36 The Legal System
Secretariat support is provided by the Race Relations Unit of the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB).
The Race Relations Unit
The unit was set up in June 2002 to promote the interests of ethnic minorities. It sponsors language classes conducted by non-governmental organisations and radio programmes in the languages of different ethnic minorities, organises a Harmony Scholarship Scheme, publishes a service guidebook in different languages and provides other support services as well to help them integrate into the community.
Support Service Centres for ethnic minorities
The Government is also funding non-governmental organisations to run four support service centres for ethnic minorities. All of which commenced operation. during the year, organising language classes and other activities to help them integrate into the community. One of the centres provides free interpretation service on the phone to assist them in the use of public services.
Children's Rights
The Government supports various initiatives to strengthen awareness of children's rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
It has set up a Children's Rights Forum to enable better communication with children and advocates of children's rights, and to provide children with additional opportunities to express their views.
The Government has also established a Children's Rights Education Funding Scheme which provides financial assistance to non-governmental organisations to promote children's rights. Administrative support for the forum and the funding scheme is provided by the Children's Rights Unit in the CMAB.
As the CRC celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, the Government has enhanced its efforts to promote children's rights, including providing additional sponsorship under the funding scheme and launching a new television announcement of public interest.
Equal Opportunities Commission
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) is an independent statutory body established in 1996 under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance to implement the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, the Disability Discrimination Ordinance, the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance, and the Race Discrimination Ordinance.
The EOC's functions include handling complaints, encouraging conciliation, providing assistance to aggrieved persons, and running public education, research and training programmes to promote equal opportunities and to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital status, pregnancy, disability, family status and race.