Opinion | True leaders fight prejudice for social progress. So why not in Hong Kong?

Politicians try to be popular; leaders try to do the right thing. I cannot help but dwell on this saying as celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights spring up across the world this month. Adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, the declaration proclaimed that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, with the hope of ending injustice, allaying fears of oppression, and reigniting faith in humanity in the aftermath of the second world war.

To this day, however, those fears have hardly been put to rest. At home and abroad, we see governments pleasing rather than leading constituents, parties choosing partisanship over peace and progress, and social media responding sluggishly to hate speech – often at the expense of perpetuating a toxic cycle of prejudice, discrimination and even violence.

In Hong Kong, our freedoms and equal rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights Ordinance and four anti-discrimination ordinances, a localised version of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the two treaties that give legal force to the otherwise non-binding Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But, of course, laws can be flawed. In 2016, the Equal Opportunities Commission recommended 73 revisions to the anti-discrimination ordinances to the government, with the aim of strengthening legal protection against discrimination, harassment and vilification. Yet, only eight of our recommendations have been taken forward in the Discrimination Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill gazetted last month.

This piecemeal approach, conveniently chalked up to controversy over more comprehensive reforms, has left the marginalised and disadvantaged an easy target for discrimination. To begin with, our Disability Discrimination Ordinance is not fully compliant with international human rights obligations, as there is no express provision requiring employers, schools and providers of goods, services and facilities to offer people with disabilities reasonable accommodation.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which entered into force in Hong Kong in 2008, reasonable accommodation refers to necessary and appropriate arrangements that allow people with disabilities to enjoy different aspects of life on an equal basis with others. It may take the form of modifications to built environments (such as installing visual fire alarms at housing estates), assisting services (such as providing audio narration at movie theatres) or flexible workplace policies (such as allowing employees with mobility difficulties to work from home).