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The Strategic Use of Human Rights Treaties in Hong Kong’s Cage-Home Crisis: No Way Out?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2016

Luke MARSH*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Using a socioeconomic rights framework, this article will evaluate government policy relating to housing welfare in Hong Kong. In particular, it will explore the alarming plight of cage tenants in Hong Kong, a highly marginalized group estimated to be as many as 200,000 in number, who live day to day in cramped, dank dwellings averaging 15 square feet in size. It will argue that current government policies are incompatible with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It will further look at strategies for domesticating these international human rights treaties. In doing so, this article will contribute to the ongoing debate concerning the legal nature of socioeconomic rights.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

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Footnotes

*

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Associate Director (Social Justice Programme), Centre for Rights and Justice. I am grateful to Professor Margaret Bedggood and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article, to which the usual disclaimers apply. Correspondence to Luke Marsh, Room 528, Faculty of Law, 5/F, Lee Shau Kee Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, NT, Hong Kong SAR. E-mail address: [email protected].

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