ENG-2011 — Page 80

44 The Legal System

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 provide a platform for exchanging views on matters concerning children's right with children and advocates of children's rights, and to provide children with additional opportunities to express their views.

To raise public awareness and understanding of children's rights enshrined in the CRC, the Government has 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 of the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau.

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.

In 2011, the EOC received 3 444 enquiries and 762 complaints relating to the four anti-discrimination ordinances. A total of 162 complaint cases were successfully conciliated.

Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) was established in 1996 as an independent statutory body under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO) to monitor, supervise and promote compliance with the PDPO.

In 2011, the PCPD handled 1 848 complaints and 18 680 enquiries, referred 12 cases to the Police for prosecution, handled 22 matching procedure applications and conducted 154 compliance checks. The PCPD also inspected the personal data system of a credit reference agency and published eight investigation reports on significant complaint cases.

The PCPD organised about 210 seminars for the general public and various industry sectors in 2011 to promote awareness and general understanding of personal data privacy. It also organised 52 workshops for data users, and conducted 19 tailor-made seminars for telecommunications practitioners.