TOUGH penalties to battle discrimination against the handicapped, the elderly, women and other groups are proposed in a wide-ranging private member's bill to be published for discussion next year.
The move, by Legislative Councillor and Law Society Council member Anna Wu Hung-yuk, has been sparked by escalating attacks on handicapped groups and their centres.
A week ago, Tung Tau Estate residents used death threats and vandalism to protest against a Down's syndrome day centre near their homes. Earlier in the year, a hostel for the mentally handicapped at another Tung Tau Estate block was also attacked while proposals for a psychiatric patients' day centre at Laguna City prompted similar opposition.
The bill is expected to gain strong support from women's groups, who have criticised the Government's efforts to curb discrimination, in the form of the Green Paper on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, for not going far enough.
Ms Wu expects her bill to be ready for comment by the end of the first quarter of next year, and possibly adopted by 1995.
She plans to introduce it into Legco by June when the United Nations Human Rights Committee expects Hong Kong to report on implementation of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights.