Haven under erasure

Hong Kong, global Asia and human rights

Bibliographic Data

ID3986697
AuthorsMing-Yan Lai, Ming‐yan Lai (Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume38
Issue2
Pages300-318
Publication date2008-05-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-2336 • E-ISSN: 1752-7554
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00472330701822348
OpenAlexW1966057426
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

Discussions of Hong Kong's human rights situation tend to focus on the ex-colony's struggle to protect civil and political rights against the encroachment of the Chinese state. Without contradicting the well-grounded concern with Hong Kong's human rights future articulated in these discussions, this article offers a complementary narrative of human rights development in post-1997 Hong Kong that looks beyond the national frame of such discussions. Drawing attention to Hong Kong's position as a regional centre in the struggle for human rights in Asia under globalisation, the article argues that the activities of local and transnational human rights advocacy groups in the city show positive and promising possibilities of coalitional solidarity on the ground of human rights. Notably, the protests against national security legislation opened up opportunities of articulating diverse struggles for the rights of various social groups, including migrant groups, with the local struggle for civil and political rights. A perspective of Global Asia enables a reading of this important episode in Hong Kong's struggle for human rights that suggests more open-ended future possibilities than the common nationally-framed accounts. 2110116). Notes For a recent debate on globalisation's long-term effects on democracy, rule of law and social and civil rights, see Howard-Hassman (Citation2005) and Rodriguez (Citation2004). East Asia here includes both Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia. An overview of human rights struggles in the region can be found in Christie and Roy (Citation2001). For a positive view of economic development's impact on human rights in the region that resonates with Western arguments, see Tan (Citation1999). On NGO efforts to promote regional co-operation in the advocacy and protection of human rights, see Hashimoto (Citation2004). For a general discussion of NGO proposals for a regional system, see Wilde (Citation1998). See also Tang (Citation1995) for an overview. The full text of the Asian Human Rights Charter and a brief history of the consultation process are available on AHRC's website: http://www.ahrchk.net/charter/. For a discussion of the meaning of the charter to the ongoing struggle for human rights protection in Asia, see Harris (Citation2000). The ten countries are Thailand, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, the Philippines, Cambodia, South Korea and Indonesia. Hong Kong Immigration Department data show that the number of foreign domestic workers increased from 171,000 in December 1997 to 216,880 in June 2004, with Indonesians accounting for most of the increase (Asian Migrant Centre, Citation2004: 149). The Asian Migrant Centre estimated in 2004 that there were around 10-20 million Asian migrant workers in Asian-receiving countries, excluding internal migrant workers in China (Varona, Citation2004). An official statement on the organisation's vision and objectives can be found on its website: http://www.asian-migrants.org. Writing after the financial crisis, Christie and Roy (Citation2001) discussed the crisis' impact on human rights situations in various Asian countries. Among workers in Hong Kong, foreign domestic workers are the only group to have a government-stipulated minimum allowable wage, currently at $HK3480. This provision on paper, however, is often undercut in reality, especially for the Indonesians, whose number has increased rapidly after the Asian financial crisis. A recent survey found 42% of Indonesian domestic workers receiving less than the stipulated minimum wage (Asian Migrant Centre, Citation2005). On 1 October 2003, the SAR government introduced a $400 per month levy (Employer Retraining Levy) on employers of foreign domestic helpers on two-year contracts while simultaneously reducing the legal wages of foreign domestic helpers by the same amount. Though government officials denied any intrinsic linkage between the two policies and the SAR court ruled in the government's favour, it is commonly considered to be a de facto taxing of foreign domestic workers, especially in the foreign domestic workers and NGO circles. AMC executive director Rex Varona, personal interview, 28 July 2005

China · Erasure · Haven · Human rights · Political science · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Computer Science · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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