Hong Kong: Support Hong Kong Tongzhi Activists' Struggle for Anti-Discrimination Legislation
08/16/2001
UPDATE
The legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is considering how to combat discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Hong Kong government has urged the legislative panel to continue educational measures to counter prejudice. However--under pressure from religious bodies and other groups--it has voiced its discomfort with actually enacting legislation to ban such discrimination.
Activists in Hong Kong's Tongzhi communities ("Tongzhi" is a term, literally meaning "comrade" in Chinese, referring to the diverse communities of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people of Chinese descent worldwide) have advocated for anti-discrimination provisions for over five years. However, Hong Kong government continues to cite lack of public support--a response that trivializes matters of rights and respect by subjecting these to popular approval. This struggle for the inclusion of these protections, as well as the response of the Hong Kong government, are described in IGLHRC's December 2000 Action Alert on this issue.
On August 20, the Legislative Council (LegCo) in Hong Kong will hold a public hearing about the desirability of legal measures to provide protection on the ground of sexual orientation (such as an equal opportunity bill, domestic partnership, equality in age of consent, etc.). As it prepares for this hearing, LegCo is compiling two lists: one of persons and organizations that support such legislation, and one of those who oppose such legislation. Thus far, LegCo reports it has received twice as many e-mails and letters opposing anti-discrimination legislation on the basis of sexual orientation. Many, if not most, of these opposing letters are initiated by an opposing right-wing Christian group in Hong Kong. Tongzhi activists urgently call for letters advocating that all people in Hong Kong, regardless of their sexual orientation, should enjoy equal rights under the law.
ACTION
Please send letters by e-mail or fax to Mr. Stanley Ma of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, urging this body to take a strong, and enforceable, stand against unequal treatment. A sample letter is below. Please act IMMEDIATELY so the messages and letters can be received in time for the August 20 hearing.
- E-MAIL ADDRESS: cb2@legco.gov.hk
FAX NUMBER: +852 2509 9055
Please send copies of your message to Ms. Cyd Ho, Legislative Council member and Chairperson of the Subcommittee to Study Discrimination on the Ground of Sexual Orientation, as well as activists in Hong Kong who are documenting the response.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES:
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council,
I understand that the Home Affairs Panel of the Legislative Council is examining the issue of protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Discrimination against Tongzhi (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders) does exist in many forms in Hong Kong, and I urge the Home Affairs Panel to take all necessary steps to ensure equal protection and non-discrimination for the Tongzhi community in Hong Kong through legislative measures.
The goal of human and civil rights standards is to protect all persons equally, without distinction or discrimination. Recognizing the need for protection against sexual orientation-based discrimination and abuse is an indispensible means by which the promise of universality can be fulfilled. The claims made on such a basis are neither to "new rights" nor to "special rights" but rather promote the extension of protections for human freedom and dignity to include the most vulnerable groups, and to publicize and prevent even the least visible and most easily concealed abuses and violations. It is in this spirit that in November 1995 the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in reviewing Hong Kong's compliance to its obligations as a signatory to the ICCPR, called on the government to adopt anti-discrimination legislation prohibiting discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation.
I urge Hong Kong to join the rapidly growing list of countries that recognize the importance of explicit anti-discrimination legislation for the fulfillment of international human rights standards includes not only several Western countries, but also many others throughout the world: South Africa, Costa Rice, Ecuador, Fiji, Brazil, and Israel are among them. Recently, the government of Tokyo reportedly decided to include protection for "homosexuals" within its human rights legislation--thus becoming the first Asian municipality to set this progressive example. I urge the Panel on Home Affairs to examine these precedents as models for possible anti-discrimination protections in Hong Kong.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
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