The Hong Kong government gazetted the Discrimination Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2018 (the "Bill") today (30 November 2018).
The Bill seeks to amend the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 480) ("SDO"), the Disability Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 487) ("DDO"), the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 527) ("FSDO") and the Race Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 602) ("RDO") to implement eight of the prioritised recommendations provided in the Equal Opportunities Commission's Report on the Discrimination Law Review.
The proposed amendments are:
- To provide for express provisions in the SDO to make discrimination on the ground of breastfeeding unlawful;
- To extend protection from harassment and direct racial discrimination to cover on the ground of the race of an associate;
- To expand the meaning of race and racial group in the RDO to include a race that is imputed to a person;
- To provide express provisions in the SDO, DDO and RDO expanding the scope of protection from sexual, disability and racial harassment at a workplace;
- To strengthen the protection to service providers against disability and racial harassment by customers under the DDO and RDO;
- To prohibit certain acts of disability and racial harassment between service providers and customers which take place outside Hong Kong but on Hong Kong registered aircraft and ships;
- To add provisions in the SDO and DDO to make sexual and disability harassment against members or applicants for membership of a club unlawful; and
- To remove the intention requirement for an award of damages for certain acts of indirect discrimination under the SDO, FSDO and RDO.
The First Reading of the Bill and the commencement of Second Reading Debate are scheduled to take place on 12 December 2018.
The Bill is available at:
https://www.gld.gov.hk/egazette/pdf/20182248/es32018224825.pdf
Originally published 30 November 2018
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