Hong Kong's top court rejects foreign domestic helper's appeal for forced labor law

Hong Kong's top court has unanimously rejected a Filipino foreign domestic helper’s appeal to introduce a specific law criminalizing forced labor in the city, saying it is not the only remedy to ensure rights protection.

The appeal today was examined by a five-judge panel at the Court of Final Appeal: Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung, permanent judges Roberto Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, Johnson Lam Man-hon, and non-permanent judge William Gummow.

The appellant, CB, a female foreign domestic helper, had pursued both criminal and civil actions against her male employer Z over alleged indecent assault, and sought nearly HK$1 million in damages.

However, Z was cleared of the indecent assault charges and CB’s compensation claim was unsuccessful. CB claimed that police had failed to perform their investigative duties, and therefore, she argued that Hong Kong must create a law to criminalize forced labor to comply with its obligations under Article 4(3) of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, which states that “no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”

In a written statement released today, the judges held that the identified failures in the protection of rights in that case did not require the remedy of the enactment of specific legislation by the Hong Kong government.

When there are multiple possible solutions, the government has a lot of freedom to choose which one it thinks is best for the problem at hand and has the flexibility to decide how to fix the issue based on its judgment, the judges said.

They believed the necessary rights protections could be achieved by the patchwork of existing offences and administrative framework, which can be enhanced by better training of personnel and improved inter-departmental cooperation and collaboration.

They added that there was no suggestion that police investigative failures had affected the prosecution of Z.

The judges held that the government is not required to enact a piece of legislation to criminalize forced labor as the only remedy for the breaches of the appellant’s rights under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, therefore dismissing the appeal.

(Jamie Liu)