Laws may not ease Hong Kong-mainland China tensions: anti-discrimination chief
Anti-discrimination watchdog questions if animosity will go away just because of a law
Legislation may not be the best way to resolve prejudice and alleviate tensions against mainland-based parallel-goods traders, the chief of the discrimination watchdog has told lawmakers.
Discrimination against mainlanders had escalated since last month, with violent scuffles marring anti-trading protests, Equal Opportunities Commission chairperson Dr York Chow Yat-ngok noted on Monday.
Chow called the rallies, which hurt the innocent as well, "unacceptable and uncivilised".
Nonetheless, he said, covering cross-border visitors under anti-discrimination laws, as lawmakers had suggested, might not work.
"We have been reviewing the laws but do not yet have a position on whether to legislate to protect against prejudice based on immigration and residency status," he told a Legislative Council panel meeting.
"Given the limitations of anti-discrimination laws, and also the fact that these are civil laws, can the nuisance caused by mainland visitors be best resolved by means of legislation?"
Chow, a former health minister, was referring to his commission's public consultation last year exploring the idea of protecting, among others, mainlanders, new migrants, and unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples, on top of current laws prohibiting bias based on sex, family status, race or disability.
He did not elaborate on the limitations, but suggested the police could enhance enforcement under existing laws to prevent similar scuffles.
The four-month consultation was the first review of the separate laws barring discrimination. It drew about 122,000 submissions, but "tens of thousands responses were very similar and sometimes identical on particular issues or questions".
The commission would submit its report to the government by the end of this year. Chow stressed it would make recommendations based on the rationale of the arguments rather than the majority views collected in the exercise. He called for public discussion on same-sex rights, although he said same-sex marriages were not part of the review.
