Racial equality

Research

Ethnic Minorities and the Hong Kong Education System
Principal Investigator: Kelley Loper

Cases of unequal treatment toward ethnic minority students in the Hong Kong education system have been reported by the press and recounted by NGOs and social workers in recent years. This issue has become increasingly salient due to changing demographics in Hong Kong and new education policies that affect ethnic minority groups disproportionately. Kelley Loper and researcher Lam Wai Har documented and compiled cases of potentially discriminatory treatment towards ethnic minority students at all levels of education in Hong Kong. The study analyses relevant equal opportunities issues from legal and policy perspectives, and makes specific suggestions to ensure the effectiveness of a future Racial Discrimination Ordinance. In November 2006, CCPL and the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong jointly organized a research sharing session on the Implications of Law and Language Policy for Ethnic Minority Students in the Hong Kong Education System. In December 2011, CCPL made a submission the HK government on this issue. The study also resulted in two Occasional Papers, one in 2004 and the other in 2009.

Diversity Studies
Principal Investigators: Puja Kapai and Kelley Loper
Project Period: May 2009 – September 2010
Funding Source: Seeding Funding for Emerging Strategic Research Themes (SRT)

Migration has generated an increasingly borderless world which has challenged the nation-state model as an effective tool for the governance of multiplicities and the management of diversity. As the nation-state is faced with the challenge of dealing with immigrants, non-nationals, refugees and others with newly emerging identities, there is a need to reassess existing frameworks for recognition of the claims of minority communities. This project culminated in a conference on Managing Diversity in Plural Societies.

Plugging the Justice Gap for Minorities under the Law: Applied Intersectionality Research and Substantive Equality
Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai
Project Period: 28/6/2017 -30/06/2018
Funding Source: Faculty KE Award 2017

Proposal to Establish a Virtual Teaching and Leaming Centre for Diversity and Inclusion to Share Best Practices on Pedagogy, Curriculum Development and Clssroom and School-Based Management Strategies for Diverse Learning Environments
Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai
Project Period: 30/12/2015 – 31/07/2017
Funding Source: HKU Class of “84 Social Inclusion Fund – Social Inclusion Activities Grant (Given by CEDARS)

Conference on Chinese as a Second Language
Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai
Project Period: 2016 – 30/09/2017
Funding Source: Faculty Funding

Video Interview for Developing a Narrative of Different Ethnic Minority Communities in Hong Kong

Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai
Project Period: Funding Source: The United States of America

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Concept of Substantive Equality
Principal Investigator: Kelley Loper
Project Period: April 2008 – December 2009
Funding Source: Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research
This project examines the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the monitoring body of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, in order to assess the Committee’s theoretical approach to the concept of equality. Kelley Loper worked with two CCPL young researchers, Helen Au and Rachel Tam, to review documents produced by the Committee and test the hypothesis that the Committee’s interpretations of state obligations reflect a substantive – as opposed to a formal – notion of equality.

Publications

Submissions and Policy Papers

Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination: July 2018

The CCPL submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in July 2018. This submission is based on research conducted by students enrolled in Equality and Non-discrimination, an elective course in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong in the spring semester of 2018. The full paper is available for download below.
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Submission to the Legislative Council’s Panel on Constitutional Affairs: 16 July 2018

Puja Kapai submitted to the Legislative Council’s Panel on Constitutional Affairs with regards to the third report of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The full paper is available for download below.
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Submission to the Legislative Council’s Subcommittee on Rights of Ethnic Minorities: 9 July 2018

Puja Kapai submitted to the Legislative Council’s Subcommittee on Rights of Ethnic Minorities on “The Work of the Ethnic Minorities Steering Committee and Support Measures for Ethnic Minorities”. The full paper is available for download below.
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Submission to the Legislative Council’s Panel on Constitutional Affairs: 22 January 2018
The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau issued the Administrative Guidelines on Promotion of Racial Equality in 2010 to “promot[e] racial equality and ensure equal access to public services in the key areas concerned, and to take this into account in the formulation, implementation and review of relevant policies and measures”. In January 2018, Puja Kapai submitted to the Legislative Council’s Panel on Constitutional Affairs on implementation and review of the Administrative Guidelines on Promotion of Racial Equality. The full paper is available for download below.
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Education of Ethnic Minority Children: December 2011
On 22 December 2011, CCPL Deputy Director Puja Kapai submitted a brief to the Members of the Legislative Council Panel on Education regarding the legal obligations incumbent upon the HKSAR Government with regard to the provision of access to education for children from ethnic minority communities. The paper examines the administration’s current approach to ethnic minority language education and details the likely impact and legal implications of the Education Bureau’s proposed and/or recently implemented measures.
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Submission to LegCo Panel on Public Service Language Proficiency Requirements: May 2010
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Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): August 2009
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Briefing on Hong Kong’s Race Discrimination Bill to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination: February 2008
Kelley Loper, Research Assistant Professor
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The Status of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong 1997-2014
Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai
Project Period: 01/04/2014 – 31/10/2015
Funding Source: The Zubin Foundation

“The Status of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong, 1997 to 2014” was commissioned by The Zubin Foundation’s Shalini Mahtani and conducted by Puja Kapai, Director at the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Comparative and Public and Law.

“The Status of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong, 1997 to 2014” is the first research on ethnic minorities across all areas of life, from crime and health to employment and education, and has been compiled, synthesized and interpreted by author Puja Kapai. What is unique too about this research is that two ethnic minority women, Shalini Mahtani and Puja Kapai, are behind it.

The research presented in this Report is drawn from existing data and research material that is publicly available. In some circumstances, the data pertains to ethnic minority groups more broadly and includes data of groups in addition to those that have been identified as the focus for this Report. In some areas, where limited data disaggregated by ethnicity is available, the data referenced is provided to offer a general impression and should be viewed with this important caveat in mind. It may, in such instances, be unreliable to draw generalised conclusions from the limited data. However, it has been included to highlight that more specific data disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, age and other variables is desirable to facilitate policy development and focused interventions. These are data gaps that we recognise and have identified through this report. We encourage the government and other researchers to identify additional data gaps and supplement with research of their own.

Click here to download all chapters

Occasional Papers

No 19/09: Sarah Carmichael, November 2009

Language Rights in Education: A Study of Hong Kong’s Linguistic Minorities

[PDF]

No 12/04: Kelley Loper, February 2004

Race and Equality: A Study of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong’s Education System

[PDF]

Conference papers

Conference: Promoting Racial Harmony? Hong Kong’s Race Discrimination Bill in International and Comparative Perspective, 31 March 2007

The Hong Kong government tabled a Race Discrimination Bill in the Legislative Council in December 2006. If passed, the law will become Hong Kong’s fourth piece of specific anti-discrimination legislation and would prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin. The proposed legislation is intended to give effect in domestic law to Hong Kong’s obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. Debate over the bill has focused on its definition of indirect discrimination; its exemptions; whether the prohibited grounds include new arrivals from mainland China; and whether it is compatible with equality rights in the Bill of Rights and the Basic Law.

This conference examined the bill’s provisions in light of Hong Kong’s international human rights obligations and comparative equality law.

Programme

Presentation by James Keezhangatte, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, HKU [PDF]
Presentation by Fermi Wong, UNISON [PDF]
Presentation by Raymond Tang, Chairman, EOC [PDF]
Presentation by Kelley Loper, Faculty of Law, HKU [PDF]
Presentation by P.Y. Lo, Barrister [PDF]
Presentation by Fernand De Varennes, Murdoch University [PDF]
Presentation by Aileen McColgan, Matrix Chambers and King’s College London [PPT]
Paper by Carole Petersen, University of Hawaii [PDF]