Hong Kong court allows activist Chow Hang-tung to challenge female inmates’ clothing rules
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong court will allow detained activist Chow Hang-tung to challenge the city’s prison rules that mandate women inmates to wear trousers throughout the summer, while men may wear shorts.
Chow, who has been detained since September 2021, filed a legal challenge last week against the Commissioner of the Correctional Services over a policy that requires female prisoners to wear long trousers during daytime activities in summer. Male inmates may wear shorts.
High Court Judge Russell Coleman on Tuesday granted Chow a leave to apply for a judicial review over the differential clothing requirements that the activist called “direct discrimination” on the ground of sex.
“[Chow] and/or the other female [inmates] are simply denied an opportunity to wear shorts for daytime activities, unlike their male counterparts,” lawyers for the activist wrote in a writ.
“This deprivation of opportunity itself, and the extent of deprivation, would have the effect of rendering the whole policy discriminatory,” they continued.
Judicial reviews are considered by the Court of First Instance and examine the decision-making processes of administrative bodies. Issues under review must be shown to affect the wider public interest.
‘Based on sex’
According to the writ that was made available on Monday, the prison policy for inmates’ clothing requires women to wear the same long trousers during daytime activities in summer as in winter.
On July 26, Chow raised the possibility of wearing shorts or other thinner bottoms but was rejected by two welfare officers in prison.
She made the request again to another welfare officer a few days later. On August 13, she was told that female inmates were required to wear long trousers “as their age varies and some have skin allergies.”
Chow made a counter-proposal that options to wear long trousers should be given to those with special needs but did not receive an answer from prison officers.
Her lawyers argued that the clothing policy contravened the city’s mini-constitution the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, and the Sex Discrimination Ordinance.
The chance to wear shorts for female inmates in summer would be “closely related to [their] physical well-being and health,” they said.
They cited the case lodged by detained ex-lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, in which the Court of Final Appeal in 2020 ruled that compulsory haircuts for male prisoners amounted to sexual discrimination.
“The dividing line is drawn solely based on sex,” the lawyers said, arguing that the differential clothing rules did not serve to safeguard discipline in prison, had no societal benefit, and had violated women’s right to equality.
They also highlighted global warming as grounds for the challenge, saying that the Hong Kong Observatory had issued over 50 “very hot day” warnings in each of the past three years, compared with around 20 to 30 such days observed annually between 2014 and 2019.
Most of the very hot days were observed between May and September every year, they said.
Other parties in society such as Justices of the Peace had raised issues with the high temperature of prison cells during summer in recent years, they added.
“The impact of being overly clothed on one’s health is self evident,” they said.
No date has been fixed yet for a hearing in the present case.
Tiananmen activist
Chow, 39, was the former vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organised the city’s annual Tiananmen vigils until the commemoration was banned on Covid-related grounds in 2020. The Alliance disbanded in September 2021 after Chow was arrested.
She is awaiting trial for “incitement to subversion” under the Beijing-imposed national security law alongside two other ex-leaders of the Alliance, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho. The trial is set to begin next May.
The activist, who is a barrister, regularly represents herself in cases and is no stranger to launching legal challenges. In 2022, a judicial review she filed resulted in some court reporting restrictions being lifted.
Last month, she filed a separate legal challenge against the prison services after four books, including one on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, were kept from her, allegedly on the grounds that the books “could provoke anti-authority sentiment.”
The Tiananmen crackdown occurred on June 4, 1989, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on protesters in Beijing.
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