi terhadap proses kegiatan danhasil kegiatan. Hasil kegiatan IbM, setelah dilakukan penyuluhan tentang pembuatan alat tangkap Tuna Handline dan cara penangkapan ikan dapat dilihat bahwa pendapat nelayan penangkap ikan tuna meningkat sehingga merubah ekonomi keluarga mitra yang ada di Kampung Beeng