The Right to Social Welfare and Hong Kong's Retirement Protection Reform (HKLJ)

"'All for Some' or 'Some for All'? Assessing the Realisation of the Right to Social Welfare in the Retirement Protection Reform in Hong Kong"

Karen Kong
Hong Kong Law Journal
Dec 2016, Vol. 46, Part 3, pp 779-791

Abstract: This article discusses the proposals for retirement protection reform in the public consultation conducted by the Commission on Poverty. It analyses the relevant human rights obligations of the government under the Basic Law and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including the protection of the right to social welfare and the right to an adequate standard of living. It argues that there is a minimum essential level of retirement protection that the government must provide to the elderly in poverty in order to satisfy the human rights obligations, and calls for a more comprehensive human rights impact assessment to be conducted before the implementation of the reform.