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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Justice, Ms Elsie Leung delivered at a workshop at the Chinese University of Hong Kong today (Saturday):
Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a great honour and pleasure to attend this workshop. The Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong is to be congratulated for its Gender Research Programme and for its organisation of this Conference. It gives us an opportunity to focus on what has been done since the Beijing Platform for Action was signed five years ago, and to consider what should be done in future.
The Platform for Action
At the conference in Beijing, the 189 governmental delegations present adopted the Platform for Action as a blueprint for women's advancement in countries around the world. The motto of the conference was "Equality, Development and Peace".
Twelve "critical areas of concern" were identified as obstacles to the advancement of women, including poverty, education, health, violence, economic participation, power-sharing and decision-making, and human rights. The conference laid down strategies for improvement of women's rights in order to achieve equality of all persons, sustainable development of the society and achievement of world peace.
It is not disputed that governments bear the primary responsibility for implementing the strategic objectives set out in the Platform. I will discuss the work done by the government of the Hong Kong SAR in relation to two areas - human rights and violence against women. I am concerned about these topics, not only in my capacity as head of the Department of Justice, but also as one of the participants of the non-governmental organisation forum of the Fourth World Conference for Women held in Beijing.
Human Rights
1995 was an important year for the rights of women. The Sex Discrimination Ordinance was enacted in July of that year. It renders unlawful discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital status or pregnancy in specified areas of activity including employment, education, and the provision of goods, facilities or services. The Ordinance also outlaws sexual harassment and makes it unlawful to apply any discriminatory practices or to publish any discriminatory advertisement.
The Sex Discrimination Ordinance also provided for the establishment of an independent statutory body, the Equal Opportunities Commission (the EOC), which, among other things, is tasked with the responsibility of eliminating sex discrimination and promoting equality between men and women. The Commission was formally established in May 1996 and started operations in September of that year.
In 1996, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was extended to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong SAR Government submitted its initial report to the United Nations in August 1998 and, in February 1999, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, sitting in New York, considered that initial report.
The hearing took one day, members of the delegation from Hong Kong made use of the opportunity to explain our efforts in promoting gender equality. In its concluding comments, the Committee commended the Government of China for the continuing applicability of the Convention to the Hong Kong SAR following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997. It also commended the SAR government for submitting, in a timely manner, an extremely well-structured and informative report, and for its oral presentation of the report and the detailed oral and written replies, including statistics information, to the questions posed by the Committee.
On the positive aspects, the Committee also commended the legislative and administrative efforts made by HKSAR in the elimination of discrimination against women, and welcomed the judicial decision which recognised the right of a non-marital child to claim right of abode based on the status of either parent rather than of her mother only. It also expressed satisfaction at the high level of literacy and the universal system of free education. On the other hand, the Committee raised concern over the absence of a central mechanism for the development and implementation of women-focused policy, low representation of women in public affairs and service, marital rape, migrant workers, equal pay for work of equal value and other issues. The Committee also noted that there are many non-governmental organizations working actively in Hong Kong for the full implementation of the Convention.
Violence against women
Violence against women is a global problem. In Hong Kong, there are a number of laws which provide protection to women against violence. The major ones are :
(a) the Crimes Ordinance, which deals with sexual and related offences; and
(b) the Offences Against the Person Ordinance, which among other things, deals with homicide, assaults, child abuse, and the forcible taking or detention of persons.
The Domestic Violence Ordinance deals specifically with violence in the home. Under the Ordinance, the court may, on the application by a party to a marriage or by a cohabitee, grant an injunction to restrain the other party from molesting the applicant or to exclude the other party from a specified area, which may include the matrimonial home.
In 1995, the Criminal Procedure Ordinance and the Evidence Ordinance were amended so that vulnerable witnesses, including children, mentally incapacitated persons and witnesses in fear, may give video recorded evidence or be examined by live television link in trials involving sexual abuse, offences of cruelty etc. This is an improvement in our criminal justice system towards the protection of vulnerable witnesses or victims, who often are women or girls.
But more needs to be done. We must ensure that the criminal justice system treats fairly women who complain of sexual offences. This is necessary not only so that justice is done in cases that come before the court, but also to encourage female victims to come forward and report violence committed against them. We must send a signal to the community at large that violence against women is not a domestic affair to be connived at or condoned.
There is one aspect of the current law which I think operates unfairly against women. There are special rules relating to the evidence given by victims in sexual offence cases. These rules are called the corroboration rules. Although the rules also apply in cases where the victims of sexual offence cases are male, as we all know, the majority of victims in sexual offence cases are female.
As a general rule, evidence given against a defendant does not need to be corroborated. A defendant can generally be convicted on the uncorroborated evidence of a single credible witness, provided that the judge or jury is satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, of the defendant's guilt. However, as an exception, the corroboration rules apply to the evidence of complainants in sexual offences.
These rules work particularly to the disadvantage of victims of sexual offences. They are inflexible, complex and create many anomalies. The Administration is of the view that the abolition of the corroboration rules would not leave defendants inadequately protected, because the general obligations of a trial judge would always ensure that a defendant receives a fair trial. A Bill was therefore introduced into the Legislative Council in June 1999 to abolish the corroboration rules in sexual offence cases. The Bill is now awaiting scrutiny by a Bills Committee, which is expected to be formed in the near future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would emphasize that the Government of the Hong Kong SAR will do all that it can to implement the strategic objectives set out in the Platform for Action. Together with the efforts of non-governmental organisations, educational institutions and the community at large, we hope one day to remove all obstacles to the advancement of our female population.
End/Saturday, February 19, 2000
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