Social Sciences Seminar: Democratic Development and Good Governance in Hong Kong
Emily Lau is a directly elected member of the Legislative Council (LegCo) representing New Territories East. She is vice-chairperson of the Democratic Party and vice-chairperson of the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. She will talk about democracy and good governance. Chief Executive Donald Tsang will publish a consultative document on constitutional reform in November. Emily has been fighting for democracy for many years and hopes that Hong Kong people can choose the chief executive and all LegCo members by direct election in 2012. Beijing has said no to 2012 but said there could be direct election of the chief executive in 2017 and direct election for all LegCo members in 2020, but Emily does not believe those elections would be democratic and fair. Hence, she believes that the struggle for democracy must go on. Please come and join Emily for the talk on 1 December.
Speaker: Hon. Emily Lau Wai-hing, JP
Hon. Emily Lau Wai-hing, JP, born in Hong Kong in 1952, is a full-time member of the Legislative Council (LegCo) since 1991, elected from the Geographical Constituency of New Territories East. She is currently vice-chairperson of Democractic Party, deputy chairperson of China Human Rights Lawyer Concern Group and deputy convenor of Power for Democracy. She earned her B.A. degree in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Southern California in 1976 and her M. Sc. degree in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, in 1982. Lau served as a reporter, television producer and university lecturer from 1976-1991. She was the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association from 1989 to 1991. She was the first woman directly elected into the Legislative Council in September 1991. She served as a legislator until 1997 and was re-elected into LegCo in 1998. She received the Political Leader Award from The Women’s Foundation in 2009. She was awarded the Monismanien Prize on Freedom of Speech by the University of Uppsala in Sweden in 2004 and the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Award by the Bruno Kreisky Foundation in Vienna, Austria in 1998.
