Legal Affairs Bureau accepting opinions on report for Human Rights Council

The Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) is accepting opinions on a report regarding human rights protection in the Macau Special Administrative Region.

The report forms part of the responsibilities of the SAR and will, together with the Hong Kong equivalent, be included in the broader report from China that is due to be submitted by Beijing to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) in July this year. The contents will be discussed in a meeting to be held in either October or November.

The report is part of the Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, a duty of all member states of the UN which requires regular review and evaluation of government policies relating to the promotion and protection of human rights, including the implementation of key international human rights treaties.

This will constitute the SAR’s third contribution  to this report, according to information from DSAJ. The MSAR is preparing a three-page report to be included in China’s national report, which has an overall limit of 20 pages.
The content of this three- page report aims to address developments and measures taken in the period comprising January 2013 through to April 2018.

The UPR is a unique and State-driven process under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights protection in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.

It is designed to ensure that every country is treated equally when their human rights situations are assessed. The ultimate aim of this mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.
The DSAJ hopes to get feedback from the community starting from today, with comments to be received by March 21. In the document, the Macau government elected three main topics. The first topic will be the legislative and institutional framework for the promotion and protection of human rights. The second topic will be the completed progress in the promotion and protection of human rights. In this section several SAR laws, completed law reviews, and implementation of new bills such as the domestic violence law, criminalization of sexual harassment, child pornography and child prostitution, tertiary education law, as well as the economic housing law, food safety law, heritage protection law, labor relations, added restrictions and penalties regarding tobacco and drug consumption, among others, will be discussed. RM