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Hong Kong: Hello, Can You Hear Me? Implementing Article 12 of the UNCRC in the Hong Kong Legal Setting
- Edited by Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of Illinois, June Carbone, University of Minnesota
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- Book:
- International Survey of Family Law 2022
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 15 November 2023
- Print publication:
- 28 November 2022, pp 177-204
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Summary
Résumé
Cet article est un extrait de la recherche menée pour le Comité des droits de l’enfant de Hong Kong (HKCCR) qui examine la mise en œuvre à Hong Kong du droit des enfants d’être entendus dans les procédures les concernant, garanti par l’article 12 de la CIDE. Alors que les recherches commandées par le HKCCR s’é tendent à de multiples domaines, de l’éducation et la santé à l’élaboration de politiques constitutionnelles, ainsi qu’aux loisirs et à la culture notamment, cet article propose une analyse critique de la manière dont la voix des enfants est entendue dans le cadre juridique existant à Hong Kong. Les résultats de la recherche laissent penser que, bien que la législation relative au droit de l’enfant d’être entendu en vigueur à Hong Kong soit à bien des égards meilleure que dans d’autres États dont la législation a été examinée dans l’étude de la HKCCR, l’avis de des enfants est au mieux consultatif et, au pire, n’existe que dans les textes et non dans la pratique. Après avoir identifié les éléments qui font obstacle à une meilleure participation des enfants, cet article propose des recommandations afin d’améliorer la situation.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter will present the findings of research into how Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been implemented in Hong Kong’s legal sector. This research is part of a wider project commissioned by the Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights (HKCCR), a non-governmental organisation originally formed in 1992 to promote, advance and ensure the rights of the child in Hong Kong. The aim of the wider project was to establish an independent baseline study of the implementation of Article 12 across all relevant sectors in Hong Kong, from constitutional and high-level policy-making to health and education to matters of leisure, culture and built environment, amongst others.
Hong Kong Desperately Seeking Legislative Reform
- Edited by Margaret Brinig
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- Book:
- International Survey of Family Law 2021
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 22 February 2022
- Print publication:
- 28 September 2021, pp 211-232
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Summary
Résumé
De nombreux aspects du droit de la famille de Hong Kong demeurent inchangés depuis des années, malgré la nécessité d’une réforme mise en lumière par une jurisprudence abondante. Depuis plusieurs années maintenant, les tribunaux ont été saisi de contestations relatives à la nature exclusivement hétérosexuelle du mariage et cette année n’a pas été différente. Il semble désormais évident qu’une vaste contestation de la nature du mariage échouera devant les tribunaux, tandis qu’une lente réduction du privilège attaché à l’état matrimonial hétérosexuel se poursuivra, petit à petit, sur la base d’arguments antidiscriminatoires spécifiques à chaque cas. Comme les affaires portées devant les tribunaux cet année l’ont montré, la loi sur l’adoption est une nouvelle opportunité manquée de réforme, les enfants payant le prix fort en termes de délais inutiles pour aboutir à l’adoption. Le pouvoir judiciaire a peu de marge de manoeuvre pour que la loi demeure adaptée et pertinente sans franchir les limites d’un activisme judiciaire inadmissible. Le droit de la famille de Hong Kong a désespérément besoin d’une réforme législative globale, fondée sur des principes et des pratiques reconnues.
INTRODUCTION
This year's chapter on Hong Kong, like previous contributions, offers a review of recent developments in Hong Kong's family law in the absence of ‘grand plan’ legislative reform, and argues that, despite the ongoing best efforts of the judiciary to maintain the relevance of Hong Kong's family law, there is a desperate need for renewed engagement with the process of legislative reform in a number of key areas, with specific focus this year on marriage and adoption.
No one could deny that Hong Kong has had a difficult two years, with extensive civil rights protests starting in 2019, coupled in the past 12 months with the impact of COVID-19. Understandably, legislative reform of family law may not have been top of the agenda during these times. However, the fact is that there has been a lack of significant legislative innovation in family law for several years.
The issue of whether law should lead public opinion or vice versa is complex and well-traversed in jurisprudential debate, and not a subject that can be adequately addressed here.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong Family Law Today: Drowning not Waving?
- Edited by Margaret Brinig
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- Book:
- International Survey of Family Law 2020
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 09 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 23 September 2020, pp 149-164
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Summary
Résumé
À Hong Kong, plusieurs raisons expliquent qu’une réforme cohérente en droit de la famille se fait attendre depuis quelque temps déjà. Alors que dans le courant des dernières années des réformes touchant plusieurs aspects du droit de la famille avaient été engagées, peu de celles-ci ont abouti, souvent en raison de préoccupations soulevées au sein de l’Administration ou de la Législature, ou des deux. Face à ces préoccupations, le processus de réforme semble chaque fois se mettre à l’arrêt et l’on constate une absence de tout sentiment de nécessité ou d’urgence, malgré les nombreux appels provenant de différents acteurs du monde juridique et de la société civile en faveur d’une action législative. Malgré les efforts soutenus au cours des dernières années des magistrats qui par leur jurisprudence et leurs règles de pratique tentent de moderniser et d’améliorer le contenu et la pratique du droit familial, le leitmotiv de Hong Kong en 2019 a encore été pragmatique et à la pièce plutôt que représenter la mise en place d’une réforme globale du droit de la famille, comme ce chapitre montrera.
INTRODUCTION
In many ways 2019 has not been a good year for Hong Kong. From June onwards the streets were taken over, weekend after weekend, for several months by large numbers of residents protesting against proposed extradition legislation that they feared would facilitate future infringement of their fundamental freedoms. Those protests developed in places into riots with running battles between some protestors and police, allegations of brutality on both sides and public institutions being damaged or shut down.
In these circumstances few governments could be criticised for failing to develop and implement a coherent programme of family law reform. In Hong Kong however there has arguably been little in the way of coherent legislative reform of family law for several years now. While the process of reform of a number of aspects of family law has been initiated over the past several years, few reforms are finalised and implemented, often due to concerns raised before either the Administration or the Legislature, or both. Once those concerns have been raised, the reform process seems to stall, with little sense of a need for urgent action, notwithstanding the myriad calls for legislative change from various quarters of the legal community and civil society.
Hong Kong: Slow Progress Towards Family Law Reform?
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- By Anne Scully-Johnson, Associate Professor (Adjunct), Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Edited by Margaret Brinig
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- Book:
- International Survey of Family Law 2019
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 09 November 2019
- Print publication:
- 16 September 2019, pp 129-138
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Working in Hong Kong, an international hub blessed with vibrant domestic and expatriate communities, family law practitioners respond to manifold enquiries oft en driven by social and technological change and different cultural expectations. How is Hong Kong's family law evolving to meet the changing needs of this dynamic, multi-faceted community?
Whilst Hong Kong's family law has responded innovatively to some of the challenges brought in recent years, perhaps most notably the Court of Final Appeal's support in LKW v. DD for a move from needs-based ancillary relief to a starting point of equal division of matrimonial property, it is also true to say that change has sometimes been more cautious. For example, consider the very carefully drawn decision of the Court of Final Appeal in W v. Registrar of Marriages on the scope for marriage by a transsexual in their reassigned gender identity.
While earlier resistance to legal recognition of same-sex relationships, parental responsibility in lieu of parental authority, and children as rights-holders rather than the ‘property’ of parents, suggests a tension between a ‘traditional’, hetero-normative, hierarchical concept of family life and a more progressive vision of family life and family law, 2018 saw key developments challenging the dominance of a ‘traditional’ family law. Nonetheless, the question remains: is the pace of change so glacial that any impact is only illusory?
LIMITED LEGAL RECOGNITION OF SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS
In 2018, two sets of legal proceedings, each claiming legal recognition of same sex-relationships in relation to spousal benefits, travelled through the courts.
The first case, Leung Chun Kwong v. Secretary for the Civil Service, was an appeal and cross-appeal to the Court of Appeal (CA) from the judgment of the Court of First Instance (CFI). The applicant – a Senior Immigration Officer – employed by the Civil Service and a Hong Kong permanent resident, had legally married his same-sex partner in New Zealand in 2014. Back in Hong Kong, he subsequently claimed financial spousal benefits which were denied. He then sought a judicial review of the decisions against him. The CFI found in his favour in relation to the Secretary for Civil Service's refusal to extend spousal medical and dental benefits to his same-sex husband.