Mr. Leo Kwan, Mr. Brian Burdekin, Mr. Vasu Pillai, Mr. Kieren Fitzpatrick and all participants and speakers, on behalf of the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong, it is my pleasure to warmly welcome you all to this Workshop and to thank Mr. Leo Kwan, our Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, for opening this Workshop. I know how busy this period is for Mr. Kwan and other senior government officials. Just as we open this Workshop, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong is also commencing its last session for the year. Its three day session will be run parallel to ours just across the street.

The Equal Opportunities Commission has been an observer member of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions for some years. Participation in the Forum has benefited us in many ways. We have learned from the Forum and built partnerships with it and its members. We seek advice and counsel from the Forum on matters of common concern. We borrow research papers and locate experts through the Forum.

Over the years we have developed close friendships with many members of the Forum. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission had seconded a trainer to us for a month in 2000. In addition, the Victoria Equal Opportunities Commission of Australia has extended its training facilities to us. Dr. Diane Sisely, its Chief Executive, is here for this Workshop.

The holding of the Workshop is our way of saying thank you for your support and to reaffirm our commitment to the Forum.

We are privileged to have the presence of Mr. Brian Burdekin, Special Adviser on National Institutions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Professor Virginia Dandan, the Chair of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Mr. Vasu Pillai, a United Nations Committee member of the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Professor Arjun Sengupta, United Nations Independent Expert on the Right to Development. Professor Dandan will share with us her insights on how her Committees and governments can work together to achieve real progress in economic, social and cultural rights. Mr. Pillai is here to give the Hong Kong Government a prelude to what to expect in Geneva in a few weeks' time on the hearing of the Hong Kong report on race discrimination. Professor Sengupta is here to introduce to us the very important subject of the right to development. Last but not the least, I'd like to pay a personal and a very special tribute to Mr. Brian Burdekin. As the then Federal Human Rights Commissioner of Australia, Brian came to Hong Kong in 1994 to help me promote my private member's bill on equal opportunities when I was a Legislative Councillor. It is a most fitting occasion for me to express my heartfelt thank you again to Brian in my capacity as Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong. I, of course, didn't plan it that way but a mid life crisis and a change of career have brought these pleasant surprises to me.

We have today the participation of the National Human Rights Institutions from the Asia Pacific Forum and many illustrious speakers from different parts of the world. I welcome especially the speakers and participants from the People's Republic of China and the Macao SAR. We have participants from governmental and non-governmental organisations, representatives from the consular corps, various UN Agencies, the judiciary and the corporate world. This gathering here in Hong Kong is to work towards one goal: to make human rights an agenda for all.

Human rights by definition belong to everybody and have practical applications in everyday life. These rights are human and it is the individual lives that give meaning and expression to them. If human rights are to have any meaning, they must make a difference to individual lives. And if human rights are so basic that governments are willing to guarantee them through covenants, then they must also be enforceable by ordinary citizens in the ordinary courts.

Human rights considerations have now also begun to impact upon the corporate agenda. Social expectations have changed dramatically in recent years. Market shares and brand names depend on consumer acceptance of the way a company does business and we now have different global indexes and social audits tracking sustainability and social accountability in the world of business.

The process of globalisation has also had a dramatic impact on the world economy. In recent years there has been a backlash against globalisation because economic progress is not evenly distributed, leaving the gap between rich and poor wider. The United Nations Global Compact has called upon the business community to support and respect human rights and eliminate discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. The World Bank has initiated programs to achieve more sustainable and broad based economic growth.

International law has raised the prospect of using international human rights laws, such as the right to health, to mitigate against the restrictions created by patented drugs for HIV/AIDS treatment and allow generic drugs to be produced. This is one example where the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can be used as a shield against the unmitigated effects of globalisation and patented monopolies.

Human rights must make a real difference in the quality of life of the individual. For what is the right to live or to survive, if an individual does not have the means of sustaining life? What is the meaning of living without the opportunity to develop and to improve one's quality of life? The task of this Workshop is to make economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development real and relevant to all.

The participants will be sharing with us their expertise and knowledge. The Workshop will provide an opportunity for us all to share ideas and to develop strategies to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. This Workshop will no doubt strengthen our ties to one another. I wish all of you a very fruitful time at this Workshop and, for the overseas delegates, a very pleasant stay in Hong Kong. Thank you.

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