The State of Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems:
Obstacles, Challenges, Opportunities

Addressing Human Rights Education Deficits
in the Changing Political Order in Hong Kong
Yiu-kwong Chong, Hiu-chung Kwok, Yuk-kai Law *Human rights and human rights
education have never been essential to
the Hong Kong government’s agenda. The
people in Hong Kong do not enjoy the full
spectrum of human rights. Meanwhile, theestablishment of an independent Human
Rights Commission has been consistently
refused by the authorities. Work and policies
on human rights are scattered among
different bureaus under the ineffective“supervision” of the Constitutional andMainland Aﬀairs Bureau (CMAB). Having
the same rank with CMAB, other bureaus
fail to follow its policy or advice. CMAB has
not even done a proper job of co-ordination
with other bureaus or governmental agencies
on human rights policy.

was introduced as a compulsory subject forsenior secondary students (aged 15 to 19)
starting from September 2009. Moreover,human rights education is mainly
subordinated to “national education.” The
Hong Kong government’s lack of incentive
to promote human rights education isfurther reflected in the disbandment of the
Human Rights Education Working Group
under the CPCE in December 2007.
This article examines human rights
education in the Hong Kong school systemin the following order: first, by examiningg e n e r a l i n f o r m a t i o n o n Ho n g Ko n g
education, especially on human rights
education and its international standards,
and; second, by discussing current challenges
and opportunities relating to human rights
education in the Hong Kong school system.

On the other hand, the Education Bureau(EDB, formerly Education and Manpower
Bureau or EMB) and the Committee on the
Promotion of Civic Education (CPCE) of
the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) areresponsible for human rights education
inside and outside schools respectively.
Hu m a n r i g h t s e d u c a t i o n i s n o t a n
independent subject in the school
curriculum. It is somehow embedded in
Moral and Civic Education and othersubjects, such as Liberal Studies (LS), which

General Information on Hong Kong
Education
Normally in Hong Kong, students attend
primary and secondary education before
heading to university, and may choose toa t te n d k i n d e r g a r te n b e f o r e p r i m a r y
education. In the academic year 2009-2010,
there are five hundred eighty-two primary∗ The writing of this paper benefited from the advice of Dr. Leung Yan-wing, Associate
Professor, Associate Director of the Centre for Governance and Citizenship of the Hong
Kong Institute of Education. This paper was the product of a project on the State of Human
Rights Education in the School Systems in Northeast Asia coordinated by the Asia-Pacific
Human Rights Information Center (HURIGHTS OSAKA). Dr. Leung was an advisor to theHong Kong part of the project which was conducted by the Hong Kong Human Rights
Monitor.

6

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

schools and five hundred twenty-threesecondary day schools. 1 The Hong Kong
government has provided nine years of free
and universal primary and lower secondary
education through public sector schools
since 1978.

legislation. Upper secondary education is
also provided free but is not compulsory
through public sector schools (i.e., extending
the free education to twelve years). In
addition to some core mandatory subjects
required by EDB, the schools can choosesome other subjects, such as Moral and Civic
Education in lower secondary education. For
the upper secondary education, there are
four core subjects, namely Chinese, English,
Mathematics and LS. It also requires
students to specialize in a number ofsubjects, depending on the students’ choices
and academic results. A public examination,
the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary
Education (HKDSE) is held at the end of
the secondary education to assess students
for entry to tertiary education. For details of
the subjects being taught in schools at
diﬀerent education levels, please refer toTable 1.

Hong Kong is now undergoing dramatic
educational reform, which changes theperiod and curriculum of secondary andtertiary education. Starting from September
2009, a new secondary education system has
been implemented, which changes from theseven-year secondary education and threeyear tertiary education system, to a six-year
secondary and four-year tertiary education
system. The new secondary education system
is further divided into three years of lower
and another three years of upper education.
Primary and lower secondary education isfundamental education and compulsory by

Table 1. School Subjects
Primary and Lower Secondary

Upper SecondaryCore subjects

Chinese; English; Mathematics;
Personal, Social and Humanities;
Science; Technology; Arts; Physical
Education; General Studies

Chinese; English; Mathematics; LSCore subjects dependingon the school

Moral and Civic Education; Religious
Studies
Chinese Literature; Literature in
English; Chinese History; Economics;
Ethics and Religious Studies;
Geography; History; Tourism and
Hospitality Studies; Biology;
Chemistry; Physics; Integrated
Science; Combined Science;
Business, Accounting and Financial
Studies; Design and Applied
Technology; Health Management andSocial Care; Technology and Living;
Information and Communication
Technology; Music; Visual Arts;
Physical Education

Elective subjects

7

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong

among all nations, racial or religious groups,
and shall further the activities of the UN for
the maintenance of peace.

International Standards on Human
Rights Education
Moving on, we should first understand theconcepts, values and objectives of humanrights education. According to the Report of
the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights on the implementation of thePlan of Action for the United Nations
Decade for Human Rights Education (Planof Action), human rights education isdefined as:

Both the preambles of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) and International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR) state the same provisions, namely,
The States Parties to the present Covenant…
Considering the obligation of States under theCharter of the United Nations to promote
universal respect for, and observance of,human rights and freedoms,
Realizing that the individual, having duties toother individuals and to the community towhich he belongs, is under a responsibility to
strive for the promotion and observance oft h e r i g h t s r e co g n i z e d i n t h e p r e s e n t
Covenant…

training, dissemination and informationeﬀorts aimed at the building of a universal
culture of human rights through theimparting of knowledge and skills and themolding of attitudes and directed to:(a) The strengthening of respect for humanrights and fundamental freedoms;(b) The full development of the humanpersonality and human dignity;

The importance of human rights education
can also be found in various UN human rights
treaties that apply to HKSAR, including
article 2 of ICCPR, articles 2 and 13 of
ICESCR, articles 2 and 7 of Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD), articles 2 and 10 of
the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women( C E DAW ) , a r t i c l e s 2 a n d 1 0 o f t h eConvention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of
Punishment (CAT), articles 4, 17, 19 and 29 of
the Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC)
and articles 4 and 8 of the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Except for the Committee on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, for which the firsthearing on the implementation of the CRPD
in China including Hong Kong has yet to beheld, all other treaty bodies, that havejurisdiction to monitor the implementationof treaty obligations in Hong Kong, havemade recommendations on human rights
education in Hong Kong. Article 5 of theConvention against Discrimination in
Education, which has been applied to China
and Macau SAR but not Hong Kong, also
specifies the need of human rights education.

(c) T h e p r o m o t i o n o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g ,tolerance, gender equality, and friendshipamong all nations, indigenous peoples,and among racial, national, ethnic,
religious and linguistic groups;(d) The enabling of all persons to participate
eﬀectively in a free society;(e) The furtherance of the activities of theUnited Nations for the maintenance ofpeace.2

The right to human rights education is oneof the basic human rights. Various United
Nations (UN) instruments specify thestandards on human rights education, whicha r e g e n e r a l l y r e co g n i z e d a m o n g t h einternational community. The Preamble of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
requires individuals and societies to “strive
by teaching and education to promoterespect for these rights and freedoms.” Its
article 26(2) also states that,
Education shall be directed to the fulldevelopment of the human personality and to
the strengthening of respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
understanding, tolerance and friendship8Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action adopted by the World Conference on
Human Rights in 1993 (Vienna Declaration)
calls on all States and institutions to “include
human rights, humanitarian law, democracy
and rule of law as subjects in the curricula of
all learning institutions in formal and nonformal settings”3 and recommends States todevelop “specific programmes and strategies
for ensuring the widest human rights
education and the dissemination of public
information, taking particular account of thehuman rights needs of women.”4
Furthermore, both the Plan of Action andthe Vienna Declaration make it very clearthat the government should play an activerole in implementing human rights
e d u c a t i o n to p r o m o te h u m a n r i g h t sawareness and mutual tolerance.5 The Plan of
Action also requires that schools and othereducational institutions “should be
encouraged and assisted in developing
human rights curricula and corresponding
teaching and resource materials, with thehelp of Governments and international
donors and programmes, for incorporation
into formal education at the early childhood,primary, secondary, post-secondary and adulteducation levels.”6

school curriculum. Stage 2 is the period
between 1984 and 1997. Triggered by anumber of significant political events such as
the signing of Sino-British Joint Declarationin 1984, the “June 4 Massacre” in Beijing in
1989, and the enactment of the Basic Law
and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights (BORO)
in 1990 and 1991 respectively, civic educationand human rights education were formally
included in the school curriculum. Stage 3 isthe period after 1997 when China resumed
sovereignty in Hong Kong. This stage ischaracterized by the removal of politicalcontent, including human rights, in theschool curriculum. National education has
since become the focus of civic education. A
huge and ever increasing amount of
resources has been spent on it. The value ofhuman rights education is replaced by fiveparamount values, including national
identity, a positive spirit, perseverance,
respect for others and commitment tosociety and nation.7
For community civic education, the CPCE,
which was established in 1986, aims to “liaise
with related Government departments andcommunity organizations in promoting civic
education outside schools and encourage all
sectors of the community to actively
promote civic awareness and assume civic
responsibility.”8 In 1992, a sub-committee towork on human rights education was formed
to promote the Basic Law and the BORO in
the community, especially the youth. The
sub-committee was active in human rights
education, as its work had the support of thecommunity, and many materials such asteaching packages, videotapes and booklets
were produced. Unfortunately the work of
the sub-committee was gradually replaced bynational education after 1997.

Brief Development of Human Rights
Education in Hong Kong
Before discussing the current human rights
education policies in Hong Kong, we should
review the local development of humanrights education. In both the school orcommunity sector, human rights education isconsidered in the eyes of the government tobe part of civic education. In terms ofeducation at the primary and secondary
school level, human rights education has
never been an independent subject in theoﬃcial school curriculum. Leung Yan-wing,
an expert who specializes in human rights
education in Hong Kong, argued that civic
education in school sector has evolved
through three stages. Stage 1 is the period
before 1984, in which nothing regarding
human rights has been mentioned in the

Human Rights Education: Hong Kong
Government’s Perspective
In the re-organization of the Government
Secretariat on 1 July 2007, CMAB replaced
HAB as the agency responsible forcoordinating government’s policies on
9

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong

Table 2. Human Rights Contents

human rights. This also aﬀected the humanrights education policy of the government,
especially at the community level. The
government claimed that because of the“broad spectrum of policies and issues
covered,” individual policy bureaus should be
involved in promoting public awareness of
relevant human rights.9 It should be a goodthing for each policy bureau to have its own
responsibility on human rights. However
human rights education is not among theirmain concerns and is only given very low
priority, if any at all. Moreover, there ispractically no co-ordination at the seniorlevel. This policy actually means that humanrights education policies and human rights
education are scattered among diﬀerent
individual bureaus and left to wither withlittle attention from the authorities.

Educationlevel

Human rights contents in subjects

Lower
secondarylevel- Society and citizenship in Economic
and Public Affairs- Origin of democracy (Greco-Roman
period), freedom of speech andequality (American and French
Revolution) in History- Consumer rights in Technology
Education

Upper
secondarylevel- Discussion platform is provided forstudents to debate on human rights
issues in LS- E.g., one of its modules suggests a
discussion thread on how humanrights are being safeguarded underthe Basic Law

lastly; through resource support including
photos, video clips and other teachingpackages.12

EDB is responsible for human rights
education at the primary and secondary
school levels. It claims that “the promotionof [human rights education], as an issue of
universal concern, is essential in the school
education in Hong Kong,”10 and also claims
that the promotion of human rights
education is achieved through different
channels. One of the main channels is thecurriculum coverage in diﬀerent subjects.
Human rights education, in fact, has neverbeen taught as an independent subject ateither primary or secondary school level, andthis situation continues under the new
secondary education system. Instead, somehuman rights concepts can be loosely foundamong certain subjects at lower and upper
secondary levels before the new education
system was implemented. Here are somee x a m p l e s c i te d b y E D B i n 2 0 0 8 f o r
reference:11

At the community level, HAB claims that
civic education covers a wide range ofthemes including “fostering good
citizenship,” “promoting civic awareness andcivic responsibilities,” “promoting national
education and enhancing the sense ofb e l o n g i n g a m o n g t h e c o m m u n i t y, ”
“promoting understanding of and respect forhuman rights and the rule of law” and“promoting the Basic Law in the local
community.”13 It further claims that HAB
together with the CPCE has been working
on human rights education through various
publications and publicity materials targeting
students and other youths. HAB has also
been providing sponsorship to thecommunity organizations to promote humanrights education, including the rule of law
and the Basic Law. Nevertheless, CMAB, theEqual Opportunities Commission (EOC)
and the Oﬃce of the Privacy Commissioner
for Personal Data (PCPD) have beenworking on human rights education under
their respective terms of reference at bothschool and community levels. CMAB puts
more eﬀort into the promotion of the rightsof persons against racial discrimination, theOther channels claimed by EDB to promote
human rights education include various typesof learning activities such as class periods,
service learning and project learning inschools; training programs for teachers,
either through commissioned courses athigher education institutes or throughinvited school professionals and experts, and10

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

rights of children, and equal opportunities
for people of diﬀerent sexual orientations.
The EOC promotes the concept of equal
opportunities, and the PCPD promotes
public awareness on the protection of
personal data privacy.14 However, for a very
long time, these offices have not been
provided with adequate financial and humanresources to perform their work. In general,they promote human rights education
through usual channels such as school talks,
education kit, exhibitions and various
publication and publicity materials15 without
any co-ordination or strategic planning.

(a) Lack of commitment to human rights
The most prominent example of the denialof human rights is the denial of universal
suﬀrage in Hong Kong for the election of
the Chief Executive (CE) and all Legislative
Council (LegCo) Members despite strong
and continuous requests by the UN Human
Rights Committee16 and Hong Kong people.
Half of the seats in LegCo are returned notby universal suﬀrage but restricted franchisebased on functional constituencies (FCs),
which are composed of commercial, businessand professional sectors. The CE is returned
by restricted franchise by an Election
Committee composed of people from four
designated sectors. The electoral system in
Ho n g Ko n g h a s b e e n c r i t i c i z e d a s
discriminatory and inherently biased towards
business interests over those of the generalcommunity.

C h a l l e n g e s f o r Hu m a n R i g h t s
Education at School and Community
LevelsAt both school and community levels,
human rights education in Hong Kong is
now facing a number of challenges thathinder its development. These challenges
can be divided into three areas: 1)
government’s insincerity; 2) unfavorable
school environment, and; 3) lack of external
support. Some of these challenges are sharedat both the school and community levels,
while some of them are unique to schools.

Although the Standing Committee of the
National People’s Congress (NPCSC)
claimed in December 2007 that the electionof CE and LegCo members in 2017 and 2020
respectively may be done through universal
suﬀrage, nothing is actually guaranteed. Even
if the so-called “universal suffrage” isimplemented in two elections, it may not be
a genuine one if there is an unreasonably
high nomination threshold in the 2017 CE
election, and if functional constituencies still
survive in certain forms in the 2020 LegCoelection. While the Hong Kong government
admitted that the current system does notconform to the requirements of universal
and equal suﬀrage in Hong Kong, it has
refused to promise the abolition of FCs, inan eﬀort to please the business sector andthe privileged few. Senior figures like theChief Secretary for Administration Henry
Tang Ying-yen still hinted that FCs may coexist with universal suffrage. 17 In otherwords, FCs may still exist in the future andthe future “universal suﬀrage” will not begenuine since it will not be in accordancewith the ICCPR.

Challenges in both school and community
sectors
Government’s insincerity
The government lacks the commitment toimprove the human rights situation in HongKong. In this environment, it is unlikely forthe government to actively initiate humanrights education in both sectors. This can beseen from the fact that some key humanrights and institutions important to theprotection of human rights are still being
denied to the Hong Kong people with
insuﬃcient or no eﬀort to address these
problems, although the human rights recordof Hong Kong is not too bad generally ascompared to Mainland China and mostAsian jurisdictions.
11Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong

In addition, the government refuses toestablish an independent Human Rights
C o m m i s s i o n . In r e s i s t i n g t h e U N ’s
recommendation for establishing one, thegovernment concludes that there was no
obvious need for such a Commission. It
claims that Hong Kong’s current humanrights framework, including rule of law, an
independent judiciary, comprehensive legal
aid system, human rights institutions (e.g.
EOC, the Ombudsman and PCPD) andmedia corps, all provide suﬃcient protectionof and support for human rights.18 Moreover,the government fails to admit the fact that
all the various existing human rights
institutions have limited jurisdictions andresources, and they are under delicate
government influence through nontransparent and problematic government
appointments and other means. There havebeen several scandals as a result of poorly
considered appointments or otherinterferences from the government. All too
often, totally inappropriate people areappointed. Moreover, litigation involves asubstantial amount of legal cost and delay
which ordinary citizens cannot aﬀord tou n d e r t a ke m a k i n g a h u m a n r i g h t scommission, with the power to provide acheap channel for complaints and their
expedient adjudication judgment andsettlement, more indispensable. As such,there is no public body with a broad
mandate and the required powers andresources for the strategic promotion andenforcement of human rights in law anddaily life in Hong Kong.

that, after the re-structuring of the policy
bureaus of the Government Secretariat on 1
July 2007, the work of human rights wastransferred from HAB to CMAB. But, infact, the CMAB only co-ordinates the workon human rights that falls into the policy
portfolios assigned to different bureaus
respectively. There are a number of bureaus
responsible for diﬀerent areas of humanrights issues. For example, the Commercea n d E co n o m i c D e v e l o p m e n t B u r e a u(CEDB) is responsible for the policies on
broadcasting and publication, which isrelated to f reedom of the press andexpression; the promotion of rights andequal opportunities of women and disabled
persons is the responsibility of Labour andWelfare Bureau. However, CMAB has no
power to command co-operation from theother bureaus even though it finds that thepolicies of certain bureaus should be
improved from a human rights perspective.
As a result, for many years the work on
human rights has been unfocused, impotent
and ineﬀectual.
Besides the above issues, Hong Kong’s
human rights situation in a number of otherareas has also been unsatisfactory. Threeareas are cited below as examples. First,
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is
asked to take up Hong Kong’s public service
broadcasting. But it is at the same timerequired to remain a government
department, which means that it cannot be agenuine, independent public ser vi ceb r o a d c a s te r i n a c c o r d a n c e w i t h t h edefinition and requirements laid down by
United Nations Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization (UNESCO).20 This
substantially undermines Hong Kong’s
freedom of expression in the light of thealready very serious self-censorship in the
Hong Kong media and also the Hong Kong
government’s less tolerant approach towards
dissent.21 Second, in spite of the criticisms of
the UN Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, the Race
Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) enacted

Given the above, a statutorily independent
human rights institution in line with theParis Principles19 should be established toinvestigate human rights violations, advise
the government on human rights issues, andconduct human rights education among the
public. However, the government simply
refuses to consider this fundamentallyessential step.
Another example showing the government’s
lack of incentive in human rights issues is12

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

in 2009 fails to provide adequate protection
to ethnic minorities in Hong Kong because
there are too many exemptions in thelegislation. The RDO does not apply togovernment functions and discrimination on
the basis on nationality; immigration andresidential status are explicitly excluded in
the RDO. Third, the government refuses totake the international responsibility on
refugee issues except those related to claimsof torture and even spread its anti-refugee
sentiment among the public throughgovernment propaganda.

responsibilities of individuals are included in
the curriculum. Using Civic Education as an
example, issues or information on equality,
freedoms, rights and duties, rule of law anddemocracy are included in the curriculum.
However, the main purpose for many schools
to promote Civic Education is to get extra
funding from the government. Very few
schools are seriousl y involved in the
program. Students who were admitted at theupper secondar y level before theimplementation of the new secondar y
education system in September 2009
received relatively less Civic Education. The
same is true for all schools that specialize inArts, Sciences or Commerce streams. Only
those who specialize in Arts and some inCommerce streams in all schools receive
Civic Education in selected subjects, such as
History and Government and Public Aﬀairs.
Students admitted in or after September
2009 may have more exposure to Civic
Education because LS becomes acompulsory subject for upper secondary
students and its curriculum covers a lot of
issues. Human rights can be one of theperspectives in addressing the issues.

(b) Government fails to promote human rights
education eﬀectively
The government is the main factor for the
weakness of human rights education in HongKong. The government is responsible forformulating and developing the educational
policies at all education levels, including thecurriculum at primary and secondary levels,and also at the community level.
Inconsistent with the international practiceof governments actively promoting humanr i g h t s e d u c a t i o n , t h e Ho n g Ko n g
Government has abdicated its responsibility.

Hong Kong does not have a systematic
curriculum framework to implement humanrights education in schools. The syllabus of
Civic and Moral Education is very broad andincludes national education, moral
education, education on environment,
education on personal development andeducation on the Basic Law. The government
recommended in 2008 that Moral and Civic
Education should have 19 percent of total
lesson hours in primary education, 8 percent
in lower secondary education and 5 percent
in upper secondary education. However,given the examination-oriented Hong Kong
education system, it is believed that fewerclasses and less emphasis are allocated for
Moral and Civic Education in various
schools, especially in secondary schools,
raising the concern that human rights
education is not given enough time in school
lessons and activities. On the other hand,(1) Unsystematic curricular framework ofhuman rights education at the school level
Human rights education has never been an
independent subject in Hong Kong’s
education system. Since 2001, it has been
considered as part of Civic Education, orMoral and Civic Education. The “Guidelines
for Civic Education in Schools” published in
1996 (1996 Guidelines) encourages all schools
to implement them through school-based
Civic Education. Although it is notcompulsory to have Civic Education at
schools, most schools choose to havesomething related to Civic Education, either
as an independent subject or embedded into
different subjects. It is embedded into
General Studies in primary schools andprobably in Personal, Social and Humanities
Education in secondary schools. Generally
speaking, concepts such as rights and13

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kongsome human rights contents are taught inother subjects besides Moral and Civic
Education as mentioned before. This reflectsthat although human rights education ismainly under the umbrella of Moral andCivic Education, human rights education isstill scattered in diﬀerent subjects. Suchpolicy on human rights education may
negatively aﬀect the students’ learning andunderstanding of the values and principles ofhuman rights. Even if concepts on humanrights are taught and discussed in theselessons, they are taught in a piecemeal andsuperficial way. Therefore, students may failto become aware of or understand thehuman rights issues and specific concepts,
and even less likely to grasp the human rights
concepts in a comprehensive and integral
way.

human rights education had been updated in
the 2001 Curriculum Reform. It further
stated that topics such as “human rights,”“d e m o c r a c y ” a n d “ r u l e o f l a w ” w e r esystematically and comprehensively
incorporated. 25 However, the detailed
contents of the Moral and Civic Education
show a totally diﬀerent picture. Humanrights education remains a part of Moral andCivic Education, but no longer one of its
focuses. There are five paramount values inMoral and Civic Education, including
n a t i o n a l i d e n t i t y, a p o s i t i v e s p i r i t ,perse verance, respect for others andcommitment to society and nation. Contents
related to personal and interpersonal
education, family education and moral
education were given much higher priority
than human rights education and education
for democracy. Such a shift of focus can befurther reflected by the most recentlyr e v i s e d Mo r a l a n d C i v i c E d u c a t i o ncurriculum in 2008, in which caring andintegrity are added to the paramount values.

The three stages of development on humanrights education also reflect the shift ofemphasis in Civic Education. Human rights
education was one of the focuses of Civic
Education in the 1996 Guidelines, with theobjective of helping students understand theimportance of democracy, liberty, equality,
human rights and the rule of law.22 It was stillreasonable to expect that the 1996
Guidelines would form a basis to bring about
positive developments in human rights
education, even though the guidelines havebeen criticized for not being systematic andfor having been compromised byincompatible political forces and ideologies
without addressing some of the embedded
conceptual conflicts, such as thecompatibility of education for democracy,
human rights education, and national
education.23

According to the EDB website, there are
four key points in human rights education,
namely, characteristics of human rights(inherent, not to violate one’s human rights
without reasonable and lawful reasons), basic
concepts on human rights (life, freedom,
equality and respect), important humanrights documents (Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, international human rights
treaties) and value as well as attitude to
respect human rights.26 Unfortunately it is
not the same in the outline of Civic
Education or later the Moral and Civic
Education, which prevails in schools. Thispart will be discussed in a later chapter.

However, the document “Learning to Learn– The Way For ward in Curriculum” 24
published in the 2001 Curriculum Reform
shifted Civic Education to Moral and Civic
Education, which unfortunately marked a
step backward for human rights education.
In response to a LegCo member’s questions
on human rights education, the government
claimed that the themes and topics on(2) Disbandment of human rights education
working group under the CPCE
The CPCE under HAB is responsible forhuman rights education and civic education
among the community. Human rights
education at the community level faces a few
similar challenges with those at the schoollevel, especially the lack of government
14

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

commitment. After the re-organization of
the policy bureaus of the Government
Secretariat in 2007, the work on humanrights was transferred from HAB to CMAB
and the work on civic education remains
under HAB. But, at that time no one knew
which bureau was responsible for the workon human rights education. Six months after
the re-organization, the government was
prompted to announce the following in
response to questions raised by a LegCo
Member:National Education Sub-committee andResearch, Development and Community
Participation Sub-committee remained. The
terms of reference of Publicity Subcommittee, which was assigned to take up
the work on human rights education,
mentions nothing about human rights
education. Even worse, after re-structuring,
the CPCE works on human rights education
under HAB but human rights policy is to be
formulated by CMAB. The termination of
the survey on human rights would make itdiﬃcult for the government to formulate thepolicy and direction of human rights
education based on sound empirical data.
Further, the preparation work of the survey,
including the tender assignment and designof questionnaires, has been completed. It isdefinitely a waste of public money becauseof the premature termination of the survey
contract. The government failed even todisclose the amount paid to the contractor
for the work performed and the sum paid by
way of compensation for the prematuretermination of the contract.

(1) the CPCE under HAB would continue
working on human rights education;(2) due to the re-str ucturing of thegovernment bureaus and the need to
streamline the CPCE’s existing
structure, the human rights education
working group under the CPCE wasdisbanded in December 2007 and thework on human rights education was
assigned to the CPCE Publicity Subcommittee which is responsible forthe promotion of civic values; and(3) the CPCE decided to terminate thesurvey on human rights awareness ofHong Kong people commissioned to
the University of Hong Kong. They
alleged that the survey had not yet
commenced and the work on humanrights was transferred to CMAB.27

The CPCE, in its meeting in December
2007, concluded, “The CPCE agreed thatthe promotion of human rights education
remains one of the important work of the
CPCE, but the work of the CPCE should
focus on education and promotion of thosehuman rights concepts, in particular thoserelated core values, driven by CMAB anddeveloped out of the consensus of thesociety.” 28 This decision by the CPCE
demonstrates its failure to appreciate fullyt h e u n i v e r s a l i t y, i n d i v i s i b i l i t y a n dinterdependence of human rights. Its
readiness to promote only those humanrights concepts on which consensus has
already been reached and endorsed by
CMAB but not other rights seems to suggestthat it cares more about avoiding
controversies than discharging its obligation
to educate and inform the general public onhuman rights. It fails to realize that theidentification of education needs should bebased on professional assessment, not social

This government announcement reflects thelack of government commitment to thepromotion of human rights education at thecommunity level. The government declaredthat the bureau was responsible for the workon human rights education only after six
months had passed since its re-organization.
It gave an impression that no bureaus werewilling to take up the task. Both HAB and
CMAB would like to pass work on humanrights to the other bureaus. The government
claimed that the human rights education
working group was disbanded to “streamline
the existing structure”, but other subcommittees including Civic Values andCorporate Citizenship Sub-committee,
15

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kongconsensus or government sponsorship. The
CPCE, with its ignorance in education andhuman rights, is simply not qualified to be
responsible for any work on human rights
education. It may well be said that theCPCE should recognize that it is itself indesperate need of being educated on basic
human rights concepts such as universality
and indivisibility of rights.

by schools was informative and aimed todevelop students’ critical thinking skills.”31
However, in reality, the authorities and theirclose supporters see human rights education
as a hindrance to national education or to
the uncritical indoctrination of the more orless narrow patriotism. The Commission on
Strategic Development explained the
difficulties and challenges of national
education in Hong Kong as a lack of national
pride and national identification among the
public due to colonial education and aprevailing sense of individualism, whichemphasizes the importance of the self rather
than one’s sense of community.32(3) Shift of emphasis to national education
After the return of sovereignty of Hong
Kong to China, national education has
increasingly been promoted as the key focus
of Civic Education. The Commission on
Strategic Development opines that national
education is “a form of country-oriented
education that aims to develop a concept ofnationalism. Through national education,
each and every national is to become aperson who is able to abide by the laws of
our country, cater for the interests of ourcountry and dedicates himself to the destinyof our country.”29 There was even a rumor
that national education is the pre-requisiteof universal suffrage. In 2003 when thegovernment was legislating on National
Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill, thelegislation was criticized by the Hong Kong
community as a violation of the “TwoSystems,” human rights and freedoms infavor of “One Country.” Since then, national
education became the focus of civic
education in the eyes of the Central andHong Kong authorities. The Policy Addressin October 2007 further strengthened theemphasis on national education. It statedthat the go ver nment would continue
implementing “One Country, Two Systems”
faithfully and strengthen promotion of the
Basic Law and national education.30

Under the objectives of promoting national
identity and a sense of belonging, national
education tends to be a “brainwashing”
exercise. Its content tends to provide facts
mainly on positive developments, while
education for critical thinking is inadequate.
Taking the national education on 2008
Beijing Olympic Games as an example, theEducation and Manpower Bureau (thebureau responsible for education policies
before 2007) held a number of activities thatmainly provided some facts about Olympic
Games and glorified the achievement ofbeing the host of the Olympic Games.33
Violations of human rights in many aspects
were hidden, such as forced evictions andresident displacements, and infringements of
the labor rights and freedom of expression
before and during the Olympic Games. The
Chinese and Hong Kong governments’national education pro vides positive
information only. It fails to incorporate thepromotion of students’ and the public’s
understanding of human rights concepts ortheir ability to think critically of mattersrelated to the Olympic Games.

National education and human rights
education are not necessarily contradictory.
As an EDB oﬃcial said in a LegCo Panel on
Home Aﬀairs meeting, “national education isrelated closely to HRE as the former also
embedded concepts of rights and duty” and“the approach to national education adopted

Education on the Basic Law is part ofnational education in Hong Kong. The Basic
Law is the mini-constitution of Hong Kong
under the “One Country, Two Systems.”
Chapter III of the Basic Law stipulates thefundamental rights and duties of Hong Kong
residents, and its Article 39 states that the16Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

provisions of the ICCPR, ICESCR andinternational labor conventions as applied to
Hong Kong shall remain in force and shall be
implemented through the laws in HongKong. The government allegedly preserves
the principle that human rights education
should be treated as a major component of
the education on the Basic Law. However, in
reality, education on the Basic Law focuseson the positive aspects of “One Country” inthe Basic Law. Human rights education andeducation on critical thinking are neglected.
The government stated in 2008 that in thefollowing year, it would continue stepping up
its eﬀorts in further promoting the Basic
Law, especial l y to promote in-depth
messages including the “One Country”
concept and the relationship between Hong
Kong and Central Authorities, etc.34 The
government’s proposed framework on Basic
Law education shows that the topic onrights and duties of Hong Kong residents is
included but not its focus.

national education and human rights
education.
As stated above, Basic Law education forms
part of the national education in HongKong. According to the government paper
provided to the LegCo Panel on Home
Aﬀairs for its meeting in March 2008, thetotal provisions for the promotion of theBa sic Law f rom various bureaus anddepartments were over twelve million Hong
Kong dollars in 2007-2008 and increased toover twenty million Hong Kong dollars in
2008-2009.36 In addition to these amounts,
diﬀerent bureaus in the area of national
education were formally allocated furthersums.
In the same paper, EDB set aside an annual
provision of about thirty-eight million Hong
Kong dollars for implementing various
existing national education initiatives. An
additional ten million Hong Kong dollars has
been earmarked on a recurrent basis to meetthe funding requirements of the newprograms on national education from2008-2009 onwards.37 When questioned by
LegCo Members in the Panel meeting about
the lack of preference for human rights
education, EDB claimed that the thirtyeight million Hong Kong dollars covered
funding for both national education andhuman rights education initiatives and it wasdiﬃcult to provide a breakdown on the twoareas. 38 It is doubtful if human rights
education actually benefited from the sum inany meaningful way given the overwhelming
empha sis on national education, theproblematic nature of national education
under EDB, and the marginalization ofhuman rights education by the whole
government.

The performance indicators of national
education proposed by the Commission on
Strategic Development focus on the level ofknowledge and the extent of recognition or
dedication to Mainland China. 35 These
indicators are not comprehensive for the
students to learn the whole picture ofnational education. Such Basic Law
education will only cover the positive
aspects of the Basic Law and thedevelopment of Mainland China. It fails togive the students a chance to attain national
education in a balanced way and criticallyrecognize the development of Mainland
China. One of the indicators, namely theextent to which one is dedicated tosafeguarding national interests, arguably
contradicts human rights education, if
national interests are narrowly constructed
and critical thinking is underplayed, because
human rights are usually exploited in thename of protecting national interests in
Mainland China.

HAB has allocated an annual provision of
about ten million Hong Kong dollars to
implement various existing national
education initiatives, and another twentythree million Hong Kong dollars to meet thefunding requirements of the programs fornational education in 2008-2009.39 On the

Another sign of the emphasis is the large
discrepancy in resources distributed to17Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kongother hand, in the same document, HAB was
silent on the amount of resources committed
to human rights education.

Content of human rights education determined by
the Government
It is very important to look at the content of
the human rights education provided by thegovernment. Education is an important andeﬃcient way for the government to transfuse
i t s m e s s a g e t o t h e s t u d e n t s . If t h egovernment sabotages the objectivity andcomprehensiveness of human rights
education, its quality is rendered
questionable, no matter how systematic it isor how much resources are committed to it.

In response to questions from LegComembers in the Panel meeting, HAB
disclosed that the CPCE had allocated some
100,000 Hong Kong dollars to support
human rights promotional activities in
2007-2008, and had also approved a funding
allocation of 300,000 Hong Kong dollars toeight publicity schemes for the promotion ofhuman rights in 2008-2009.40 Nevertheless,according to the working plan of the CPCEin recent years, human rights education isnever the main task of the CPCE. According
to the Working Plan in 2008-2009 and2009-2010, there are five main areas on
development on values, including worldwide,family, society, nation and personal. The
words “human rights” disappeared totallyfrom the Working Plan. Due to the Beijing
Olympic Games in 2008 and the 60th
anniversary of the establishment of China in
2009, national education, probably due also
to its problematic nature discussed earlier,dominated the work of the CPCE.41 The
CPCE decided to take “Build up positive
life, establish healthy family together” as them a i n t h e m e o f t h e C P C E ’s w o r k i n
2010-2011, and decided to set respect,
responsibility and love as the main civic
values to be promoted.42 Among the one
hundred forty seven projects sponsoredunder the Community Participation Scheme
in 2010-2011, none of them were explicitly
about human rights education.43 All thesereflect that the work on human rights
education in the CPCE is marginalized if not
totally discarded.

In 2005 the Society for Truth and Light (theS o c i e t y ) 4 4 w a s co m m i s s i o n e d b y t h e
g o v e r n m e n t to e d u c a te p r i m a r y a n dsecondary teachers on human rights andanti-discrimination concepts. The
government’s decision outraged local humanrights activists and organizations, mainly
because of the Society’s anti-gay rights
position. 45 When pressed, the Society
admitted that it was the first time for themto run human rights courses for the EDB,
and that the courses would not include
homosexual rights.46 The Bureau said that it
adopted an open tendering process that
required tenders to be “evaluated on thebasis of the course design, the expertise of
the speakers and the experience of theorganizer” and “[t]he tender that [met] therequirements and [had] the lowest asking
price [would] be selected.”47
However, the doubts of local human rights
organizations and activists were seemingly
well founded based on the outline of thecourse. Its introduction states that: 48…following the trend of liberalization,
people only emphasize individual rights andignore one’s responsibility and obligation tosociety. Extreme liberalists always upholdhuman rights to strike against traditionalsocial values. The society hopes, byorganizing this programme, teachers will
understand the true meaning of ‘humanrights’ and that any misunderstanding of thetrue meaning of human rights can lead tomore social problems.

Challenges unique to the school sector
In addition to those challenges common toboth school and community sectors, there
are also some challenges that are unique tothe school sector, making the promotion onhuman rights education in schools evenmore diﬃcult.
18Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

The course will identify ways to prevent
excessive use of human rights rather thanways to promote human rights. Its lessons
include topic on “individuals’ rights andresponsibilities in free society” and “thee xces s i v e u s e o f human rights.” Thediscussion will cover the dangers of excessive
human rights and how to balance individuals’
rights and social responsibilities. A teachingmaterial for the course, while talking about“rights,” seems to focus on responsibilities.
Fundamental concepts on human rights,
such as “universality” and “inalienability,” arenot given the proper treatment in thematerial. It emphasizes that rights are to beunderstood only together withresponsibilities with examples in daily life,
family, school and social life. One participant
in the training for teachers held by theSociety also observed that an instructor kept
stressing responsibilities when talking aboutrights in one of the lessons.49

The emphasis on responsibilities whentalking about rights in human rights
education is probably the hidden message ofthe government. The government stated in
its “Information Paper on Human Rights
Education in Hong Kong Schools” that
… [I]mportant concepts and values onhuman rights, such as the right to life,
freedom (e.g. speech, religion), respect for all
peoples (e.g. their cultures, ways of life),
equality, anti-discrimination, etc are
discussed and developed through theteaching and learning of Key Learning Areas
at various Key Stages. Students’ concepts
and understanding of human rights arestrengthened progressively from a basic
understanding of the rights andresponsibilities to more complex concepts ofhuman rights…50

The government does not provide UN
human rights education materials to local
teachers. The contents of human rights
education provided by the Government,
whether for teachers of primar y andsecondary schools or to the students, fail togive them a comprehensive picture on
human rights. As mentioned before, the fourmain points in human rights education
named by EDB are not eﬀectively present intoday’s human rights education in schools.
Ve r y o f te n , “ r i g h t s ” a r e l i n ke d w i t h“responsibilities” and are taught in thelessons together. This is probably what the
government meant by the “basic
understanding of the rights andresponsibilities.” In the teaching objectivesof diﬀerent subjects where human rights
education can be embedded, whenever theword “rights” appears, the word
“responsibilities” or “duties” also appears
Similarly in these subjects when rights andresponsibilities are being taught, theimportance of the Basic Law, and how rights
and responsibilities are protected by the
Basic Law must be understood. This message
fails to define human rights as inherent, andwould give students the wrong impressionthat they need to fulfill certain
responsibilities before they are entitled to

There are legitimate concerns on the humanrights course for teachers commissioned by
the government. It is inclined heavily
towards responsibilities and the dangers ofexcessive use of human rights. It not only has
the risk of inadequately emphasizing the
intrinsic values and concepts of human rights
but actually indoctrinating wrong values. For
example, the teachers attending the course
may be misled into believing that humanrights are not inherent and are conditional
upon the prior fulfillment of certain
responsibilities. As a result, teachers may failto use the basic human rights concepts andinternational human rights standards tounderstand human rights and analyze humanrights violations. It may even transfer someextreme conservative Christian messages tothe teachers, making them more confused
and mix up the concepts and values ofhuman rights as a result. The course could
have been better delivered by independentgroups of experienced educators specializedin human rights education who have also
submitted their tender.

19

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kongrights. The basic concepts of human rights
or the important international instruments
on human rights, which can give students a
more comprehensive picture on humanrights, are not the focus of teaching humanrights in diﬀerent subjects. It seems that the
government is tr ying to emphasize
responsibilities to promote a harmonious
society at the expense of promoting theconcepts of human rights. It also fails to
educate students on situations wheninherent human rights are neglected, or evenviolated, by empirical law. These biased
contents on human rights education do not
help enhance students’ ability to understandhuman rights. The quality of governmentsupported human rights education in Hong
Kong is at best dubious.

examination results as the prime indicator of
the ability of a student and the performanceof a teacher or a school. This is probably themost important reason why human rights
education is not given proper support.
Knowledge in human rights has little
importance in school or public examinations
and therefore human rights education should
give way to crucial examination subjects suchas English and Chinese languages andmathematics. According to the AIHK
survey, 44 percent of the teachers believedthat human rights education had “no direct
benefit to students on their future
education/career prospect” and 30 percent ofthem thought that “Hong Kong people
generally were indiﬀerent towards humanrights issue.”Unfavorable school environment

The worries that human rights areinconsistent with school discipline or
Chinese culture are also important reasons.
The AIHK survey showed that 28 percent
worried that “students will abuse humanrights, disturbing school discipline andschool administration” and 21 percent feltthat there was “contradiction between
human rights issue and Chinese culture.”

The individual teachers are the main
mediums to transmit knowledge and skills tostudents. Their understanding on humanrights is thus critical to the success of humanrights education. However, most Hong Kongteachers do not have adequate knowledge ofthe fundamental concepts of human rights.
According to a survey conducted by theAmnesty International Hong Kong (AIHK)in 1995 (AIHK survey), a majority of school
teachers were “unclear about the definition
as well as the way of handling human rights
education.” 60 percent of teachers thoughtthat “human rights involve a lot of legalities
and cases, making it too complicated forteachers and students.”51 Of course, this ispartly or mainly due to inadequate training
or resources provided to teachers. The
AIHK survey showed that 66 percent ofteachers felt that they had “not enoughteaching resources” and 76 percent felt that
there was “not enough training forteachers.”52

The background of the schools may be
another factor. There are quite a number of
pro-Beijing and Christian schools that focus
more on national education or religious
studies in Moral and Civic Education.53
Another study conducted jointly by Oxfam
Hong Kong and AIHK also reported thathuman rights education is not much valuedby Hong Kong teachers:
While teachers and students generally
understood human rights, many teachersv a l u e d s o c i a l s t a b i l i t y o v e r p e o p l e ’s
fundamental rights. And while teachers
believed in basic human rights for everyone,
most placed their personal interests above
other people’s rights.54

Human rights education has never been highon the agenda of the schools. Considering
the education system, the parents’
aspiration, employers’ preferences, and thesocial reality, there is an overemphasis on

Other scholars share this argument. Fok
Shui-che from the Hong Kong Institute of20

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

Education (HKIEd), based on the findings of
AIHK, wrote that,to Article 12 of the CRC, students should be
provided with opportunities and channels to
express their views to influence school
policies aﬀecting their school lives, while
Article 13 provides that students are entitledto the right to receive and express diﬀerent
views, ideas and opinions by any media theychoose. In reality, Students Councils are
seldom empowered to have influence onschool policies, and school authorities censor
most of the student bulletins tightly.56

They (school principals and teachers) wereafraid that students might use human rights
to challenge the school administration or thelegality of school rules, with resulting chaos
and loss of dignity for both the school
authority and teachers. They feared thatstudents will only talk about rights but haveno sense of responsibility. In this way, theauthority of the school would be threatened
and this would adversely aﬀect the education
it could provide. Many Hong Kong teachers
regarded human rights in schools as nota b s o l u te a n d co u l d b e a b a n d o n e d i f
circumstances necessitate.55

Another example is the implementation ofschool discipline. School principals andteachers, and sometimes parents, set very
often modes of school discipline. Students
seldom have the power or choice on theformulation of school discipline. There islittle room for democratic participation of
the students in school rule making andimplementation.

The above survey and study may be outdated
because they were conducted in the midnineties. Teachers’ understanding of humanrights and incentive to promote humanrights might have been improved, forexample, due to the introduction of the LS
syllabus. To have a better understanding on
the current situation, the government should
consider commissioning a similar survey.

When students are suspected of violating
school rules, the same teacher usually does
all the necessary or relevant processes suchas identifying violators, investigation andimposing punishment. This is problematicirrespective of whether the teacher has poor
understanding of procedural justice, or this isdone merely for the sake of administrative
convenience. Indeed, it is quite diﬀerent
from what are required in the disciplinary or
judicial processes in our society and it may
aﬀect the students’ perception of humanrights.57

Besides formal lessons, the hidden
curriculum or children’s implicit learning inschools is also an important element in
human rights education. For example,
teachers should be role models in respecting
human rights in lessons and in the school.
However, inadequate understanding on
human rights and poor incentive to promote
human rights education are in fact
weakening the eﬀectiveness of the hidden
curriculum of human rights education. Most
schoolteachers would state that they respecthuman rights and undertake human rights
education. But, they tend to miss manyrights unintentionally despite their goodintention since they do not understandhuman rights. They do not understand, forexample, the “indivisibility” of human rights.
A good indication of this is the fact that theright to participation, which recognizes therights of children to make certain choices forthemselves and communicate their ideas toothers, is often denied in schools. According

The trial scheme on School Drug Testing(the Scheme) in Hong Kong is an example
reflecting the inadequacy of human rights inschool environments.58 The Scheme aims at
preventing students from drug abuse, but it
is criticized for violating students’ humanrights, including the lack of consultation of
students, the violation of privacy, theinfringement of the right not to selfincriminate and the lack of genuine consent
to join the Scheme due to pressure frompeers, parents and schools.59 Although thegovernment has modified the detailed
arrangements to provide a better protection21

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kongto the students involved in the Scheme, it
has failed to address the fundamental
problems of how the basic rights of schoolage students can and should be protected.
These hidden curriculums are adversely
aﬀecting the students’ understanding on
human rights.

large in today’s primary and lower secondary
schools. This size would definitely aﬀect thestudents’ ability to get the message ofhuman rights education and enhance theirunderstanding.

Teachers do not have high incentive in doing
human rights education. Their hea vy
workload may further weaken their incentive
to promote human rights education.
According to the AIHK survey, 70 percent
of teachers surveyed felt that they werealready “overloaded.”60 Given the various
reforms on educational policies, theteachers’ high workload including
administrative work and extra-curricular
activities, it is unlikely for teachers to haveadequate time to prepare themselves toteach human rights. Moreover, the teachingenvironment in Hong Kong is not favorable
to human rights education. Most teachers
still adopt traditional teaching methods,
which are inadequate for human rights
education. After understanding humanrights concepts, effective human rights
education requires in-depth discussion on
diﬀerent cases and experiential learning toenhance students’ understanding andthinking. Interactive approaches, whichallow students to participate and stimulatethem to think critically and analytically, areimportant to human rights education.
However, the Hong Kong education system
is knowledge-centered and examinationoriented with the primar y purpose of
preparing the students for better
examination results and for further study.
Moreover, according to the experience of
non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
teachers who were involved in their civic
education programs found it difficult toorganize small-group discussions when classsize was normally around thirty-five to forty
students in primary and lower secondary
levels. Teachers could not be effective
stimulators and facilitators with so many
students per class.61 The class size remains

There are also some external factors thatchallenge the eﬀectiveness and quality ofhuman rights education in Hong Kong. First,
Hong Kong education relies on textbooks as
the key supporting materials in teaching.
Textbook publishers do not want to invest
on textbooks on human rights education orMoral and Civic Education because both are
not compulsory subjects in schools. And
textbooks on other subjects that include
human rights have unsatisfactory content
q u a l i t y. A I H K co n d u c te d i n 2 0 0 6 athorough study on the interpretation ofHong Kong mainstream textbooks onhuman rights. The study concluded thathuman rights are inappropriately interpreted
such as follows: (1) most of the textbooks
present law, especially the Basic Law, as theorigin of human rights but do not elaborate
on “inherent” human rights; (2) most
textbooks simply describe conflicts ofdiﬀerent human rights as “abusing humanrights;” (3) they unnecessarily associate moral
responsibility and human rights; and (4) they
fail to discuss the relationship between
government and citizens, of which thegovernment has the responsibility to protect
citizens’ human rights. The poor content ofHong Kong textbooks is partly caused by
the failure of EDB to provide proper andsystematic stipulations on the curricular
framework and content of human rights
education and its conceptually problematic
understanding of human rights. Heavy
workload prevents teachers who are aware of
the problems in the textbooks from giving
adequate time to prepare teaching materials
on human rights education. They have little
choice but to rely on those weak mainstream
textbooks.

Inadequate external support for schools

22Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

Some enthusiastic NGOs, including theHong Kong Human Rights Monitor, develop
human rights teaching materials to help toaddress the deficits of mainstream
education. They also organize education
programs for primary and secondary schools,
such as school talks, workshops and day
camps. However, in making educationmaterials and running these education
programs, limited resources hinder them.
Further, most NGO workers are not experts
in education. They may have in-depth
knowledge in human rights, but they do not
specialize in teaching and are not familiar
with the syllabus of subjects in mainstream
schools that may aﬀect their eﬀectiveness indelivering human rights messa ges tostudents.

t h e B a s i c L a w, s o c i a l j u s t i c e a n d
discrimination, etc. However, these courses
are not compulsory and, as such, even thosestudents majoring in LS are not required totake them. The program in CUHK provides
an elective course on Civic Education thatcovers human rights as one of the subjects,
and also in the course on Education Law
that covers human rights issues related toschools. Some inter-faculty courses that
directly or indirectly cover human rights or
the rule of law are available but are notcompulsory for students to take. These
training programs are definitely not enoughto prepare the teachers for LS or Civic
Education.
Opportunities for Human Rights
Education

The lack of thorough understanding of
human rights by most teachers is due toseveral reasons. One reason is inadequate
human rights training in local education
institutions. Currently there are several
tertiary institutions providing professional
pre- and in- ser vice teacher training,
including the University of Hong Kong
(HKU), the Chinese University of Hong
Kong (CUHK) and HKIEd. Among them,
HKIEd specializes in teachers’ training
w h i l e t h e o t h e r s a r e co m p r e h e n s i v euniversities in Hong Kong. All of themprovide Bachelor of Education programs,
majoring in LS. HKIEd also provides
courses on Civic Education, which touch
lightly on human rights. All these programs
suit the new syllabus of LS in Hong Kong’s
schools, which include topics such as
Culture and Society, State and Personal
Responsibilities, and Personal Development
and Interpersonal Relationship. These topics
are to a certain extent relevant to humanrights issues, but the course outlines of allthese university programs provided bydifferent institutions show that humanrights issues are not one of the main themesin any of the courses. The HKIEd provides abroader area of general education coursesthat include human rights, the rule of law,

There is no doubt that the promotion ofhuman rights education in Hong Kong, bothin schools and at the community level, isfacing a number of diﬃculties and obstacles
originating from the government, the school
and also from society. However, there are
actually some improvements that can bringfavorable opportunities for human rights
e d u c a t i o n i n Ho n g Ko n g . T h e m o s t
prominent opportunity is probably the
implementation of LS as a new core subject
in upper secondary study.
LS as a new opportunity
Ac c o r d i n g t o t h e “ L i b e r a l S t u d i e s :Curriculum and Assessment Guide” (LSGuide), the aims of LS in upper secondary
education include:(1) to enhance students’ understanding ofthemselves, their society, their nationand the human world and the physicalenvironment;(2) to enable students to develop multiperspectives on perennial andcontemporar y issues in different
contexts (e.g. cultural, social,economic, political and technologicalcontexts);
23

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong(3) to help students become independent
thinkers so that they can constructknowledge appropriate to changing
personal and social circumstances;

Culture” and “Technology & Environment”)
are inter-related. They cover six modules
including “Personal Development andInterpersonal Relationship,” “Hong Kong
Today,” “Modern China,” “Globalization,”“Public Health,” and “Energy, Technology
and Environment” that raise various key
questions.64 The concepts of human rights,
or various human rights issues, can beembedded into different themes underdiﬀerent modules. In “Quality of Life” underthe module of “Hong Kong Today,” students
are required to choose directions inmaintaining and improving Hong Kong
residents’ quality of life. In response to thisquestion, “rights-based” concepts derived
from various international human rights
instruments can be used as one of thedirections. The “Rule of law and sociopolitical participation” is also under themodule of “Hong Kong Today.” Students
need to study Hong Kong residents’participation in political and social aﬀairs,
their rights and responsibilities and respect
for the rule of law. The Basic Law, Hong
Kong Bill of Rights and various international
human rights instr uments should be
included in this area.

(4) to develop in students a range of skills
for life long learning, including criticalthinking skills, creativity, problem
solving skills, communication skills
and information skills;(5) to help students appreciate and respect
diversity in cultures and views in apluralistic society and handle
conflicting views;(6) to help students develop positive
values and attitudes towards life, sothat they can become informed andresponsible citizens of the country,
society and the world.62
While human rights are not explicitly
mentioned in the aims of LS, the type ofcitizens that LS aims at is similar to that ofhuman rights education. Therefore it isexpected that there is room for humanrights education within the framework of
LS. A further look at the content of LS
reveals themes, issues and questions within
the units that can be used for human rights
e d u c a t i o n .63 T h e b a s i c c u r r i c u l u mframework of LS is listed in Table 3.

In the “China’s reform and opening-up”
under the “Modern China” module, students
are asked about the impact of the reformand opening-up and the overall developmentof the country and on people’s life. Students

The three Areas of Study (“Self &Personality Development,” “Society &Table 3. Contents of Liberal Studies
Units of Study
Self & Personality Development
Module 1: Personal Development
and Interpersonal RelationshipSociety & Culture
Module 2: Hong Kong Today
Module 3: Modern China
Module 4: Globalization
Science, Technology & Environment
Module 5: Public Health
Module 6: Energy, Technology andEnvironment

Independent Enquiry Study
Students are required to conduct an Independent Enquiry Study(IES) making use of the knowledge and perspectives gained fromthe three Areas of Study and extending them to new issues orcontexts. To help students develop their IES titles, the following
themes are suggested:- Education- Media- Religion- Sports- Arts- Information and communication technology
24

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

can again introduce international humanrights standards and the issues about theratification and implementation of various
international human rights treaties by China.
In the theme of “Science, technology andpublic health” under the module of “Public
Health,” when discussing the extent of theenhancement of science and technology on
the development of public health,individuals’ rights to public health services
can be discussed. Through the sharedconcepts of “Multiple Citizens and Multiple
Identities” in “Hong Kong Today,” “Modern
China” and “Globalization,” students also
have the opportunity to explore humanrights as global ethics. There are also
opportunities for the inclusion of humanr i g h t s i n “ E n e r g y, Te c h n o l o g y a n dEnvironment.” The requirement for students
to conduct an Independent Enquiry Study(IES) on topics such as media, education,
religion, sports and arts allows the inclusionof human rights principles.65

fieldwork.”67 Again, this is diﬀerent fromhuman rights education that aims tocultivate students as “transforming agents.”68
Some teaching approaches in human rights
education emphasize the role of students as“transforming agents.” For instance, criticalpedagogy,69 transformative learning70 and
emancipatory transformation 71 are some
important components of human rights
education, but they may not be covered in
LS. It is suggested that these pedagogies takea more critical position in emphasizing theneed for critical perspectives in thedominant discourse. The lack of a critical
position and perspective in LS may tend tohomogenize controversial issues and ignore
diversities, resulting in various forms of
discrimination and violations of humanrights. 72 In addressing these concerns,
students “should be motivated to develop a
critical consciousness of problems, toanalyze them, to make their cause explicit, toattempt to explore solutions and change
conditions to discover what is possible inconfronting and taking action to solve theproblem.”73 However, these elements are
missing in the LS.

LS emphasizes students’ construction ofknowledge and recommends the “issue based
approach” and “experiential learning.” It issuggested that students study and evaluate
issues and information from a variety ofperspectives and various points of view, andfavor learning outside the classroom. These
approaches are also considered to beeﬀective by human rights educators.66

Fortunately, despite the gap between humanrights education and LS, there is still a roomfor human rights education within theframework of LS. Leung Yan-wing argues
that civic education in Hong Kong schools
will be entering a fourth stage, which can be
named Civic Education through LS, wherean “action-poor HRE” can have a place.74

However, LS cannot fully replace humanrights education. There is still a gap between
the types of citizens expected from LS andhuman rights education respectively. One oft h e i mp o r t an t aim s of human rig hts
education (cultivating students to become“transforming agents” for the protection andimprovement of human conditions) is largely
neglected in LS. The recommendation ofparticipatory learning strategies in LS is to“enable students to achieve certain learningthat are diﬃcult to attain through classroom
learning alone” and “to provide
opportunities so that students can explore
the community through obser vation,
surveys, interview and various forms ofExternal support from tertiary
institutions, NGOs, civil society andmedia
Teachers’ understanding of human rights
issues is very important to the quality ofhuman rights education, especially with theopportunities to include human rights issues
in LS. The education institutions are now
getting more active in enhancing teachers’
understanding of human rights issues. The
HKIEd, for example, since 2008, has added25

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong

more courses on human rights such as theRule of Law, the Basic Law, and Social Justice& Discrimination. With more courses onhuman rights, students can be better
equipped as teachers in human rights
education and Civic Education in the future.
Some other tertiary institutions, such as The
Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology (HKUST) and The Open
University of Hong Kong (OUHK) also
provide master’s programs in LS Education
for schoolteachers.

the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor
expressed its disappointment on theimbalance of resources distribution between
human rights education and national
education, and criticized that the nature ofnational education promoted by him wasonly a promotion of the positive side of theissues of the country. It lacks introduction toand reflection on the deficits of Chinese
authority, as well as diversified knowledge
and objective a ssessment on China’s
situation. This is clearly inconsistent with thespirit of genuine national education.78

Human rights NGOs can facilitate schools intheir integration of human rights concepts
a n d i s s u e s i n L S, e s p e c i a l l y t h r o u g hexperiential learning. The LS Guide alsosuggests that NGOs are potential sources of
information for studying issues in the LS
curriculum.75 Research has shown that NGOs
that are politically active are effective in
helping schools use experiential learning forthe cultivation of democratic citizenship.76
Thus, it is expected that human rights NGOs
can be more involved in human rights
education. Local NGOs are involved more inschool activities since they are more
frequently invited by schools to offer schooltalks, workshops or even day camps on
various human rights issues. On the other
hand, NGOs should be more proactive inproviding service to teachers. It seems that amodel of close cooperation between schools
and NGOs in human rights education is
expected. However, NGOs should takemeasures to be prepared for human rights
education. Further they should address theworry of indoctrination.77

The Alliance of Civic Education, composedof a number of local NGOs, teachers andother individuals, provides a series of
education materials on national educationfrom a critical perspective, aiming at
cultivating critical patriots. Its educationmaterials on Chinese economic development
introduce issues on unsafe working
environment, poor food production, poverty
and environmental pollution to provide
a n o t h e r a n g l e o n C h i n e s e e co n o m i cdevelopment. Its education materials on
national education critically explore theissues on “recognition of Hong Kong people
on national identity,” “what is patriotic” and“national flag and national song.” 79 The
Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic
Democracy Movements of China also
provides education materials and offers
school talks and workshops to introduce theJune 4 Massacre and explore diﬀerent issues
about China, such as economic development
and arbitrary detention. These activities andeducation materials prepared by local NGOs
and civil society supplement the national
education and also provide human rights
education to students. At the community
level, different media also provide
information and programs on human rights
education and national education. For
example, RTHK provides excellent TV
programs introducing issues such as universal
suﬀrage, rights of persons with disabilities,
voluntary drug test schemes in schools andrights of human rights defenders in China.

It seems that in the near future, thegovernment’s emphasis on the achievementof the Chinese government in national
education will not change. Against thisbackground, the local NGOs and civilsociety can help address the deficiencies in
the national education implemented by thegovernment.
In 2008, while Chief Executive Donald Tsang
Yam-kuen emphasized national education,
26

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

These also serve the purposes of humanrights education.

earl y 2010, many secondar y students
participated in the campaign to oppose theconstruction of the Hong Kong section of
the Hong Kong Guangdong Express Railway.
In all these events, the work of teachers andcivil society and the social atmosphere havenurtured a number of students paying
attention to diﬀerent human rights issues,
which in turn has served as a kind of humanrights education to other students and thecommunity.

The growth of civil society
Another opportunity for the future ofhuman rights education is the growth of civilsociety. The establishment of civil society iscreating or speeding up changes in thesociety. The development of the civil society
also allows students to develop theirunderstanding of human rights concepts andconcerns about diﬀerent social and humanrights issues. In 2003, during the over half-amillion strong July 1 demonstration, many
secondar y
students
joinedthedemonstration. A network called Hong
Kong Secondar y Students Union was
founded in 2003 to “boost secondary school
students’ awareness of social aﬀairs andcommunity policies and jointly promote
Hong Kong’s democratization, so as to set
up a democratized society for our next
generation.”80 Research found a number offactors behind the development of students’
enthusiasm. The first is the work done byactive teachers to promote experiential
learning and exploring of issues. These
teachers helped students gain exposure todiﬀerent social issues such as poverty, fairtrade and human rights violations. The workof various NGOs also helped. They provided
education materials, school talks andworkshops, and brought the students out ofc l a s s r o o m s t o o b s e r v e t h e s o c i e t y.
Furthermore, the technological development
signified by the Internet helped students
transfer information and ideas, and organize
diﬀerent activities to express their opinions
about society. In recent years, a form sevensecondary student established a Facebook
group called “Hong Kong anti conservative
Christian hegemony movement” in January
2009 and over two thousand people joined itwithin two weeks of its establishment.

Conclusion
This article demonstrates that human rights
education in Hong Kong faces numerous
challenges from the government,
unfa vorable school environment andinadequate external support from thecommunity. The go ver nment play s adominant role in human rights education
but gives it very low priority. EDB has failed
to ensure that human rights education istaught as a subject in primary and secondary
education and has exerted little eﬀort toeﬀectively embed human rights education
into other core or elective subjects. The
absence of proper and systematic
stipulations by EDB on the curricular
framework and content of human rights
education and its conceptually problematic
understanding of human rights oﬀer little
help to those engaging in human rights
education, making the embedment of
human rights education into different
subjects not very fruitful. The shift of focus
of civic education to national education
further marginalizes human rights education.
The examination-oriented education
provides an unfavorable school environmentthat limits the space for, and hinders theeﬀectiveness of, human rights education.
The same is true for the inadequate external
support to school.
With the recent introduction of LS as a cores u b j e c t i n t h e n e w u p p e r s e co n d a r y
education system, human rights education
can be more easily embedded if teachers
have suﬃcient awareness and knowledge ofIn late 2009 the government implemented
the voluntary school drug test scheme andmany students expressed their concerns
about the Scheme. Between late 2009 and27

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong

Endnotes

human rights. The content of LS, including
the themes, issues and questions within the
study units of LS may accommodate humanrights issues and a human rights perspective
essential to human rights education. The“issue based” and “experiential learning”
approaches are useful to human rights
education. The type of citizens expectedfrom the aims of LS is similar to those
expected from a successful human rights
education. Thus the inclusion of LS a core
subject provides a new opportunity forhuman rights education.

1 Education Bureau, “Over view on
Kindergarten, Primar y and Secondar y
Education”, last updated on 3 March 2010atw w w. e d b . g o v. h k / i n d e x . a s p x ?
nodeID=2062&langno=1. Website visited on
21 March 2010.
2 “Report of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rights on theimplementation of the Plan of Action for
the United Nations Decade for Human
Rights Education” (Plan of Action), 12
D e c e m b e r 1 9 9 6 a t w w w. u n h c h r. c h /huridocda/huridoca.nsf/%28Symbol%29/A.
51.506.Add.1.En?OpenDocument. Website
visited on 18 March 2010.
3 Para 79, “The Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action”, as adopted by theWorld Conference on Human Rights on 25
June 1993 (“Vienna Declaration”) at
w w w. c p p s . o r g . m y / s u b _ p a g e . a s p x ?
catID=203&ddlID=205. Website visited on
10 February 2010.
4 Para 81, ibid.
5 Para 11, Plan of Action and para 82, Vienna
Declaration
6 Para 25, Plan of Action
7 Leung Yan-wing, “How Should We Move
Forward?: A Critical Review of Human
Rights Education in Hong Kong” (Critical
Review of HRE), Human Rights Education in
Asian Schools, 10, 143-151, available atw w w. h u r i g h t s . o r . j p / a r c h i v e s /human_rights_education_in_asian_schools/
section1/2007/03/volume.html.
8 Committee on the Promotion of Civic
Education, “Terms of Reference” atwww.cpce.gov.hk/eng/cpce/tor.htm, last
updated on 1 April 2008. Website visited on
17 February 2010.
9 Para 16, Education Bureau, Constitutionaland Mainland Aﬀairs Bureau and Home
Aﬀairs Bureau, Legislative Council Panel on
Home Aﬀairs: “National Education and
Human Rights Education” (NE and HRE),
March 2008 at www.legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/
english/panels/ha/papers/ha0314cb2-1310-1e.pdf.
10 Para 1, Education and Manpower Bureau,“Information Paper on Human Rights
Educationin
Ho n g
Ko n gHowever, there is still a gap between humanrights education and LS. Eﬀective humanrights education involves critical pedagogy,
transformative learning and emancipatorytransformation, aimed at cultivating
students to become transforming agentstaking action based on critical thinking forthe protection and improvement of humanconditions. Such aim, pedagogies and thekind of actions expected of students ineﬀective human rights education are usually
not found in LS in its current form. The gap
between human rights education and LS
probably means that the kind of humanrights education embedded in LS is basically“action poor.” In other words, the new upper
secondary education opens the opportunity
for action poor human rights education in
Ho n g Ko n g . In t h e a b s e n c e o f a n
independent subject of human rights
education, teachers, schools, NGOs andother stakeholders committed to humanrights education have to work hard to seize
this opportunity to promote human rights
education in the school system.

28

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

Schools” (Information on HRE), February
2006.
11 Para 17, NE and HRE
12 Para 17, NE and HRE
13 Para 22, NE and HRE
14 Para 16, NE and HRE
15 Para 19, NE and HRE
16 For example, the Concluding Observationsof Human Rights Committee on Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region
contain the criticism in its paragraph 18
that “the Committee still considers that theelectoral system in Hong Kong does notmeet the requirements of article 25, as well
as articles 2, paragraph 1 and 26 of theCovenant (ICCPR) at www.unhchr.ch/tbs/
d
o
c
.
n
s
f
/
898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/81d010
e0d4641cacc125716c0044237b/$FILE/
G0641436.pdf.
17 Albert Wong and Ambrose Leung, “Tangopen to ‘one man, two vote’ system”, South
China Morning Post (SCMP), 20 November
2009.
18 Para 5, Home Aﬀ airs Bureau, “Initial
response to the Concluding Observations oft h e Un i t e d Na t i o n s Hu m a n R i g h t sCommittee on the Second Report of theHong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR) in the light of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”,
May 2006 at www.legco.gov.hk/yr05-06/
english/panels/ha/papers/
ha0609cb2-2219-1e.pdf.
19 Paris Principles refers to the Principles
Re l a t i n g t o t h e S t a t u s o f Na t i o n a l
Institutions, see www.info.gov.hk/info/eoc/
annex6_e.pdf.
20 Please refer to United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization: Public
Ser vice Broadcasting at http://p o r t a l . u n e s c o . o r g / c i / e n / e v. p h p URL_ID=1525&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&U
RL_SECTION=201.html for the definitionof Public Service Broadcasting, last updated
on 3 June 2010. Website visited on 20 July
2010.
21 Hong Kong Journalist Association, 2010
Annual Report: ‘The Vice Tightens: Pressure
Grows on Free Expression in Hong Kong, 4 July2010 at www.hkja.org.hk/site/por tal/
Site.aspx?id=A1-870&lang=en-US.

22 Education Department, Guidelines on civic
education in schools, 1996.
23 Leung Yan-wing, “Back to Square One: The‘Re-depoliticizing’ of Civic Education in
Hong Kong”, at www.ied.edu.hk/epa/sri/doc/4_a.ppt. Last updated on 29 June 2009,website visited on 22 February 2010.
24 Education Department, Learning to Learn –The Way Forward in Curriculum, 2001 at
w w w. e d b . g o v. h k / i n d e x . a s p x ?
langno=1&nodeID=2877. Website visited on
21 June 2010.
25 Hong Kong Government’s press release on“Human Rights Education,” 9 July 2008 at
www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200807/09/
P200807090204.htm.
26 Education Bureau, Objectives and Focus of
Hu m a n R i g h t s E d u c a t i o n , a t h t t p : / /c d 1 . e d b . h k e d c i t y. n e t / c d / m c e /Ming_HR_program/learningpt.htm(Chinese only). Website visited on 23
February 2010.
27 Hong Kong Government’s press release on“Human Rights Education”, 9 January 2008
at www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200801/09/
P200801090113.htm
28 Para 9i, “Minutes of Committee on the
Promotion of Civic Education meeting on
18 December 2007” at www.cpce.gov.hk/
common/doc/min2007_12_18.pdf. (Chinese
only).
29 Reference 1, Task Group on National
Education of the Commission on Strategic
D e v e l o p m e n t , P r o m o t i o n o f Na t i o n a l
Education in Hong Kong – Current Situation,
Cha!enges and Way Forward (Translation)( Pr o m o t i o n o f N E ) , A p r i l 2 0 0 8 a t
www.cpu.gov.hk/english/documents/csd/
csd_2_2008.pdf.
30 “Policy Agenda of 2007-2008 Policy
Address” at www.policyaddress.gov.hk/
07-08/eng/docs/policy.pdf.
31 Para 7, “Minutes of meeting of Panel on
Home Aﬀairs held on 14 March 2008” at
www.legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/english/panels/ha/minutes/ha080314.pdf.
32 Para 83, Promotion of NE.
33 See Hong Kong Government’s Press
Release on “Students and teachers treated
to extravaganza on Beijing Olympics 2008,”
2 May 2007 at www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/
200705/02/P200705020267.htm for someexamples.

29

Human Rights Education Deficits in Hong Kong

34 Para 11, NE and HRE.
35 Para 99, Promotion of NE.
36 Para 9, NE and HRE.
37 Para 4, NE and HRE.
38 Paras 26 and 28, “Minutes of meeting ofPanel on Home Aﬀairs held on 14 March
2008.”
39 Paras 12 and 13, NE and HRE.
40 Para 27, “Minutes of meeting of Panel on
Home Aﬀairs held on 14 March 2008.”
41 Working Plan of Committee on the
Promotion of Civic Education in 2008-2009
and 2009-2010. (Chinese only)
42 Para 4, “Minutes of Committee on the
Promotion of Civic Education meeting on 6
O c to b e r 2 0 0 9 ” a t w w w. c p ce . g o v. h k /common/doc/min2009_10_06.pdf.
43 Projects sponsored under Community
Pa r t i c i p a t i o n S c h e m e 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 1 a t
w w w. c p c e . g o v. h k / e n g / c p s c h e m e /project2010.htm. Website visited on 27
April 2010.
44 See the website of Truth Light Society at
w w w. t r u t h - l i g h t . o r g . h k f o r m o r e
information.
45 Chloe Lai, “Anger over human rights
contract”, SCMP, 3 October 2005 andAlbert Wong, “Rights ire as anti-gay groupwins bid to brief teachers,” Hong Kong
Standard, 4 October 2005; Sandra Wong,
Director of AIHK, “Society cannot teachenshrined human rights”, SCMP, 6 October
2005.
46 Chloe Lai, ibid., and Liz Heron, “Rights
advice group to ban gay issues”, SCMP, 8October 2005.
47 Dr. Catherine Chan, “Trainer must not
impose own values in human rights”, SCMP,
11 October 2005. Dr. Chan signed the letterto t h e e d i to r f o r t h e S e c r e t a r y f o r
Education and Manpower.
48 Outline of the human rights courses
organized by the Truth Light Society,translated in Chloe Lai, op. cit.
49 The Pearl Report at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=X0gCOLWyjKo, uploaded on 20
May 2007.
50 Para 2, Education and Manpower Bureau,“Information on HRE,” February 2006.
51 A m n e s t y In te r n a t i o n a l Ho n g Ko n g ,“Response to questionnaire on human rights
education in Hong Kong secondary school”,
1995 (AIHK survey), in Shui Che-fok,“Meeting the Challenge of Human Rights
Education: The Case of Hong Kong” (HREof Hong Kong), Asia Pacific Review 2/1, page
59.
52 “AIHK survey 1996” in “HRE of HongKong”, page 59.
53 吳 迅 榮 、 梁 恩 榮 (Ng Shun-wing, Leung
Yan-wing), “香港初中推行公民教育的現況” (“Promotion of Civic Education in
Hong Kong junior secondary education”),
Hong Kong Teachers’ Centre Journal 《香港教師中心學報》, 3, 2004 available at http://
edb.org.hk/HKTC/download/jour nal/
j3/7.pdf. (Chinese only)
54 Angela Lee and Mary Yuen, “Promoting
Human Rights Education in Hong Kong
Secondary Schools” (Promoting HRE in
HK schools), Human Rights Education in
Asian Schools, 2, at http://www.hurights.or.jp/
a
r
c
h
i
v
e
s
/
human_rights_education_in_asian_schools/
section2/1999/03/promoting-human-rightse d u c a t i o n - i n - h o n g - ko n g - s e c o n d a r y schools.html in Critical Review of HRE,
page 146.
55 HRE of Hong Kong, page 60.
56 Critical Review of HRE, page 147.
57 “Interview with Dr. Leung Yan-wing” on 13
March 2006 at http://www.hkace.net/
resource/FIN%20HK%20Report%20in%20one.doc. Website visited on 30 January
2010.
58 See FAQs of Trial Scheme on School Drug
Testing in Tai Po District (School Year
2009/10)atw w w. n d . g o v. h k / p d f /school_drug_testing_faq_en.pdf.
59 Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor,“Beware of the Trial scheme on School Drugtesting in Tai Po District. Beware of humanrights being violated”, 30 November 2010 atw w w. h k h r m . o r g . h k / r e s o u r c e /final_drugtestdec1.doc.
60 “AIHK survey 1996” in HRE of Hong Kong,
page 59.
61 Angela Lee and Mary Yuen, op. cit.
62 Para 1.4, Curriculum Development Counciland Hong Kong Examinations Assessment
Authority, “LS: Curriculum and Assessment
Guide (Secondary 4-6)” (“LS Guide”), 2007,
a t w w w. e d b . g o v. h k / Fi l e Ma n a g e r / E N /Content_5999/ls_final_e_070508.pdf.

30

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

63 Critical Review of HRE, page 148.
64 LS Guide, pages 14-15.
65 Critical Review of HRE, pages 148-149.
66 Meintjes 1997 and Tang 2006 in Critical
Review of HRE, page 149.
67 Para 4.3.5, LS Guide.
68 Leung Yan-wing, “An ‘action-poor’ humanrights education: a critical review of thedevelopment of human rights education in
the context of civic education in HongKong” (Action-poor HRE), Intercultural
Education, 19/3, June 2008, page 238.
69 Giroux 1983 in Action-poor HRE, page 238.
70 Mezirow 1997 in Action-poor HRE, page238.
71 Freire 1972 in Action-poor HRE, page 238.
72 Magendzo 2005, Nazzari, McAdams, andRoy 2005 and Tibbitts 2005 in Action-poor
HRE, page 238.
73 Magendzo 2005 in Action-poor HRE, page239.
74 Action-Poor HRE, page 239.
75 Para 4.3.5, LS Guide.
76 Boehnke & Boehnke 2005, Finkel 2003 andLeung 2003, 2006 in Critical Review ofHRE, page 149.
77 Leung 2003, 2006 in Critical Review ofHRE.
78 Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor,“National education policies outlined in the
CE's Policy Address,” 15 October 2008 at
www.hkhrm.org.hk/resource/HKHRM
policy address NE press release20081015.doc. (Chinese only).
79 See the education materials order form of
the Alliance of Civic Education at
www.hkace.net/index/material.doc. (Chinese
only). Website visited on 10 March 2010.
80 Hong Kong Secondary Schools Union,“About Us” at www.hkssu.org/english/
index.htm. Website visited on 10 March2010.

31