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Measures to adopt on women's rights
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Following is a question by the Hon Lee Cheuk-yan and a reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
The Government undertook last year that it would adopt two measures concerning women's rights, viz. the setting up of an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the extension of the United Nations' Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to the territory. However, these two measures have still not been implemented by the Government. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
what is the timetable for the setting up of the EOC and when its membership will be announced;
whether the Government will consider setting up the EOC first to start work before its chairman is appointed;
whether, having regard to the fact that the Government has planned to draw up certain reservations for inclusion in CEDAW upon its extension to the territory and that the matter will be discussed by the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group, women's groups will be consulted on these reservations; if not, why not;
what is the timetable for discussion of the reservations referred to in (c) above by the Joint Liaison Group?
Reply:
As Members are aware, we are in the process of recruiting the Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission. We hope to complete the selection process before the end of March. As the individual circumstances of the person selected may involve certain formalities to be completed before an announcement of appointment can be made, a firm timetable for the setting up of the Commission cannot be given at this point.
However, Members may rest assured that we intend to make an announcement of the full composition of the Commission as soon as possible.