Event Review

To promote a racially friendly and harassment-free workplace, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) co-organised a seminar with Dream Impact, titled “Respect For All: Co-Creating Safe and Inclusive Shared Workplaces”, on 10 December 2025. With an intimate group of around 30 passionate participants from different sectors and interested in social innovation and community empowerment, the event provided deep engagement, meaningful networking, and rich discussions on building diversity, equality and inclusion in shared workspaces.

During the seminar, Mr LAI Wing-yiu, Training Officer from the Ethnic Minorities Unit (EMU) of the EOC, and Ms Susana SOO, Senior Equal Opportunities Officer from the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit (ASHU) of the EOC, shared insights on fostering racial equality in co-working spaces and breaking gender stereotypes to create truly harassment-free work environment for all races and genders. Mr Raymond HO, Senior Equal Opportunities Officer from the EMU, also joined the interactive question-and-answer session, exchanging practical ideas with participants on implementing equal opportunities policies in their own organisations.

The small group setting fostered lively and open discussions, where participants actively shared real-world experiences, and raise queries concerning legal protections, and solutions to tackle sexual harassment, etc. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive—attendees described the seminar as highly informative, inspirational, and eye-opening, particularly in areas like deepening their understanding of what constitutes workplace harassment and the value of clear policies combined with regular training.

To cap off the afternoon, participants enjoyed a guided tour of Dream Impact’s shared workspace, gaining firsthand insight into the daily operations of the space and specific measures implemented to ensure a safe, respectful, and inclusive venue for all members, users and visitors.

Events like this reinforce the EOC’s commitment to collective impact in Hong Kong’s vibrant co-working ecosystem. We warmly invite other shared workspace operators to co-host seminars or workshops with us — together, we can promote and share best practices, and create equal opportunities for everyone in the society. Do not hesitate to reach out to the EOC’s ASHU or EMU for more information.

More links

EMbRACE Campaign

Event Photo Album

Dream Impact’s post on Facebook

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Building on the enthusiastic response to the inaugural “Play Smart” Joint-Institution Interactive Workshop on Addressing Sexual Harassment on Campus last summer, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) hosted the event again on 25 July 2025. From 11 higher education institutions this time, 35 participants joined the workshop to learn about prevention of sexual harassment, and to sharpen their skills in handling enquiries or complaints relating to sexual harassment on campus.

During the workshop, Ms Susana SOO, Senior Equal Opportunities Officer from the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit of the EOC introduced to the participants the Sex Discrimination Ordinance and the legal definition of sexual harassment in Hong Kong. She also provided

insights on how to effectively identify and address incidents of sexual harassment, using specific examples relevant to campus environments.

Following this, Ms Tina CHAN, Equal Opportunities Officer from the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit of the EOC, explained the key considerations when handling complaints of sexual harassment, emphasising the importance of confidentiality and sensitivity throughout the process.

Participants then engaged themselves in role-playing scenarios that simulated freshmen experiencing sexual harassment during the orientation programme. This immersive experience helped them develop empathy and a better understanding of the needs of the affected students. Dr Ferrick CHU Chung-man, Executive Director (Operations) of the EOC, reminded participants to find out the purpose and expectations from the students who approached to seek help, and advised participants to offer timely assistance and document the actions taken.

At the conclusion of the workshop, Dr CHU presented each participant with a certificate stating the names of the individual as well as all participating institutions, in recognition of the joint efforts to combat sexual harassment on campus.

The EOC’s study, “Break the Silence: Territory-wide Study on Sexual Harassment of University Students in Hong Kong”, previously found that nearly one-fourth (23%) of university students were sexually harassed within 12 months before the survey. To tackle the problem by understanding the most common forms and root causes of campus sexual harassment, please refer to the full report here: https://compass.lolliuat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Break-the-Silence-Territory-wide-Study-on-Sexual-Harassment-of-University-Students-in-Hong-Kong-2019-ENG.pdf .

The EOC also runs the “Understanding Sexual Harassment” Learning Platform and recommends that tertiary and secondary education institutions should sign up for their staff and students as one of the preventive measures. For more details, please visit the webpage: https://compass.lolliuat.com/en/online-learning-platform/.

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With the increasing popularity of self-made videos on social media platforms, the Equal Opportunities Commission’s (EOC) Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit conducted an online short video contest from March to May 2025. Under the theme “Safe Spaces For All,” the public was encouraged to create videos through creative storytelling to convey the importance of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and to empower everyone in contributing to a safe community.

We previously share the winning entries on the EOC Anti-Sexual Harassment Resource Platform, including the COMPASS Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/COMPASS_EOC), along with other shortlisted video entries. We also hosted “The Most Meaningful IG Prize Game,” encouraging everyone to share their thoughts on the shortlisted videos and further promoting the prevention of sexual harassment along with the public.

The award ceremony was held on 17 July 2025, at the EOC’s office in Wong Chuk Hang. Our Chairperson, Ms Linda LAM Mei-sau, inaugurated the award ceremony with an opening speech, followed by the keynote speech from the Guest of Honour, Mr Clement WOO Kin-man, Under Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, who also awarded the prizes to the winners.

During the ceremony, we showcased the winning videos from three categories: Secondary Education Category, Higher Education Category and Open Category, allowing the audience to enjoy and appreciate the outstanding content. Dr Irene SIAW Siw-chu, Head of Office of Student Development and Alumni Affairs of Hong Kong Metropolitan University, which the champion of the Higher Education Category attends, also shared insights on the university’s efforts in providing anti-sexual harassment education for students.

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to all participants, educational institutions, the judging panel (Ms Lily CHOW, Mr Simon LAM, Dr Vincent WONG, Ms Ophelia LIN and Ms Julia SUN), and guests for their contributions to this initiative. By actively and voluntarily participating in the anti-sexual harassment movement, the public will enhance awareness and prevention of sexual harassment across various sectors in Hong Kong, gradually working towards zero harassment.

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Let’s prevent and stop sexual harassment on campus together!

On 5 August 2024, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) organised the “Play Smart” Joint-University Workshop on Addressing Sexual Harassment on Campus. As the universities roll out the orientation activities, over 40 student leaders, residence tutors and staff members supporting student activities from eight Hong Kong universities joined the event, which aimed at raising their awareness of sexual harassment prevention, in the EOC’s Office. They are now equipped with knowledge and skills in handling sexual harassment on campus.

At the opening, Ms Linda LAM Mei-sau, Chairperson of the EOC, stressed the EOC’s great concern about the issue of sexual harassment on university campuses and continued collaboration with the tertiary institutions to prevent sexual harassment.

During the fireside chat, Dr Ferrick CHU Chung-man, Executive Director (Operations) of the EOC, highlighted some myths and misconceptions about sexual harassment and introduced methods of preventing and handling sexual harassment through various cases and examples.

In the subsequent talk, Ms Susana SOO from the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit of the EOC especially pointed out the importance of bystander intervention and encouraged witnesses to take actions against sexual harassment on campus with appropriate skills.

Participants also took part in the role-play, demonstrating how they would respond to the scenarios where sexual harassment might be happening in student activities. Dr CHU and Ms SOO provided their comments and suggested some follow-up actions according to the situations.

More cases were discussed during the question-and-answer session before the workshop concluded. All participants were awarded with the certificate mentioning their names as well as all eight universities to recognise the individuals’ and institutions’ collaborative effort in combating sexual harassment on campus.

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Practical tips for promoting mutual respect between genders,racial inclusion, and universal design in the company

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) organised a seminar titled “Embracing Equal Opportunities to Enhance ESG” on 28 February 2024 and aimed at exploring with enterprises how they could create an equal, diverse and inclusive workplace. The seminar received great support from Manulife and the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association (HKSMEA). Both supporting organisations have demonstrated their commitment to ESG strategies. Manulife is one of the founding signatories of the EOC’s “The Racial Diversity & Inclusion Charter for Employers” (“the Charter”). In addition to signing the Charter, the HKSMEA co-hosted the “Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace” Forum with the EOC and is also one of the supporting organisations for the EOC’s “Universal Design Recognition Scheme 2024/25”.

EOC Chairperson, Mr. Ricky CHU Man-kin, highlighted that ESG, which stands for “Environmental, Social, and Governance”, has become a core strategy for long-term and sustainable development in enterprises, serving as an important operational indicator for listed companies. Other stakeholders along the supply chain, including small and medium enterprises, could enhance their competitiveness and sustainability by putting ESG in place. 

Speakers from the EOC discussed three important topics related to social and governance aspects within the ESG framework. These topics included preventing workplace sexual harassment to create a safe and respectful work environment, promoting racial inclusiveness to foster a diverse workplace culture, and adopting universal design to accommodate diverse user needs.

On preventing workplace sexual harassment, Ms. Susana SOO from the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit of the EOC especially pointed out the risks of liabilities enterprises would face and reminded participants the reasonably practical steps that they could take. At the same time, Ms. SOO introduced to participants the EOC’s support for enterprises in implementing equal opportunities and anti-sexual harassment strategies in various ways, such as policy development guidelines, training and consultancy services provided by the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit.

The EOC also encouraged participants to join the EO Club, where they can stay updated with the latest information relating to the anti-discrimination ordinances and participate in networking activities.

The EOC’s sincere gratitude goes to Manulife, the HKSMEA and all participating enterprises.  We believe this seminar or events-alike in the future will drive changes in the workplace, raise enterprises’ awareness of social responsibilities and corporate governance, and foster their implementation of policies that promote diversity, equality and inclusion.

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The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), Zonta Club of Kowloon, and Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association (HKSME) co-organised a seminar titled ‘Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace’ on November 27, 2023. The seminar aimed to raise awareness of sexual harassment under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance and promote understanding of anti-sexual harassment measures among SMEs.

Conducted in a hybrid format at CIC – Zero Carbon Park and via Zoom simultaneously, the seminar drew participants from various sectors such as construction, real estate, manufacturing, hospitality, and professional services.

EOC Chairperson, Mr. Ricky Chu emphasised the importance of the forum in promoting understanding of legal protections against sexual harassment and providing a platform for SMEs to exchange views on creating safe working environments.

Dr. Ferrick Chu, Executive Director (Operations) of the EOC, delivered a comprehensive presentation on sexual harassment definitions, employer responsibilities, and the benefits for SMEs from preventing sexual harassment at workplace. Other speakers included Ms. Winnie Teoh, Chair of the Advocacy Committee of Zonta Club of Kowloon and Past International Director of Zonta International, and Ms. Wong Lok-yung, Organiser of Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association. Ms. Teoh shared international examples of sexual harassment prevention efforts in the workplace, while Ms. Wong, made suggestions on effective measures to prevent sexual harassment at work.

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The Equal Opportunities Commission’s Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit launched its first city-wide sticker design competition from January to March 2022. Under the theme of “Equality and Respect: Stop Sexual Harassment”, we encouraged participants to come up with sticker designs used on instant messaging applications to raise public awareness and understanding of sexual harassment, and to help individuals understand how they can use their words and take action to promote safety, respect and equality to stop sexual harassment before it happens. We have received close to three hundred entries.

Competition winners were announced in April, and the award ceremony was held on 10 June 2022 at the Equal Opportunities Commission’s office in Wong Chuk Hang. Our Chairperson Mr. CHU Man-kin opened the award ceremony with a speech, followed by another speech from the Guest of Honour, Mr. WOO Kin Man, Under Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, who also presented the awards to the winners.

Apart from showcasing the winning entries, champions from the Open and Secondary School (Senior) categories shared their ideas for their winning designs, and representatives from the “Most Supportive Schools” also joined to share their experiences in navigating this anti-sexual harassment education journey.

Our sincere gratitude goes to all the entrants, schools, judging panel, and guests for participating in this event. We believe this sticker design competition or events-alike in the future will keep raising public awareness of the sexual harassment issue in Hong Kong so that we will all work together to stop sexual harassment.

Download our champion stickers here:

<sub><sup>– Open Category: POON Cheuk Yiu (齊心共創平等社區)

– Secondary School (Senior) Category: YUEN Yan Yi (平等生活你我做到，向性騷擾說不！)

– Secondary School (Junior) Category: YEUNG Man Yat (尊重與平等，停止性騷擾)</sup></sub>

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The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today (27 May 2022) held the “Roundtable on Experiences and Challenges in Eliminating Sexual Harassment in the Higher Education Sector”. Representatives from nine universities exchanged their views and experiences in combating campus sexual harassment at the roundtable discussions.

Mr Ricky CHU Man-kin, Chairperson of the EOC said, “Anti-sexual harassment has always been one of the top work priorities of the EOC and we are very much concerned about elimination of sexual harassment on campus. I would like to take this opportunity to express commendation for the nine universities’ anti-sexual harassment work, as well as our sincerest gratitude for their active participation and support in our Break the Silence study and the follow-up report. We wish this could be a good example for all other universities and tertiary institutions to follow, in order to eliminate sexual harassment for everyone in the higher education sector in Hong Kong.”

Representatives from the nine participating universities, which participated in the Break the Silence study in 2018, were invited to the event today to discuss how to effectively eliminate campus sexual harassment and promote anti-sexual harassment education to their students. The representatives of the nine universities participating at the roundtable discussions were from City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Lingnan University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Education University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The University of Hong Kong.

For details of findings, please read the “Follow-up Report of the Break the Silence Study: Anti-Sexual Harassment Actions Taken by Universities in 2019-2021”.

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More than 160 social service agency heads and representatives attended our anti-sexual harassment seminar in-person ad online on 24 June which was followed by an interactive workshop on 21 October attended by 15 people.

The series of training events, jointly organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), aimed at increasing the social service sector’s awareness of the sexual harassment definition, strengthening their skills in formulating an anti-sexual harassment policy, and their ability in handling related complaints internally. Click here to access the workshop slides. 

The EOC strives to promote public awareness of anti-sexual harassment policies and measures throughout the year. We have produced some training and publicity materials such as leaflets, training kits, guidebooks, and policy frameworks to help organisations formulate a comprehensive policy to create a respectful environment for their employees and service users. If you are interested in our training events, click here to visit the page or call our hotline at 2106 2222 to speak to our duty officer.  

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In order to enhance the awareness and understanding of the Hong Kong sports community on the prevention of sexual harassment, the Equal Opportunities Commission, together with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong Sports Institute, and Hong Kong Baptist University, hosted an online seminar on Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Sports Sector on March 26, 2021.

The primary goal of this seminar is to raise awareness about eliminating discrimination and preventing sexual harassment in the Hong Kong sports sector. The goal is to help relevant organizations understand the latest revisions to the Sex Discrimination Ordinance through guest speakers, thereby enhancing the awareness of coaches and athletes to prevent sexual harassment.

Agenda of the seminar:

• Dr. Ferrick Chu – Executive Director (Operations), Equal Opportunities Commission
  Sexual Harassment and latest amendment of related legal provisions
  
• Dr. Trisha Leahy, JD, SBS, BBS – Chief Executive of Hong Kong Sports Institute
  Psychological impact of sexual harassment and the role of coaches in safeguarding athletes
  
• Miss YU Chui-yee, BBS, MH – Representative of Hong Kong Wheelchair Fencing Team
  Experience Sharing: How to be an active bystander? Preventing sexual harassment and bullying from an athlete’s point of view

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