PUNCHING THE AIR, the speaker stood before the gathering of students, academics and lawyers, and declared: 'We are producing human rights activists. We don't know what the Chief Executive thinks about it. But that is what we are doing.' This was not veteran protester Leung Kwok-hung or one of his followers. This was Johannes Chan Man-mun, new dean of the University of Hong Kong law faculty.
Professor Chan's performance, accompanied by a smile, was clearly aimed at entering into the spirit of the occasion, a ceremony for students completing a master of laws programme in human rights. He later admitted the Government had given 'a good reaction' to the course.
The programme is, indeed, producing human rights activists for Asia. It is believed to be the only one of its kind in the region. And there are hopes it will act as a catalyst for change.
'I think it has that potential. People who come to the programme go back to their own countries and make a visible difference,' said Jogendra Ghimire, who graduated from the course last year and then spent 13 months as secretary of the Human Rights Commission in his native Nepal. 'In the course of time, I really believe there will be a large number of fairly influential social actors in different jurisdictions coming entirely from the law faculty at HKU.'
Since it was launched in 1999, the course has attracted students from at least 17 countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Many of the overseas students, who have included activists in the field of women's rights and the environment as well as a lawyer battling on behalf of street children in the Philippines, are awarded scholarships by the university, overcoming what would otherwise be prohibitive financial barriers.