Does Hong Kong need anti-race legislation?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Throughout the history of Hong Kong, there had been all types of discrimination taking place. The most notable one is racism. Nevertheless, there is no law to protect victims from offences due to racial discrimination. Thus, there are wide discussions among the society on whether it is necessary to have legislation about it. In my opinion, there is an urgent need to do so.

First of all, though Hong Kong has already had laws in effect concerning the prevention of discrimination due to work, gender, disability, and family status, they cannot effectively avoid the occurrence of racism. However hard the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Race Relations Unit try, they could not succeed in uprooting the belief of Hong Kong people for certain minorities, such as the mainland migrants and Pakistani. As Hong Kong is a modern, multi-cultural society, it should not allow any discrimination to be present, which is an unreasonable and anti-social behaviour. Therefore, there is an urgent need to set up laws to protect all people living in Hong Kong from any kinds of prejudice. It is not wise to wait till the situation has lost control then the Government starts to act against it. Otherwise, confidence of the general public in the authority would be lowered significantly.

Secondly, there have been all sorts of education given by the Government in demolishing discrimination held by people. The Hong Kong private sector has shown that it is keen to learn how to prevent discrimination, which shows that the Government’s policies are being greeted with enthusiasm. However, education alone is not enough as some people do not consider the teaching important. A law could thus acts as a deterrent. In addition, it shows that racism is serious and gives some authority to the education and also to complaints about prejudices. Laws need to be in place so that people can ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

People may argue that racism is fundamental to human nature. It is deep-seated in the human consciousness that people would still be racist at the core of their being because it is part of one’s culture. Therefore, it would be of no use even if the Government passes an anti-racism bill. Moreover, people have the freedom to opt for being a racist or not. They can choose to be discriminatory, or to accept cultural differences and learn something from these divergences. Nevertheless, because prejudices are human nature, it is very easy for people to insult others with ignorance. In view of that, law is needed to protect people’s dignity. Of course, the purpose of the anti-racism law is not to eradicate racism, because it is entirely impossible to change the mind of over seven million people. The objective of the law is to make it illegal for employers, schools, associations, restaurants, and shops and so on to discriminate against anyone on the basis of ethnicity.

Even though Hong Kong is not a society with inherent discrimination, and incidents are isolated, all civilised countries have laws against racial discrimination. As a result, Hong Kong, as a developed region, should follow suit and set up regulations against it so that it can be looked at in the same light, however rare the problem is.

To conclude, there is a real need for the Hong Kong Government to have anti-racism legislation. This can protect