Karon Monaghan, lawyer in landmark Hong Kong LGBT case over gay civil servant’s benefits, says city activists well placed to fight for equality in the courts

Hong Kong’s LGBT community is well placed to push for greater equality through the courts, said a top British human rights lawyer who recently fought the landmark appeal of a gay immigration officer. Karon Monaghan QC, who represented Angus Leung Chun-kwong as he pushed for spousal benefits for gay civil servants at the Court of Final Appeal on Tuesday, said that was because Hong Kong’s courts are empowered by the city’s constitution and human rights bill. “You have got a much better framework than the United Kingdom,” she said in an interview. But the human rights specialist – who has fought a litany of equality cases across the UK and Europe – cautioned local activists to take things slowly, at a lecture on LGBT rights at Chinese University’s Graduate Law Centre earlier this week. “I think we all need to be bold but realistic,” she said. “If you don’t do things incrementally, you are in danger of trying to push the court too far.” The QC was in town to represent Leung, a senior immigration officer who took the government to court after it denied his husband, Scott Adams, spousal benefits and the right to a joint tax assessment. Leung succeeded in his challenge against the Civil Service Bureau at the Court of First Instance, but lost when the bureau sought to overturn that ruling at the lower appeal court, where Monaghan represented him. She represented him again this week at the Court of Final Appeal, which is yet to rule on the case. Monaghan is best known for her triumph last year in a UK Supreme Court case, when she successfully argued for the extension of civil partnerships from same-sex couples to heterosexual ones. In 2017 Britain’s Labour Party commissioned her to review its sexual harassment policy. Leung’s challenge brought her to Hong Kong for the first time. It is among a string of test cases lodged by LGBT people in recent years to push for greater rights, including the case of QT, a British lesbian who followed her partner to Hong Kong and, in July last year, succeeded in challenging the immigration department for refusing her a spousal visa. “In Hong Kong, you have got a really good scheme because you have the Basic Law, which has an equality guarantee in it,” she said during the interview. “And you have got the Bill of Rights, which has equality protection within it.” In Hong Kong, you have got a really good scheme because you have the Basic Law, which has an equality guarantee in it Karon Monaghan QC These laws give Hong Kong courts the power to strike down unconstitutional laws with immediate effect – should they choose to – something UK courts cannot do, she said. Because of the country’s lack of a codified constitution, courts in the UK can end up just making a declaration, or pronouncing that a certain law under challenge is in breach of human rights law. After that, she said, “the UK scheme still relies on the legislature to change the law”. Why a gay civil servant took on the Hong Kong government Choi Chi-sum, general secretary of conservative group Society of Truth and Light, took issue with LGBT activists resolving their grievances in court, a practice he argued led to the exclusion of voices not party to proceedings. His group recently failed in a bid to join another ongoing LGBT court challenge as an interested party. In the case, a lesbian known as MK sued the government for not providing civil partnerships. “These things are for society to debate,” he said, adding that they were best left to the government and the legislature. But Monaghan said the court was most concerned with people’s fundamental rights. “We don’t care what the rest of the society thinks. We are going to enforce that right”, she said in explanation of the court’s approach. Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, the only openly gay legislator in Hong Kong, said a judicial approach was necessary because of the government and legislature’s reluctance to even initiate discussions on LGBT issues, let alone putting in measures to protect the rights of LGBT people. Monaghan said she had spent limited time in the city, but she could feel a real sense of solidarity from the city’s LGBT community. “There are lawyers here doing this work. There are good campaign groups. There is a great community out there supporting this work,” she said. “So I am sure things will move on.”

Karon Monaghan, lawyer in landmark Hong Kong LGBT case over gay civil servant’s benefits, says city activists well placed to fight for equality in the courts

Basic Law and Bill of Rights empower judges to strike down unconstitutional laws, says British QC But conservative group slams idea of social change by court decree, saying it is a matter for the government and legislature

Basic Law and Bill of Rights empower judges to strike down unconstitutional laws, says British QC

But conservative group slams idea of social change by court decree, saying it is a matter for the government and legislature