Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the Report of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China in the light of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) November 2004

Table of Content

Chapter 1. General Legal Protection Framework

Chapter 2. Democracy and political participation (Article 1)

Chapter 3. Non-discrimination (Article 2)

Chapter 4. Right to work (Article 6)

Chapter 5. The right to just and favorable conditions of work (Article 7)

Chapter 6. The right to social security (Article 9)

Chapter 7. The right to protection of the family (Article 10)

Chapter 8. The right to an adequate standard of living (Article 11)

Chapter 9. The right to physical and mental health (Article 12)

Chapter 10. The right to education (Article 13)

Chapter 1. General Legal Protection Framework

1.1 General Introduction

In the past few years, proposals from the government to ensure that government policies and domestic law will be compatible with Hong Kong's international treaty obligations have been lacking. There has been no significant progress in the implementation of the ICESCR (the Covenant) in different areas of life.

1.2 Incorporation of the ICESCR into domestic legislation together with the reservation

At present, Article 39 of the Basic Law states that the ICESCR shall remain in force and implemented through the laws of Hong Kong. However, the ICESCR does not have any legal binding force in the domestic legal system of Hong Kong. Only the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been transformed into domestic law in the form of the Bill of Rights. Domestic legislation of the ICESCR is yet to be introduced.

There are wide criticisms towards the Government for maintaining the reservations to certain articles of the Covenant. However, despite the fact that the Government has repeatedly been urged to provide a time frame for the HKSAR to review and withdraw these reservations, the government has shown no intention to make any changes.

Although it is stated in article 39 of the Basic Law that the provisions of ICESCR shall be implemented through the laws of Hong Kong, the provisions continue to be excluded from the domestic law of Hong Kong. There is no law protecting workers from long working hours and extremely low wages which affect the right to just and favorable conditions of work; no law regarding elimination of age and sexual orientation discrimination; no law related to housing rights, no official poverty line; no laws protecting people from forced evictions, and so on. Your committee has also raised these questions in the previous hearings but they were totally ignored by the Government.

1.3 Legal aid policy for litigations related to violations of the ICESCR

According to the present legal aid policy, the upper limit of financial eligibility in meritorious cases may be waived by the Director of Legal Aid where a breach of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance or an in-consistency with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as applied to Hong Kong may be involved. However, the government has no plans to introduce the same waiving scheme for cases related to the ICESCR.

1.4 Consideration of recommendations by Committee on the ICESCR

In view of the last Concluding Observations on the first report by China/ Hong Kong issued by the CESCR, various recommendations have been rendered. It is highly appreciated that the Committee produced comprehensive and thorough concluding observations after the hearings in 1994, 1996 and 2001. However, many recommendations were totally ignored by the Government and remain unresolved, for example: To develop a fair and open one-way permit approval mechanism in order to facilitate rapid family reunification; to take effective measures to retrain those who have lost employment as a result of economic restructuring; review policies relating unfair dismissal, minimum wage and maximum hours of work; total eradication of cage-homes; review services provided to persons of mental illness and disability; measures to integrate children of immigrant families from China and so on.

1.5 Human Rights Education

Although the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education under the Home Affairs Bureau did carry out human rights education in the past few years, their focus was more on civil and political rights. Generally speaking, people would not regard economic, social and cultural rights as basic human rights, not to say knowing the principles of indivisibility and interdependence between the two sets of rights. The government officials may equally share this lack of awareness. This may explain the reason why the Government refuses to translate the provisions of ICESCR into domestic law as that of the ICCPR.

1.6 Recommendations

1. To urge the HK SAR Government to translate the provisions of the ICESCR into domestic law.
2. To urge the HK SAR Government to provide a time frame to review and withdraw the reservations to certain articles of the Covenant soon.
3. To urge the HK SAR Government to implement the recommendations of your Committee.
4. To urge the HK SAR Government to promote economic, social and cultural rights through formal and informal education.

2.1 Universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and Legislative Council

The opposition against legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which is related to the legislation on the grounds of national security, reflected the undemocratic nature of the existing system and intensified public debate about the impact of such legislation on civil liberties and fundamental freedoms. More Hong Kong residents have become aware of their civil rights, and they have developed a stronger wish for universal suffrage.

Many local organizations actively participated in advocating for universal suffrage through constitutional reform. On 1 January 2004, more than 100,000 citizens were organized and a further 500,000 citizens participated in the march in July 1, 2004 advocating for the implementation of universal suffrage in the 2007 Chief Executive election and the 2008 Legislative assembly election.

During the process, the pro-Beijing camp and legal scholars from the mainland China initiated a discussion the issue of patriotism and many democrats were blackened as not being loyal to the motherland and not eligible for discussing democracy.

In response to public pressure, the Chief Executive commenced public consultations in early 2004 after having a close discussion with the mainland authorities. The Constitutional Development Task Force, which consults both the central authorities and the local public, was formed. The Task Force published different reports concerning the issues of the legislative process.

2.2 The re-interpretation of the Basic Law of the mainland authority

However, without considering the views of the majority, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) reached a decision on the interpretation of the relevant provisions in Annexes I and II to the Basic Law on 6 April 2004. In addition, the NPCSC promulgated on 26 April 2004 the decision, which eliminated the possibilities for introducing universal suffrage of the Chief Executive in 2007 and the Legislative Council in 2008.

The re-interpretation of the Basic Law by the NPCSC not only violated the rule of law and destroyed judicial independence but also it negated the strong demand for civil and political rights of the general public. Although the right to universal suffrage has been stated in the Basic Law, the unjust act of the central authorities had already eliminated the possibilities of universal suffrage for the Chief Executive of the next term, while the general public will insist on advocating for it before 2007.

2.3 Recommendations

1. To urge the mainland authority to respect the "One Country, Two Systems" principle and the high autonomy of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and avoid to make further re-interpretation of the Basic Law.
2. To urge the SAR Government to strictly obey the Basic Law by introducing universal suffrage in the next term for the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council.
3. To urge the SAR Government to initiate a highly transparent and accountable public consultation on constitutional reform.

Chapter 3. Non-discrimination (Article 2)

3.1 The hitting down of the credibility of the discrimination watchdog

The principle of non-discrimination is widely related to different areas of life and it can only be achieved with an effective monitoring mechanism. According to article 2(1), each State Party obliges to undertake steps to the maximum of available resources, particularly the adoption of legislative measures. However, it is not the case in Hong Kong, which can be reflected from the case of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

The EOC is a statutory body that aims at enforcing the existing anti-discrimination ordinances and promoting equal opportunities in Hong Kong. In the past years, the EOC gained a reputable status within local and international communities. However, in July 2003, the SAR Government suddenly terminated the contract of the former chairperson, Madam WU Hung-yuk, and appointed the retired judge, Michael WONG Kin-chow, as the new chairman. Despite his strong legal background, the new chairman was conservative and lacked a concept of equal opportunities. Worse still, after being a chairman for a month, it was alleged that he had unfairly dismissed the director of operations.

The unfair dismissal created a hot debate and the new chairman resigned after being under strong criticism from the general public. Even worse, it was uncovered that the allegations had been made by the new chairman together with top government officials, the Secretary for Home Affairs and the members of EOC in a secret meeting, where they drafted defamatory statements against the former chairperson.

However, the Government rejected the proposal of the investigation and the Secretary for Home Affairs, who appointed himself to the "independent " investigation panel to investigate the incident. The investigation panel was consisted of 3 members from the different professional backgrounds, including university professors and accountants. The whole incidence has had a destructive effect on the thecredibility of the EOC, and it now seems unfit to promote anti-discrimination movement effectively.

3.2 Government proposed faulty consultation on legislation against racial discrimination

After having postponed it for more than one year, the HKSAR government has finally issued a consultation paper on legislation against racial discrimination in the private sector and plans to implement the law in the legislative year of 2005-06. However, it is disappointing that the government already from the outset has proposed several disturbing factors, which must urgently be drawn to the attention of the Committee. The proposed legislation is so flawed that it is doubtful whether it can adequately protect ethnic minorities against racial discrimination.

3.3 New immigrants from mainland China

First of all, new immigrants from mainland China have been explicitly excluded from the proposed law, as the government argues that they do not constitute an ethnic group separate from the local Chinese. However there is legal and social case for treating new immigrants from Mainland China as a protected group under the future race law. The general recommendations 8, 14 and 24 of International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) state the importance of self-identification of the affected group.

Additionally, differences among Chinese are recognized on the basis of national or ethnic origin in the Mainland China. According to citizens' national or ethnic origin, the Chinese Government provides legal protection according to ICERD even though the different ethnicity and national groups are all Chinese. Some of the recognized minority nationalities in China are not genetically distinguishable from the Han, but their claim for status as minorities is still recognized. New immigrants are ethnic Chinese just as the local people, but this does not mean that their cultural, linguistic and historical aspects are the same as that of local people. Their national and ethnic origin should be assessed.

The Hong Kong legal system is based on the essential principles of the common law including the principles of equality before the law. The separate legal system also affects Hong Kong's international relationship and its status with respect to international treaties and organizations. There is one country, but two international legal personalities

In the past 7 years, about 380,000 new immigrants have settled in Hong Kong where they have faced severe racial discrimination . A survey about racial discrimination was conducted in 2004 by the Society for Community Organization where 136 new immigrants were interviewed. It was found that 91.2% of new immigrant interviewees complained that they had experienced discrimination because of their new immigrant identity; behavior or appearance whereas the survey results in 2001 was 82%. For example, 43.4% of them were rejected for employment when the employer saw that their identity card did not show permanent status or because their dialect is different from that of Hong Kong people. 16.9% of them received lower wages than that of local people. Nearly 45.6% of them received inferior service or treatment than that of local people when the service provider recognized them as a new immigrant.

Most of them reported that they did not dare to reveal their new immigrant identity in public areas or did not dare to make friends with local Hong Kong residents. 97.8% of them felt that local Hongkongers racially discriminated against new immigrants. It was also found that 36% of them encountered racial discrimination when they sought for help from the Government Departments concerned. 98.5% of them expected the law to handle the problem of discrimination against them from local Hongkongers. 93.4% of them expected that there would be a complaint mechanism for them under the new anti-racial discrimination ordinance.

In addition, new immigrants do not enjoy the same treatment as the local Hong Kong permanent residents under the Government policies. Although there is no Hong Kong citizenship, there is a status of permanent resident, which provides significant and benefits rights. The Hong Kong permanent residents with 7 years residence or above only enjoy the rights to political participation and welfare. New immigrants are less privileged than the Hong Kong permanent residents. They are the minority of the society. Legal protection should be given to this minority.

3.4 Ethnic minorities: Grounds of protection: exclusion of language and religion

Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong face different types of discrimination, which are not only based on race or color but also on language or religion.

According to the consultation paper on legislation against racial discrimination, however, the government has proposed only to define racial discrimination in line with article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which includes discrimination based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin, but not language or religion.

Hong Kong has two official languages: Chinese and English. However, one of the major characteristics of the minorities in Hong Kong is that most of them do not speak Chinese, and are therefore often discriminated against. In a survey released by Society for Community Organization (SoCO), only 7.4% of the ethnic minorities who had approached the Labor Department to search a job could find a job through these means. Often they are told that there are no jobs for them if they do not speak Cantonese, the local dialect of Hong Kong. However, language as a requirement seems to be an excuse for the front line officers for not providing adequate service to minorities. Lastly, especially Muslims in the Pakistani and Indonesian community may suffer from discrimination based on their religion in the aftermath of the terror attacks on 11 September.

3.5 Updated legislation against racial discrimination

According to the Home Affairs Bureau, it is planned that the future law against racial discrimination should be modeled on the existing three discrimination ordinances, that is the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance, Disability Discrimination Ordinance and Sex Discrimination Ordinance. This poses a problem especially to the definition of indirect discrimination as it has already been amended in laws abroad .

However, The Hong Kong government however has no intention to adopt a wider definition from the Race Directives already adopted in European countries, which replaces the "requirement or condition" with "neutral provision, criterion or practice" and which further requires a an objective justification test .

The old definition of indirect discrimination has been widely criticized, primarily because the judges of United Kingdom have interpreted "requirement or condition" so narrowly, which means that Hong Kong judges would follow a narrow interpretation as well.

It is highly disturbing that the government does not want to adopt a more updated and recent definition, as indirect discrimination is widespread in Hong Kong. For instance many ethnic minorities have difficulties in accessing the health care system because they face communication problems with the staff. Furthermore many cannot attend vocational training courses because the course has not been offered in English.

3.6 Recommendations

1. To urge the government to establish an independent panel to investigate the EOC incident.
2. To urge the government to set up a more open mechanism for appointing the chairpersons and members of the EOC as well as other human rights institution.
3. To urge the government to have an all round legislation to eliminate all forms of discrimination, including age, religion, language, sexual orientation, social origin and other status.
4. To seriously criticize the government for its intention to exclude new immigrants from the law against racial discrimination and urge it to include them as a protected group in the law.
5. To urge the government to take into account the special situation of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and include discrimination based on language and religion.
6. To urge the government to adopt an updated definition of indirect discrimination in the racial discrimination ordinance based on the new definitions from the European Directives.
7. To urge the government to provide detailed information on the progress of the legislation against different kinds of discrimination based on age and sexual orientation.

Chapter 4. Right to work (Article 6)

4.1 Poor employment conditions and the increasing number of the working poor

Due to the economic downturn and the lack of an appropriate social policy in response to the economic restructuring, the unemployment and underemployment rate reached to the highest level in the past few years where the employment conditions became worse. As the labor supply was higher than the demand of the market, the average income of the labor decreased sharply while the working hours and working conditions became worse and worse.

In 2003 and 2004, more than 550,000 employed persons had a monthly income below half the median income of the employed persons ($5,000 or below). (Table 1)

Table 1. Employed Persons by Monthly Employment Income (2003 and 2004)
Monthly employment income(HK$) 2nd Quarter2003 1st Quarter2004 2nd Quarter2004
'000persons % '000persons % '000persons %
$3,000 or below 152. 8 4. 8 172. 0 5. 3 158. 3 4. 8
$4,000 or below 410. 2 12. 8 424. 1 13. 0 413. 8 12. 6
$5,000 or below 556. 2 17. 4 571. 6 17. 5 555. 0 16. 9
$6,000 or below 738. 4 23. 1 762. 0 23. 3 753. 4 22. 9
$7,000 or below 965. 7 30. 2 984. 1 30. 1 989. 8 30. 1
$8,000 or below 1183. 8 37. 0 1197. 3 36. 6 1223. 3 37. 2
$9,000 or below 1426. 6 44. 6 1426. 1 43. 6 1474. 8 44. 9
$10,000 or below 1600. 0 50. 0 1604. 0 49. 1 1677. 5 51. 1
$10,001-$20,000 932. 9 29. 2 896. 3 27. 6 938. 2 28. 6
$20,001 -$30,000 335. 0 10. 5 360. 5 11. 1 334. 9 10. 2
$30,001or above 330. 3 10. 3 396. 1 12. 2 332. 1 10. 1
Total number of working population 3198. 2 100 3256. 9 100 3282. 4 100
Median income: 9,900 10,000 9,500
(Source of Information: Quarterly Report of General Household Survey, April to June 2004, Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR Government.)

According to the official statistics, the low-income employed people's monthly income sharply reduced 20% from $4,900 (1997) to $3,900 (2004) in the past seven years, while the high-income employed people's monthly income apparently rose by 10%. On the other hand, the working hours for the working people was sharply increased from 45 hours (1997) to 48 hours (2004) per week and the number of working people increased from 44 million to 75 million people.

According to International Management Development in its Annual Report of the Competitive Abilities in the world 2004, Hong Kong people average working hours reached 2,398 hours per year in 2003, which is the highest one all over the world.

4.2 Lack of statutory minimum wage and maximum working hours

Hong Kong's low-income working group lacks bargaining power to negotiate with employers. In the past decades, as suggested by your Committee, there have been calls for introducing statutory minimum wage and maximum working hours. However, the government and the pro-business camp strongly opposed this proposal by arguing that it would be harmful to the economy of Hong Kong. In October 2004, the motion for urging legislation on minimum wage and maximum working hours in the Legislative Council was formally shoot down by the members of the business sectors and the conservative camp. Worse still, the rapid outsourcing and contract-out of public services by the Government created a lot of inhuman and unfair working term.

4.3 Serious age discrimination in the labor market

Apart from the lack of legal protection, the age discrimination in the labor market also created great obstacles for the employment of the middle age workers. According to the recent study of the City University of Hong Kong, it was found that the issue of age discrimination in the labour market is prevalent in Hong Kong. Age discrimination in employment is at a rather high level in Hong Kong. A measurement of the mean score (raning from 0 to 100 of the perception on age discrimination, found that retrainees' perception (M=72.6), it was substantially higher than that of employees (M=48.0) and employers (M=36.4).

Hong Kong Government lacks a plan in adopting legislation against age discrimination so as to eliminate the harmful of discrimination for the elder people.

4.4 Insufficient employment support services for the marginal groups: Ex-offenders

The employment difficulty is very serious among the general public and it is much worse for the marginal groups. According to the statistics from Correctional Services Department, the total number of offenders rose by 7.9% from 11,655 (1999) to 12,529 (2003) in the past five years (see Table 2). Although all the offenders would be offered a series of programs in the institution, there are still 47.3% ex-offenders who repeatedly got into prison after discharge (see table 3).
In the past five years, the recidivism rate of ex-offenders remains relatively high. The following figure shows that over 40% ex-offenders repeatedly go back to prison.

Table 2. Total number of offenders from the year of 1999 to 2003
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Total 11,655 11,576 12,305 12,474 12,579
(Source: Correctional Services Department, 2004)

Table 3. The recidivism rate of ex-offenders from the year of 1999 to 2003
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
50.2% 48.2% 49.2% 49.5% 47.3%
(Source: Correctional Services Department, 2004)

SoCO launched a survey in studying of the needs and difficulties of ex-offenders in 2000. The survey showed that 80% ex-offenders lack emergency financial support, 68% lack family support and 40% are forced to be street sleepers.

4.5 Lack of tailor-made training for offenders in institutions for less than two years

For the offenders who are institutionalized for less than two years the programme decided by the Correctional Services Department mainly emphasize strict discipline and casual work such as needlework, stapling books, cleaning etc. They found that such activities cannot enhance their vocational skills so as to prepare them to integrate in the society. Rather it was only a waste of time and their skills were not recognized by the public. Most of the ex-offenders preferred that the Correctional Services Department should provide computer course, language course or service-industrial course to match the existing labor market.

4.6 Limitation on participating in retraining courses after discharge

After discharge ex-offenders face a lot of difficulties in finding jobs and they find it hard to participate in retraining. It is common to see that most retraining courses in Hong Kong are for unemployed people to be security guard.

Worse, according to Security and Guarding Services Ordinance (Chapter 460), the Hong Kong Police Force should take a look on the criminal record of those who attempt to apply for a security permit.

The above Ordinance (Chapter 460) restricts summary offenders applyin for security permit to have no criminal record from two years to three years. Such limitation created more obstacles for ex-offenders to reintegrate in the society.

4.7 Discrimination against the status of ex-offenders

In Hong Kong, there is no legislation on the discrimination against ex-offenders. Most ex-offenders face a lot of difficulties in handling direct or indirect discrimination in job searching. Most commonly the disclosure of whether they are ex-offenders or not is a lack of protection of their privacy. They found that in most cases the requirement of the employer to view the criminal record was not related with the job nature. However, ex-offenders are often rejected employment simply because of their status as ex-offenders.

4.8 High unemployment rate among ethnic minority residents

Another group, which faces employment difficulties, is ethnic minorities who face severe problems in finding jobs. The unemployment rate is significantly high. Research has shown that more than 40% of the ethnic minorities are out of jobs, which is much higher than the 6.9% among the overall population. Some few figures can indicate the relatively higher unemployment rate. While 42% of the Nepalese construction workers are out of jobs, the figure was 19% for the overall population in the end of 2003. In fact 33% of the Nepalese respondents in a survey answered that they did not have any income and 48% were living under the poverty line .

The high unemployment rate among ethnic minorities can be contributed to the fact that the government has no specific policy to create jobs to minorities or to eliminate the barriers those minorities in accessing the labor market. In fact the employment services, especially those in the Labor Department, do not suit the special needs of minorities who do not speak the local Chinese dialect. Furthermore most vocational training courses are only provided in Chinese, thus making it impossible for minorities to attend these courses.

4.9 Recommendations

1. To urge the government to introduce statutory minimum wage and maximum working hours as recommended by your Committee.
2. To urge for the introducing a comprehensive rehabilitative policies for the ex-offenders.
3. To urge the government to create an ethnic minority employment policy and provide more vocational training courses and tests in English or ethnic minority languages.
4. To urge the government to provide an evaluation of the measures taken so far to address the problem of unemployment among ethnic minorities and state if there are any plans to address the issue of unemployment among ethnic minorities.

5.1 Minimum wage of foreign domestic helpers

On October 1, 2003, the government imposed a levy on employers of foreign domestic helpers of $400 per month for a 2-year contract . On the same time a reduction of the salary of the domestic helpers was also imposed, cutting $400 off their salary. The reduction of the monthly minimum wage for foreign domestic workers and the imposition of Employers Retraining Levy represent indirect racial discrimination, as the reduction of the minimum wage is a badly disguised way to help employers pay the levy. As the reduction goes to the local workforce this clearly puts ethnic minorities at a disadvantage. Most of Hong Kong's 240,000 foreign domestic helpers are from the Philippines, with Indonesia and Thailand also contributing significant numbers.

The levy is a badly disguised way to tax the foreign domestic helpers which can only be described as being cruel and unjust, as under Hong Kong's salary tax schedule, a Hong Kong resident must have a monthly income of HK$ 9,000 (if single) or HK$ 18,000 (if married) to be liable for salaries tax.

5.2 Underpayment and abuse

Underpayment and abuse of foreign domestic helpers are widespread and severe. However, although the government has set up a taskforce to combat underpayment among foreign domestic helpers such problems still exist.

5.3 Recommendations

1. To urge the government taking measures to eliminate discrimination against ethnic minorities on wages and benefits.
2. To urge the government to provide a progress report and evaluation of the work of the taskforce and the number of successful prosecutions of underpaying employers of domestic helpers.
3. To urge the government to withdraw the imposition of the wage cut on foreign domestic helpers

6.1 Poverty in an affluent city

Hong Kong has long been regarded as an international and prosperous city and one of the wealthiest societies in the world in terms of per capita GDP, which was HK$195,585 (USD$25,140) in 1998. In reality, beyond the prosperity image, the poverty problem in Hong Kong was deteriorating in both relative and absolute sense. However, the general public cannot share the fruits of the economic growth and the economic re-structuring led more unemployed and under-employed people to live in poverty. Worst still, the government got rid of its responsibility and did not take any active measures for ameliorating poverty.

6.2 Increasing of the number of the poor

According to a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service in 2003, more than 1,122,000 people live below the poverty line and they included low-income families, working elderly and the new immigrants from the Mainland China. The poverty population share is 16.5% of the total population.

The proportion of the poverty population has been increasing from 11.2% in 1991 to 15.8% in 2001. The poverty problem is definitely serious.

From 2001 to 2003, the number of low-income families, whose household income was less than half of the median monthly income, had been increased from 392,900 to 401,000. Moreover, the number of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients was doubled in 2003. The families became poor because of the fall of real household income and economic recession.

Some significant figures reflect the poor situation:

- The Gini Coefficient of Hong Kong increased from 0.48 in 1991 to 0.525 in 2001. It is very ridiculous that this figure ranked top five of the developing countries (see Table 4).
- From 1991 to 2001, households with the lowest income have shown no sign of improvement in share of income, whereas there is a sign of decrease in the actual income of the low-income households. The median income of the lowest income 10% households dropped from $3,084 (USD400.5) in 1991 to $2,977 (USD386.6) in 2001. The median income of the lowest income 20% households also dropped from $7,499 (USD973.9) in 1996 to $6,750 (USD876.6) in 2001.(see Table 5)
- In 2001, the mean income of the lowest income 10% households lived on HK$2,977 per month while the highest income 10% household enjoyed HK$80,000 instead. (The average means-tested public assistance rate for a 3-member family is HK$5,400 per month in 2004.) (see Table 5)
- In 2003, the poverty problem of elderly and children is serious. The poverty rate of elderly, children aged 0-14 and adolescents' aged within 15-29 is 29.8%, 22.0% and 11.9% respectively. The poverty rate of women is 16.4% (see Table 6).

Table 4. Comparison of Gini Coefficient in Different Regions in the 1990s
Region GiniCoefficient Country Gini Coefficient
Malaysia 0. 492 (1997) Canada 0. 315 (1994)
Central African Republic 0. 613 (1993) United Kingdom 0. 368 (1995)
Hondures 0. 563 (1993) USA 0. 408 (1997)
Hong Kong 0. 525 (2001) Thailand 0. 414 (1998)
People Republic of China 0. 403 (1998) Korea 0. 316 (1993)
* Higher Gini Coefficient denotes higher income inequality.
Source: (World Development Report 2003) and Census Department

Table 5. Household Monthly Income in Hong Kong, 1991-2001 (HK$)
Grouped by decile Households 1991 1996 2001
Lowest Income 10% 3,084 3,042 2,977
2nd 10% 6,631 7,499 6,750
3rd 10% 9,252 10,140 10,000
4th 10% 11,102 12,675 13,000
5th 10% 13,775 16,123 16,500
6th 10% 16,499 19,773 20,500
7th 10% 20,046 23,829 25,705
8th 10% 25,633 30,175 32,560
9th 10% 34,641 40,560 44,650
Highest Income 10% 61,680 70,980 80,000
Source of Information: Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR Government, 2001.

Change in Real Monthly Income
93/90 96/93 99/96 99/90
10. 0% -5. 9% -30. 6% -28. 1%
6. 6% -1. 1% -19. 4% -15. 0%
0. 6% 0. 4% -5. 1% -4. 2%
7. 8% 4. 5% -11. 0% 0. 2%
6. 5% 5. 8% -6. 9% 4. 8%
9. 4% 8. 1% -2. 7% 15. 0%
9. 1% 7. 0% -2. 3% 14. 0%
6. 6% 11. 1% -2. 9% 15. 0%
5. 6% 10. 8% 0. 5% 17. 6%
8. 6% 13. 4% 4. 1% 28. 2%
4. 3% 8. 2% -5. 1% 7. 0%
Source of Information: Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR Government, 2001.
Table 6. The percentage of the proportion of low-income households in different social groups (1991-2003)
1991 2001 2003
The overall poverty rate 11. 2 % 15. 8 % 16. 5 %
The children poverty rate (aged 0-14) 17. 1 % 20. 7 % 22 %
The adolescents poverty rate (aged 15-29) 11 % 10. 4 % 11. 9 %
The women poverty rate 12. 4 % 15. 9 % 16. 4 %
The elderly poverty rate 24. 8 % 32. 7 % 29. 8 %
Source of Information: Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR Government, 2003.

6.4 Inapt governmental policies to assist different groups of the poor

The SAR Government has been adopting an over-simplified logic of the neo-classical economics and believed that overall economic growth will trickle down to the whole society, including each and every group. In the face of the economic transformation and the increasing number of the poor, the government merely rendered impractical and insufficient retraining programs to the middle-aged workers that inevitably brought out more low-income families.

6.4.1 Working elderly

Moreover, due to the lack of a central provident fund and a comprehensive pension scheme, more and more elderly become poor and depends on social welfare. Worst still, those elderly living with their families were not qualified to apply for the CSSA, whose right to social welfare was exploited. In order to be self-supported, more than 120,000 elderly needed to work in poor working conditions with meager salaries (their median income is HK$5,000, half of the median monthly income in Hong Kong). Worse still, they were excluded from the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme and are without any retirement protection.

6.4.2 New Immigrants from the Mainland China

The problem of poverty is also serious among new arrivals from the Mainland China. About 54,000 new immigrants coming to Hong Kong for family reunion every year. Social discrimination and exclusion from the local people were the common obstacles for work. Government figures showed that near two-third of new arrivals had monthly employment earnings between $4,000 and $7,000, while only 5.1% earned $15,000 and over. Even worse, the employed new arrivals generally had lower incomes than those of the local people as a whole (see Table 7). This inevitably led more new immigrants to become low-income families.

Table 7. Monthly employment earnings of employed persons from the mainland China having resided in Hong Kong for less than 7 years

Monthly employment earnings (HK$) Employed persons from the mainland China having resided in Hong Kong for less than 7 years Total employment population
No. of persons ('000) % %
<3,000 4. 9 6. 9 2. 7
3,000 - 3,999 3. 4 4. 8 5. 7
4,000 - 4,999 7. 8 11. 0 2. 9
5,000 - 5,999 12. 5 17. 7 4. 4
6,000 - 6,999 12. 3 17. 4 6. 3
7,000 - 7,999 8. 9 12. 6 6. 6
8,000 - 8,999 6. 7 9. 5 8. 9
9,000 - 9,999 3. 3 4. 6 6. 2
10,000 - 14,999 7. 4 10. 4 25. 0
315,000 3. 6 5. 1 31. 2
Total 70. 8 100. 0 100. 0
Median monthly employment earnings (HK$) 6,000(USD 780) 10,000(USD 1,300)

Source of Information: Quarterly Report of General Household Survey, Jan-Mar 2000, Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR Government.

6.4.3 Housewives and single-parent families

Housewives and single-parent families are another hidden group of the poor. Like the working elderly, housewives are not entitled to the MPF scheme. Divorced or separated women have to either accept low paid work or rely on CSSA. Moreover, single parents having CSSA have to work when their children reach the age of 15 by the introduction of new CSSA policy in 1998.

6.5 Deduction of social security

The level of benefit of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme (CSSA) scheme is not adequate to help the poor out of poverty but creates and maintains a poverty trap for the recipients. The residual approach of the government's welfare philosophy is a failure rather than a success in fighting against poverty.

Hong Kong government's deliberate aim to construct that a dependency culture exists in Hong Kong discourages the poor from getting help from the CSSA system. Can social security in Hong Kong alleviate the poverty problem? It is doubtful whether the rates of assistance paid through the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme provide for a decent standard of living for its recipients, as also concerned by the Committee. Although the Government stated in the report that "To ensure the allowances maintain the purchasing power of the recipients, the standard rates are revised annually to take account of inflation. The level and scope of the special grants are also reviewed periodically to ensure that they keep pace with the actual costs of the items covered and meet the changing needs of recipients (para. 145), the reality is not so.

In December 1998, the Social Welfare Department reviewed the CSSA Scheme and recommended slashing family allowances and encouraging single parents to find jobs. Finally, the standard rates of a three-person or above family have been cut 10-20%, most of the special grants including dental treatment and telephone bills were scrapped, and the annual long-term supplement for healthy adult and children were also cut. According to the Secretary of Health and Welfare, the idea was to tackle abuses in the system and encourage people to stand on their own feet. However, it seems the true motive was to cut welfare expenses. Before the announcement of the proposal, the Government tried to portray poverty as laziness and misfortune as shame. The welfare recipients are looked upon as parasites and as wasting resources of the society.

In 2003, the Government also used the excuse of deflation to reduce the standard rates of all recipients and the disability allowances of disabled people by 11.1%. On the contrary, the civil servants also encountered deduction problems, but their salary is being deducted by 6% and divided into 2 years for implementation. The welfare recipients are the scapegoat of the deficit budget crisis again. As a result, the families who received CSSA have to further cut their already limited expenses on food and clothing. They cannot afford any entertainment or social life and had to face discrimination from the society. All these seriously affect their self-esteem and health and it can hardly be said that they are able to maintain a decent living standard. Moreover there is a lack of further assistance or subsidies, such as extra-curricular activity subsidies provided for children living in poverty.

6.6 Introduction of 7-year hurdle for welfare application

The introduction of 7-year residence rule as one of the application criteria for the welfare assistance created many poverty cases without basic social security protection on the new arrivals from Mainland China and ethnic minorities. Many difficult single-parent family cases were found to be living on the welfare rates for one person because the new arrival status of the mother was a barrier to receive social welfare. How can they lead a decent life with dignity?

6.7 Lack of poverty line and policy to assist the poor

The SAR Government turned its blind eye to help the poor. It rejected to establish a poverty line to monitor the situation. The poor are inevitably suffering from the cancellation of various welfare grants. In the absence of long-term policy, the day for eradicating poverty was not clear.

6.8 Recommendations

1. To ensure the basic standard of living of retired persons, low-income families and the unemployed persons, the Government should review its comprehensive social security system. The Government should resume the special grants to the welfare recipients.
2. The Government should eliminate the age limit of the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) so employees aged 65 or above are included. Furthermore, housewives and the self-employed persons should be included into the scheme and a universal retirement scheme should be established for all citizens.
3. The SAR Government in collaboration with the NGOs should draw definitions and indicators of the Poverty Line. Moreover, the Government should form a committee, which continuously carries out research on poverty and provides recommendations for reduction of poverty.
4. The SAR Government should improve the labor retraining programs and create more jobs by developing more industries in the community such as an environmental protection industry. Furthermore, it should provide subsidies for those who employ re-trained workers and provide tax exemption for the self-employed workers.
5. Minimum wages should be introduced through legislation in order to ensure the basic standard of living of low-income workers. Furthermore, the Government should establish a committee to tackle the widening of the poverty gap and put the issue of poverty as the its highest agenda so that the economic, social and cultural rights of the low-income families guaranteed by the Covenant can be ensured.

Chapter 7. The right to protection of the family (Article 10)

7.1 Split families between Hong Kong and the Mainland China

In Hong Kong, there are still approximately 100,000 split families comprising parents and their children separated between Mainland China and Hong Kong as a result of erroneous policies. Their prospect of reunion is not regulated by a reasonable queuing system but procedures that subject them to bureaucratic manipulation and corruption. Such acts constitute a violation of Article 10 of the Convention, which stipulates that "[t]he widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society". In light of this, we sincerely urge the Committee to pay attention to this problem and protect the rights of these separated families.

Since China has adopted the open door policy in late 1970s, the residents of the Mainland China or Hong Kong had more and more chances to develop business or work together. Many Hong Kong single males were employed to work in mainland factories as the Hong Kong factories developed business in mainland after the open door policy. The number of across border marriage has grown rapidly. Nevertheless, according to existing policies, the spouses and children have to stay in Mainland China to apply for One-way Entry Permits from the PRC Government before they are allowed to join their husbands/fathers in Hong Kong.

The One-way Permit system has been commonly criticized as unfair, ineffective, as well as lacking a transparent and uniform standard. Different provinces in mainland China now operate their own system to allocate their share of the 150 daily quota and the applicants have no way of knowing the eligibility of applications, the assessment criteria nor the waiting time.
We understand from the PRC government that One-way Permits are not approved on a family basis but only on an individual basis. In most cases, mothers and children have to wait for their turn in separate queues, resulting in prolonged and unnecessarily family separation. The worst scenario is that in some parts of China, children are absolutely denied the right of application thus causing split families of a permanent nature. For the spouse queue, applicants have to wait for 7 years. Some of the husbands passed away in Hong Kong when they were expecting family reunion. Their widowed wives were denied the right to apply for one-way permit to go to Hong Kong to take care of their young children.

Worse still, the problem is aggregated by widespread corruption. Many applicants have reported that they have to pay a bribe ranging from HKD 60,000 to HKD 200,000 i.e. USD 7,692 to USD 25,641 to the responsible district officials or they run the risk of being disqualified. As a result, families who cannot afford to pay a bribe are forced to take the risks of taking dangerous and illegal entry routes to Hong Kong. In most cases, mother who have to take care of young children have no alternatives but to turn to smugglers to bring them to Hong Kong while young children who need motherly care are also subject to the risk of illegal entry from Mainland China.

After the change of sovereignty, the mainland children of Hong Kong permanent residents should enjoy right of abode in Hong Kong according to Basic Law. However, the Hong Kong government not only did not facilitate the children to settle in Hong Kong earlier to exercise their right, but also denied the right of those children who were born before one of their parents became Hong Kong permanent residents.

Worse still, when the families lodged lawsuits to the court and won the case, the Hong Kong Government asked the Standing Committee of NPC to interpret two provisions of the Basic Law (article 24(2)(3)) relevant to the part of the CFA's right of abode ruling in June 1999. The purpose was to deny the right of abode of mainland-born children born before at least one parent had become a HK permanent resident and requiring mainland-born children to first obtain documents issued by the HK Government (COE) and PRC Government (One-way Exit Permit) before they can formally get their right of abode. It deprives people of the right of abode and right to family reunion. Most mainland-born children of HK residents who benefit from the January 29 verdict were forced to return across the border and apply for residency in HK in the previous way. But many of them have applied the One-Way Permit for more than 10 to 20 years but failed because of the forever changing mainland policy, which means there is no workable and reasonable mechanism for them to get the right of abode through the existing policy and thus unable to reunite with their parents.

We are concerned with the detrimental effects of long-term separation on the affected families. Not only marital relationship suffers, but also children's normal development is seriously affected due to deprivation of parental care and nurture. Mothers are often imbued with a sense of guilt that they cannot fulfill their roles as wives and mothers while their young children's physical and emotional development are adversely hampered by the prolonged separation.
We are disappointed that both the HKSAR Government and the Chinese Government still overlook the problems of the One-way Entry Permit system after the change pf sovereignty. We are alarmed at the lack of active cooperation and coordination between the two Governments to improve the existing system.

7.2 Split families of ethnic minorities

A split family among the ethnic minorities is a common phenomenon. For instance among the local Nepalese, 2/3 of the residents are male while only 1/3 are female. The reasons are that often the males, who come to Hong Kong to work, cannot afford or sponsor their families to come to join them in Hong Kong. According to a survey by SoCO, 53% of the respondents have had difficulties in sponsoring their family members to live in Hong Kong.

Currently the Immigration Ordinance of Hong Kong gives a lot of discretionary power to the director in the allocation of dependent visas. In fact the rules are not transparent. Hong Kong has a strict immigration policy where there is no policy of family reunification but only one of dependence. Namely the sponsor must be able to support the dependent's living at a standard well above the subsistence level. The fact that the Director of Immigration is allowed too much discretion may result in a disparate impact on poor ethnic minority, as they are often unable to meet the level of subsistence that the Director requires.

7.3 Recommendations

1. To urge the Hong Kong SAR Government and the People's Republic of China Government to have better coordination to ensure that One-way Entry Permits are approved on a family basis, so as to allow mothers and children to settle in Hong Kong at the same time.
2. To urge the Hong Kong SAR Government and the People's Republic of China Government to ensure the transparency of the criteria and procedure of the migration applications. It is essential that a monitoring mechanism be built into the system to enable public scrutiny and sanction.
3. To urge the Hong Kong SAR Government and the People's Republic of China Government to provide a reasonable and clear time limit to each split family in order to let them know whenever they can reunite.
4. To strongly urge the Hong Kong SAR Government to exercise its discretionary power on humanitarian grounds to the widows of those men who died before reunion, so they can resettle in Hong Kong in order to look after their children.
5. To urge the Hong Kong SAR Government to arrange a family reunion quota for those children whose right of abode was taken away by the reinterpretation.
6. To urge the government to provide statistics on the number of applications for dependent visas that have been received rejected and approved, and relax the application criteria for the family reunion of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

8.1 Violation of housing rights in Hong Kong

While the government is proud of its economic recovery, many housing problems of disadvantageous groups are still being neglected. The priority target of government's land or housing policies is not to fulfill the housing needs of households living in inadequate housing. Although the Hong Kong Government claimed that the waiting time for public housing is 3 years, according to the official figures , there are still about 150,000 people living in inadequate housing, such as cage homes, cubicles, roof-tops which are non-self contained units or non-permanent structures.

The numbers of application have been increased in the past 4 years because more and more people have became poor and need to apply for public housing. However the supply of public housing is going to decrease from average 30,000 to 17,000 in the coming 3 years. Besides, the allocation of public housing cannot meet the need of the families. As the families are getting lower wages and the unemployment rate remains high, the families cannot afford to receive offers of remote area public housing. 80% of the applicants want to live in old urban areas because of economic difficulties. However, only those applied before 30th June 2002 can be eligible for allocation of urban public housing.

8.2 The cage-home problem is still a shame in Hong Kong

The indecent conditions of cage-homes have been a concern in recent years. Though the number of cage-homes with a full license has greatly decreased from 153 in 1997 to 40 in 2004, academics and the Housing Authority reports indicate that as many as 10,000 single people live in cage homes. The cage home problem is a solid example of violation of housing rights by the government, as it fails to provide adequate housing for the cage men despite of its piling up of huge financial reserves. The government repeatedly stated that a cage home, as a kind of cheap housing, is on strong demand among the lower class.

In the Third Periodic Report submitted to the Committee by the Hong Kong Government, it stated, "its policy is not to phase out or outlaw this type of accommodation but to ensure, through legislation, that bedspace apartments do not endanger the lives of the persons living in them. " In 1994, the Bedspace Apartment Ordinance was passed which requires operators to renovate their apartment to meet the fire-safety standard before 1 July 1998. The ordinance brings little improvement in the living environment of the tenants, but the landlords use it as an extenuation of forced eviction or rent increases.
Almost 100 cage homes have closed down since the enactment of the Ordinance and many tenants have become homeless. Without a proper rehousing programme, the dwellers have to live in more appalling and unidentified cage homes. Our observation and experiences in urban slums run an alarming figure of 40 bedspace apartments run on an illegal basis. Thousands of small cubicles with inhumane living standard can easily be found in slum areas. It was also found that nearly half of the cage dwellers are new tenants. Most of them moved from better accommodations to cage home.

8.3 Discriminatory housing policy against singletons

One of the main reasons of the cage home phenomena is that the government refuses to look after the housing needs of singletons. Whereas there are 36,000 singletons aged below 60 cramping around the cage homes, cubicles and cocklofts, the government turns a blind eye to their urgent housing needs. From 1994-1999, there were only 370 public rental flats available on a yearly basis. Although the waiting time of singletons has improved from 9 to 5 years, it is still a particularly long waiting time compared with the families and elderly. The housing policy discriminates against the low-income singletons. Their application would be deferred if new family members add in and they are allocated to cohabit with other singletons.

For 10,000 single cage lodgers, the rehousing policy of cagemen disappointingly victimizes them. According to the existing policy, only cagemen at the age of 60 or above are qualified for applying for the scheme of rehousing for public rental flats. For those below 60, the only alternative is to move to singleton hostels. However, the open space design of hostels has been criticized for ignoring the privacy of the tenants. There is only one hostel with room design, but the rent is relatively high. Therefore, the occupancy rate of singleton hostels remained as low as 30% when the ordinance took effect on 1 July 1998. The occupancy rate has been increased to 70% as it has been used to rehouse other targets.

8.4 Dumping ground for most deprived groups

According to Society for Community Organization's (SoCO) cage-home and cubicle survey conducted in 2004, nearly 40% of the tenants were chronically ill, nearly 20% are rehabilitative groups, such as ex-convicts and former mental patients. Their families abandoned some of them. Some became homeless and even some were introduced by social workers to live in cage homes when they left rehabilitative hostels or penal institutions. The government has little concern on their rehabilitation and housing needs, and cage homes have become their only refuge.

8.5 Inadequate housed households in private housing

According to official figures, there are around 150,000 households living in sub-standard, partitioned cubicles in tenement buildings in 2004. Although the Government promises to relieve their living hardship by public housing policies, the number of cubicles in slum areas and the condition of tenants remain unchanged. With reference to SoCO's cage and cubicle survey conducted in 2004, the average living space of the interviewed households was 2.9 square meters. Half of the respondents were living with 13 or above households in the area of around 700 square feet. On average, they shared one toilet and kitchen with 16 people.
Most of the residents in old urban slums are middle-aged people who fallen prey to the restructuring of the economy. Suffering from structural unemployment and wage reduction, the median monthly household income of inadequate housing residents is decreased from HK$7,500 (USD 974) to HK$7,000 (USD 910) which is much lower than that of the whole population 60%. Worst still, tenants in inadequate housing also face spiraling rents under huge demand of cheap accommodation. The median rent to income ratio of private inadequate housed households has increased from 20% to 27.6% from 1996 to 2003. According to SoCO's research, the average rent per square feet of cubicles was $31 and the highest one, as expensive as the rent of famous commercial buildings in the city heart, was over $60 per square feet.

Despite the adverse condition of lodgers in inadequate housing, the government has no positive action to relieve their hardship, but just let them queue up the long waiting list for public rental flat.

8.6 Phasing out of Rent Allowance for Elderly Scheme (RAES)

SoCO has once been successful in advocating for HA to establish RAES in order to meet the housing needs of the elderly living in cage homes or cubicles in 2002. However, in September 2003, HA decided to phase out RAES, a scheme which only operated for two years. The reason behind is the great financial implication to HA which is already facing financial difficulties. The scheme will not receive any new applicants.

The phasing out of RAES is not respecting the "right to choose" of housing rights. The need of elderly choosing their desired place to live be ignored by HA's rigid bureaucracy and concerns over finance rather that people's need.

8.7 The Problem of High Rent Policy of Public Housing

Rents in the public rental sector in Hong Kong have been set with explicit reference to the affordability of tenants. Under the law, the median rent-to-income ratio of prospective tenants would not exceed 10%. Even the median rent-to-income ratio has been over 10% since 1999. In 2004, the median rent-to-income ratio is going up to 14.5% (see table 8). It depicts the affordability problems of the tenants as their income has been decreasing rapidly during these several years.

Table 8: The median rent-to-income ratio from 1990-2004

Year The median rent-to-income ratio
1st quarter of 2004 14. 5%
4th quarter of 2003 14. 2%
4th quarter of 2002 12. 1%
3rd quarter of 2001 11. 5%
4th quarter of 2000 10. 3%
2nd quarter of 2000 10. 2%
4th quarter of 1999 10%
2nd quarter of 1999 9. 8%
4th quarter of 1998 8. 6%
4th quarter of 1997 8. 9%
4th quarter of 1990 7. 3%
Source of Information: Housing Authority, HKSAR Government, 2004.

The median monthly income of tenants living in public rental housing and inadequate housing, which is particularly lower when compared with the general figure, is $10,500 and $8,000 respectively (see Table 9). However the Government still defends and refuses to reduce the rent. The Housing Authority always excuses itself in the absence of statutory obligation to review public rental housing rent every three years. Nor is it required by law to maintain the median rent-to-income ratio (MRIR) below 10% at all times. Hence, it aroused the legal proceedings brought by a public housing tenant challenging the Authority's decision to defer the rent review.

Table 9: The comparison of the median monthly households' income of tenants living in public rental housing or inadequate housing (1990-2003)

Year Median Monthly Households Income of tenants living in public rental housing Median Monthly Households Income of tenants living in inadequate housing Median Monthly Households Income of the population
4th of 2003 $10,500 $8,000(whole-year) $15,500(whole-year)
4th of 2002 $11,000 $8,500(whole-year) $16,500(whole-year)
4th of 2001 $12,000 $9,200(whole-year) $18,000(whole-year)
4th of 2000 $12,700 $8,000(whole-year) $18,000(whole-year)
3rd of 2000 $12,400
1999 $12,800 $8,500 $17,400
1998 $13,700 $9,000 $18,000
1995 $13,500 $8,000 $16,000
1990 $8,200 $5,000 $9,400
Source of Information: Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR Government, 2004.

According to the income of the public rental housing applicants, in 2001, their rent to income ratio was definitely high. The rent-to-income ratio of 31% households was above 25%. (see Table 10)

Table 10: The rent-to-income ratio of public rental housing applicants

Rent-to-income ratio The percentage of Households
Under 15% 40%
Within 15%-18. 5% 13%
Within 18. 5%-20% 6%
Within 20%-25% 10%
Over 25% 31%
Source of Information: Housing Authority, HKSAR Government, 2004.

In 2002, the High Court had a legal judgment stating that the public housing tenants win the case in that the Government should comply with the law to reduce the rent to the 10% level. But it is very disappointing that the Government still does nothing on the rent policy.

8.8 The Rigid Rent Assistance Scheme in public housing

Actually, under the Rent Assistance Scheme operated by the Housing Authority, public housing tenants who face temporary financial hardship may apply for a 50 per cent rent reduction Scheme. In 1995, the Housing Department estimated that there were 75,000 public rental households with financial hardships. Under the economic turmoil, this figure would be doubled. However, the number of households that has applied for the rent assistance scheme is very low because of the rigid application conditions. Firstly, the Housing Department bars the new tenants of the waiting-list applicants to apply for the scheme until the rent of their public estates has been changed. Moreover, the application criteria are very harsh especially for the 1-person and 2-persons households and the income criteria level is almost same with the application for Comprehensive Social Security. It greatly affects the result of the scheme.

8.9 Women living in cubicle

There are about 36,100 women living in old urban slum, living in bedspaces or cubicles. Most of them are new immigrants. According to SoCO's research in 2004, it was found that there is correlation between living condition and the mental health of the women. When the living condition is worse, the mental health of the women equally suffers. Besides, 35% of the women had been or are afraid of being sexually harassed by neighbors. Apart from that, the living environment is adverse and insecure, which affected the women's social life. What is more, there is a lack of appropriate childcare service to facilitate women participating in social activities or finding jobs.

8.10 Children Living in Inadequate Housing

According to official statistics , there are about 23,000 children living in inadequate housing in 23,000. According to SoCO's "Survey on the children living in old urban slum", it was found that the small living area has a severe impact on the studies as well as the mental and physical growth of children. The living area of over 90% (92.1%) of the children's family does not exceed 100 square feet, taking an average of only 22 square feet per person and even 10 square feet for the smallest, which falls far below the standard of 70 square feet stipulated by the Housing Authority. 61.9% told that they have no space but stay in their beds to complete their homework. 42.9% can play only in their beds and 54% even have to take their meals in their beds. The crowded living condition also has a bad impact on the social life and self-image of children. Nearly 60% (58.7%) of them do not invite their classmates or friends home owing to the overcrowded environment (83.8%), for fear of neighborhood complaints (27%), self-embarrassment (16.2%) or disliked by others (13.5%).

Children are the pillars of our society. It is a basic right for children to develop self-esteem, to have the opportunity to study, to be safe and to have adequate living condition in order to pursuit for a healthy mental and physical growth. 23,000 children still live in inadequate dwellings with hampered mental and physical growth in a fully resourced society, revealing that children's needs and rights are overlooked under housing policies and social services. The Housing Department not only refused to carry out affirmative actions in the allocation of public housing by giving priority to applicants who have children, but also requires half of the family members to have at least 7 years residence in Hong Kong as the criterion for application for public housing. According to the statistics from Housing Department, about 5,000 children's applications are frozen because their families cannot meet the 7 years residence criterion.

The amount of CSSA for children was deducted in 2003 by the Social Welfare Department. Now, children living in old urban areas are confronted with two enormous problems namely housing and poverty, both of which are barriers to children's growth. It is indispensable for the government to protect children's rights of desirable living conditions and proper personal growth.

8.11 Recommendations

1. To urge the Government to eradicate the phenomenon of cage homes and ensure that all cage men and deprived singletons are provided with adequate and affordable housing.
2. To urge the SAR Government to stop all forms of discrimination against single people in they're access to public housing.
3. To urge the SAR Government to actively identify illegally run cage home and study the housing or service needs of residents in old urban slums.
4. To urge the SAR Government provide adequate housing and enough social services to inadequately housed households and provide more hostels for singletons in urban area.
5. To urge the SAR Government provide adequate housing with rehabilitation services to those deprived groups such as mental ill patients, ex-prisoners and chronically ill patients.
6. To urge the SAR Government to resume the Elderly housing rental allowance scheme to meet the housing needs of the elderly.
7. To urge the SAR Government provide rent subsidies scheme for financial hardship families with affordable public or private housing and increase the supply of public housing.
8. To urge the SAR Government provide compassionate re-housing for single-parents families living in cubicle.
9. To urge the SAR Government carry out affirmative actions in the allocation of public housing by giving priority to applications which include children and to introduce Rent Allowance to families who have children and who await public housing so as to immediately alleviate their living difficulties.
10. To urge the SAR Government to open channels to enable citizens to participate in policy-making with regards to land and housing.

9.1 Right to mental health

The number of people with mental illness (PMI) is increasing in these years. According to official statistics , the number of psychiatric clinic attendances increased by 16.5% from 471,228 in 2000/01 to 549,133 in 2002/03. Every year, the number of new psychiatric cases is over 20,000. Official statistics shows that there were 21,398 new psychiatric cases in 2000/01 and in 2002/03 the figure was 26,005. These increasing figures are alarming indeed.

The rising number of PMI demands more medical and social rehabilitation services in order to realize the "right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health" as stated in the Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. However, the HKSAR fails to meet the service needs of the people with mental illness. Existing problems are listed below.

9.1.1 Unwillingness to review mental health policy

In the concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2001, the Committee recommended, "the HKSAR undertake a comprehensive review of mental health policy and adopt effective measures to ensure that PMI enjoy the right to adequate and affordable health care". In fact, the Equal Opportunities Commission in Hong Kong also suggested the HKSAR to introduce independent Mental Health Council to supervise the mental health services provided. However, the HKSAR did not take any action to respond to the recommendations of the Committee and Commission. Rather, the HKSAR regards the existing structure to be working well enough.

It is regretful that the HKSAR did not take the issue of mental health seriously enough although the Committee and Commission had already urged the government to do so. In view of an ever-rising number of PMI in Hong Kong, the lack of a comprehensive policy review and the establishment of a new structure to handle the relevant issues makes it difficult for the HKSAR to realize the citizens' right to mental health.

9.1.2 Long waiting time for new cases

According to the official statistics , the actual median waiting time for new cases in 2003/04 is 4 weeks. However, the median figure may not reflect the real picture. For many new psychiatric cases, the waiting time is much longer than the official figure. Complaints of long waiting time are commonly reported in newspapers from time to time. For some of the new cases, the waiting time is between 3 to 18 months, which is unbearable for these patients.

Besides, the waiting time between each consultation for old psychiatric cases is lengthening as well. Some patients may need to wait for 4 months for another consultation. Tragedies do happen when psychiatric patients' mental status is not monitored closely.

9.1.3 Small proportion of patients prescribed with new anti-psychiatric drugs

In the Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2001, the Committee regretted that "the HKSAR is reluctant to authorize the prescription of new drugs that are more costly but more effective and have been shown to produce fewer side effects for the mentally ill" . The HKSAR denied the blame and claimed that the Hospital Authority prescribed more new anti-psychiatric drugs to patients from 3,000 in 2000/01 to 5,000 in 2001/02.

It seems that the HKSAR is improving the situation. However, in view of the large increase of new psychiatric cases in recent years, the proportion of patients prescribed with new anti-psychiatric drugs is still small. Not all patients benefit from the new drug with less side effects.

9.1.4 Unmet social rehabilitation needs

PMI not only require medical rehabilitation but also social rehabilitation service to attain better mental health. Even if people with mental illness are treated with medicine, without proper social support to re-integrate them into the society, they are still outcast of the society. It does no good to their mental health. As concluded in their five-year outcome study of PMI in Hong Kong, Ng and Leung state "patients had sub-standard quality of life after re-settlement in the community. They had very restricted social roles, small social networks, and unstructured daily lives." All in all, a comprehensive and adequate support in the community is essential to ensure PMI attain highest level of mental health. However, the segmented service provision model and lack of resources hinder the attainment of such goal.

According to a service review research conducted by SoCO , a considerable number of PMI were dumped into inadequate housing such as cage homes and cubicles. They were there without any support from the existing social services, or even unknown to the psychiatric social workers in clinics, where they had their consultation. These PMI fell out of the loopholes of the segmented social services system. The lack of assertive outreach and case management system further abandoned these PMI living alone in the urban slum with a low quality of life.

Although the HKSAR said that a new service called Community Mental Health Link (CMHL) is established to outreach visits and networking resources for PMI, the CMHL is only a 3-year pilot programme and is about to be terminated this year. Future commitment to such service from the HKSAR is unknown. Besides, without a case management system, PMI's needs could not be handled with a comprehensive perspective. Many developed countries have adopted a case management system to take care of PMI. The HKSAR is lacking behind in this aspect but no initiative is observed for improvement.

9.1.5 Inadequate community psychiatric services

De-institutionalization is an international trend of medical service provision to PMI. Therefore, community psychiatric services are very important to maintain the mental state of PMI. In fact, the number of community psychiatric consultation and home visits increased by 44.2% from 57,002 in 2000/01 to 82,199 in 2002/03. It reflects the needs for community psychiatric service. However, the number of registered psychiatric registered nurses only increased 13.3% from 877 in 2000/01 to 977 in 2002/03. Without adequate psychiatric nurses, community psychiatric service will be affected but the HKSAR seems not to be doing anything to improve the situation.

9.1.6 Inadequate long stay care home services

In Hong Kong, there are various residential services provided to PMI according to their self-care ability. For more serious chronic psychiatric patients who cannot take of themselves, they can apply for the Long Stay Care Home (LSCH). There are 970 spaces for the LSCH but all of them are occupied. Another 900 PMIs are waiting for the LSCH, and more are expected to queue up. Since residents in LSCH usually stay there until they die, the waiting time for a LSCH space is at least 7 years. The long waiting time renders PMI unable to not receive appropriate residential service, which thus affect their mental health.

9.1.7 Inadequate vocational rehabilitation services

According to the official statistics, the unemployment rate of PMI was 14.2% in 2000, which was much higher than the overall figure 2.9% at that time. Since the economic downturn, the unemployment rate is expected to be much higher than the figure in 2000. Even if some PMI secure a job in the market, they may need to lower their salary because of their illness. According to the official statistic, the median income of PMI in 2000 was HKD 8,000, while it was HKD 11,113 for the general public. The HKSAR does not try to take any initiative to promote the employment of PMI.

9.2 Right to physical health

The public medical service in Hong Kong is provided by a statutory body, the Hospital Authority (HA). The HKSAR subsidizes HA heavily and the Hong Kong citizens enjoy almost free public medical service to attain their physical health. In recent years, due to the economic downturn, the HKSAR revenue is reduced. In turn, the HKSAR reduced the subsidy to the HA and caused a lot of problems that violates the right to physical health as listed below.

9.2.1 Reducing availability of liver transplant service

10% of Hong Kong population or 700,000 people are hepatitis B carriers, which is much higher than international figure. Among them, some will turn into serious liver disease. Only liver transplantation can help these patients to survive. According to medical experts, 200 transplant operations are required to keep the critical patients from dying. Originally, there were two liver transplant centers in Hong Kong, one in Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) and one in Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH), performing 80 transplant operations in a year. However, due to lack of resources and politics between HA and the PWH center, the PWH center was closed in 2003. Although there was huge opposition from citizens, patients, and political parties, HA simply ignored the opinion and insisted on the closure.

The closure of PWH center reduces the availability of a liver operation for patients waiting for liver transplant since the total number of operation will be less than before. Also, patients are deprived of a chance to get a second opinion from another center.

9.2.2 Less affordable due to increasing medical fees

Hong Kong citizens used to enjoy nearly free public medical service since they only needed to pay less than HKD 60 (USD 7.7) for various services including outpatient clinic consultation and in-patient hospitalization for one day. In 2002/03, the HKSAR increased various medical fees by 30% in average and introduced new fees. It affected the elderly, chronically ill and grassroots since they were less affordable to pay.

Though the HKSAR established a medical fee waiver system, the criteria for waving are too stringent to apply for. For example, a singleton is eligible to be waived only if one's assets are less than HKD 30,000 (USD 3,850) and income less than HKD 3,000 (USD 385), which is less than one third of personal income HKD 9,500 (USD 1218). It is worried that either patients receiving medical services will have heavier financial burden, or that patients may refrain from seeking medical treatment. Both are undesirable and violate the right to physical health.

9.2.3 Lowered quality due to lack of resources

As mentioned above, the economic downturn reduces the HKSAR revenue and in turn the HA budget has been cut. On the other side, the demand for public hospital services is rising due to the aging population and widening of rich and poor gap. The increase in demand and decrease in resource results in lowered quality of the medical service. Thus more complaints are made to the HA hospitals and medical incidents happen more often than before. SoCO received more than 550 complaints from the public about medical services in 2003, which is much higher than before.

An example will show clearly how bad the situation is. Mr. Yip was suspected to have liver tumor in January 2003 by a private general practitioner. He was referred to a public hospital. However, he was scheduled to have first time consultation in December 2003. The long waiting time is due to the lack of doctors to serve and they are too busy to review each referral to see if earlier consultation is required. In the end, Mr. Yip was confirmed to have terminal liver cancer in January 2004 and died eventually.

The lowered quality is of great concern. Financing is the root cause of the problem. However, it seems that the HKSAR does not respond to the issue in near future. The health care financing reform is discussed for a decade without any actual actions. Any delay of handling the financing problem will further result in lower quality.

9.2.4 Right to health service affected

Due to increasing expenditure of drugs, HA is going to introduce new measures. HA will establish a list of drugs, so-called essential drugs list, to be provided to patients. These drugs are cheap and with ordinary effect. In other words, HA claims that these drugs are cost-effective. HA will not provide for other more effective but expensive drugs. If patients require, doctors will prescribe the drugs and let patients purchase on their own.

It is commonly known that patients will have different needs of drugs. If certain poor patients have a negative response to 'essential drugs' and they have no money to buy for better but expensive drugs, it will affect their health. Also, the whole process of establishing the list is made in HA without any participation of patients. In conclusion, their right to health service is neglected.

9.3 Not fulfilling the states parties' obligations in tackling SARS

SARS struck Hong Kong in the year 2003. The quick spread of the epidemic was partly due to inadequate preparation for communicable diseases and poor infection control within the HA hospitals which resulted in hundreds of innocent patients contracting SARS in hospitals.

Since the HA was established, the focus of health care service has been on secondary health care or curative medicine. Primary health care is neglected and limited resource is given to improve the healthiness of citizens. Without emphasizing preventive medicine, SARS thus took the chance of this structural problem and spread over Hong Kong.

In fact, community infection of SARS was contained in April. What makes SARS patients or victims families angry is that hundreds of patients contracted with SARS in hospitals due to various mistakes: Lack of infection control measures, lack of personal protection equipment, poor infection ward management, bad communication with patients and families, just to name a few. What's more is the follow up work of the HKSAR and HA has been too poor to facilitate the SARS recovered patients and victims families to face the hardship.

After the epidemic, three reports were made to comment on the performance of HKSAR and HA. They all indicated the existing system failed to prepare for communicable diseases. The HKSAR is not fulfilling its obligation to fulfil the right to health

9.4 Poor health condition of the ethnic minorities

According to a survey conducted by SoCO more than 37% of the ethnic minorities have problems in communicating with hospital staff. This, combined with racial discrimination, may be the reason that 20% feel that staff does not help them well. Some even get wrong medication or treatment.

Although the government says that interpretation services are available, they are seldom used and hospital staff may not know about the availability of these services. In fact a survey of 43 hospitals and clinics showed that only 1 hospital offered this service on request.

9.5 Recommendations

1. To urge the Government to review the existing policy and service related to PMI. The Government should also formulate mental health policy and appropriate institution to carry out such policy.
2. To urge the Government to put more resources in psychiatric medical service to shorten the waiting time for consultation and use new anti-psychiatric drugs in treating all PMI.
3. To urge the Government to emphasize and reform the social rehabilitation service to support PMI living in the community. In particular, case management model should be adopted and more community psychiatric services should be provided.
4. To urge the Government to provide more long-term care residential facilities in order to shorten waiting time of the PMI with chronic and severe psychiatric problem.
5. To urge the Government to formulate employment measures to promote employers employing PMI with normal salary, such as tax deduction.
6. To urge the Government to review the need of liver transplant service and perform adequate operation to save lives. PWH liver transplant center should be re-opened if necessary.
7. To urge the Government to establish a better medical fee waiver system to minimize the financial burden of the elderly, chronically ill and grassroots.
8. To urge the Government to start the health care financing reform to ensure enough resources for public medical services to improve the quality.
9. To urge the Government to include more effective but expensive drugs as essential drugs. Patients should be seriously consulted for introduction of any new measures.
10. To urge the Government to review the existing health care structure to prevent another strike of communicable disease. Better follow-up work should be done to help SARS patients and victim families in their hardship.
11. To urge the government to provide special measures to ethnic minorities, such as interpreter services in hospitals.

Chapter 10. The right to education (Article 13)

10.1 The unfavorable new school places allocation system for ethnic minorities

In the past, students who indicated they were non-Chinese speaking (NCS) could only choose from less than 10 schools. However, the School Places Allocation Systems have now been changed, so that it enables them to make school choices on par with any other students. However, if the child insists on only NCS schools in the central allocation, they also have this choice.

The Government's new school allocation system for ethnic minority children now means that the children can study in a Chinese school, which is preferable to having no choice at all. However, many ethnic minority children face severe difficulties in schooling, especially learning Chinese. Although the government has changed its policy it has not been accompanied with services to match the needs of students who attend Chinese Medium Schools. In fact the change has been to hasty, leaving many ethnic minority children without the special attention and support they need in a new environment. The need for special training for teachers and parents is of outmost importance if the new policy is to help ethnic minorities integrate into the local school system.

10.2 Absence of initiation programme for newly arrived children of ethnic minorities

Many ethnic minorities chose to have their children coming to Hong Kong when they have already attended school for some time in their own countries. This means that some may be 10 years old when they first arrive in Hong Kong. The government has set up an initiation programme for newly arrived children or for those who have attended a local school for less than one year. However, the initiation programme, which gives support to integrate the minority children, does not extend to those who have already been in Hong Kong for more than one year, thus leaving many minority children without any support especially because their parents cannot help them.

10.3 Lack of mother tongue language learning

Currently, not all ethnic minority children have the opportunity to learn their mother tongue language. Only a few schools offer courses in different minority languages. With the increasing number of the ethnic minorities' children, it is critical that the rights or minorities to enjoy their own culture are protected.

10.4 Recommendations

1. Please provide information on what measures the government has to support the children in integrating them into the mainstream schools and to learn Chinese.
2. Urge the government to provide information about any plans to extend the induction programme to children who have stayed in Hong Kong for more than one year.
Provide information on measures to promote right to enjoy own culture among ethnic minorities, among these the resources provided for minority children to learn their mother languages.

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