Legislation needed to ensure educational rights for all
While the rest of the world moves towards equality for all children, our city lags behind
Hong Kong needs rights-based law and policies of inclusive education.
The chairwoman and rapporteur of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child were in town last week. They were invited by local NGO the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights to meet the people and investigate the city, before they returned to Geneva to consider the government's report in September.
In their meeting with the special educational needs (SEN) and disabled communities, Hong Kong's problematic integrated education policy was raised again. The city's so-called integrated education policy is ill-conceived and ineffective, having evolved from a welfare and administrative framework dating back to the industrial age. The world is moving towards a rights-based approach to inclusive education and Hong Kong's policies do not match today's idea of human rights.
Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires state parties to recognise the child's right to education on the basis of equal opportunity. Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognises the right to inclusive education. The purpose of these two conventions is to provide equality and opportunity to develop one's personality and abilities to their fullest potential, regardless of special needs.
A rights-based approach to inclusive education can be achieved by means of law. In some countries, there is a clear constitutional mandate. For example, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly provides for equal protection and benefit without discrimination based on, among other factors, mental or physical disability. As a result, provincial authorities make laws, regulations and policies that require or recommend an individualised programme for each SEN student.
In Hong Kong, there is no similar constitutional provision. Article 25 of the Basic Law guarantees equality before the law. It comes close, but is too broad to provide a meaningful foundation. This shortcoming may be compensated by the application of the CRC and CRPD, taking the relevant provisions of the two conventions as guiding principles. As these conventions extend to Hong Kong, the government has a duty to take measures to implement them.
