Portfolio

A Path To Justice Or A Road To Nowhere?

A Path To Justice Or A Road To Nowhere? Trafficked migrants’ experience of seeking justice in Hong Kong is research into how effectively the Hong Kong SAR Government’s Action Plan to Tackle Trafficking in Persons and to Enhance Protection of Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong (the Action Plan) 1 has been implemented, and specifically, whether it has helped trafficked people access justice in Hong Kong.

To inform this research, Stop Trafficking Of People (STOP) conducted in-depth interviews with 11 migrant workers who had been trafficked to Hong Kong for sexual or labour exploitation and four civil society organisations that support trafficked people. The interviews explored trafficked migrants’ experience of using the justice system and how existing procedures might be improved to better meet survivors’ needs.

The report was published in May 2023 and the full report in Chinese and English plus a teaching tool can be viewed here.

PROJECT CLIENT: Stop Trafficking of People (Stop) and Branches of Hope

PROJECT SPONSOR: Stop Trafficking of People (STOP)

Rights, Not Rescue

Rights, Not Rescue is a research study exploring the trafficking of young local sex workers and minors in Hong Kong. Between late 2019 and 2020, Rights Exposure supported Stop Trafficking of People (STOP) in interviewing seven former part-time sex workers and 14 stakeholders to understand more about their work conditions.

The project aimed to capture a holistic picture of young people’s experiences, including both their vulnerability and resilience to exploitation in the Hong Kong sex trade and potential intersections with human trafficking. It also looked to prioritise young people's voices and provide a space for them to speak about their needs and hopes for the future.

PROJECT CLIENT: stop Trafficking of People (STOP)

PROJECT SPONSOR: Porticus foundation

Climate Crisis / Grassroots Power!

Climate Crisis / Grassroots Power! was an online panel discussion to coincide with COP27. It brought together community activists from across the Asia-Pacific to address questions such as justice for those most impacted and the role of community-led solutions. The panel also discussed how their communities are countering the impact of climate change; the role of education and art in tackling the crisis; and the legal fight for the damage many are already experiencing.

For the online panel Rights Exposure led on event production, including organising the speakers, live streaming and break-out room discussions. In addition, a series of promotional images were created for multiple platforms.

PROJECT CLIENT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PROJECT SPONSOR: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

The Hiring Challenge - Phase II promo video

Phase II of The Hiring Challenge consisted of the production of a new video and social media campaign to promote the immersive web experience. Both the video and social media campaign are based on behavioural science research that explores the best message framing to engage employers of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong.

The Phase II video, social media campaign and website were commissioned by the ILO Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment (FAIR). Rights Exposure is the implementing partner.

PROJECT CLIENT: Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment, ILO

PROJECT SPONSOR: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATIOn (ILO)

Why They Want Us To Forget

Why They Want Us To Forget is a series of three online events to mark the anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989. For these events, Rights Exposure led on event production, including organising the speakers and livestreaming on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In addition, a series of promotional images were created for multiple platforms.

PROJECT CLIENT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PROJECT SPONSOR: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Know Your Rights

Know Your Rights is a series of short explainer videos created for the Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU) for use on social media. The aim of the videos is to inform migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong of their rights and how to protect themselves from exploitation and abuse. There are four videos in the series, each available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Nepalese and Thai.

The full series can be viewed here.

PROJECT CLIENT: HONG KONG FEDERATION OF ASIAN DOMESTIC WORKERS UNIONS (fadwu)

PROJECT SPONSOR: OXFAM HONG KONG

Behavioural Insights in employers’ choice of recruitment services for domestic work presents research commissioned by the ILO Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment (FAIR, phase II) with the aim of informing current and future policy approaches related to the protection of domestic workers. Specifically, it investigates the recruitment behaviour of employers of domestic workers in Hong Kong, whose choices of an employment agency can have important repercussions on the situation of domestic workers.

The research is based on initial qualitative interviews to acquire context-specific knowledge about the drivers and barriers of employers’ recruitment behaviour. This was followed by testing six message frames in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted online with over 2,000 mostly Cantonese-speaking residents of Hong Kong SAR.

Rights Exposure provided assistance to the ILO in both designing and conducting the research.

The research was published in April 2022 and is available here.

Project Client: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ilo)

PROJECT SPONSOR: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)

Fit for Purpose? Assessing compliance with the Code of Practice is a research report assessing the implementation of the Hong Kong SAR government's Code of Practice for Employment Agencies. Five years after it came into force the report highlights how agencies are still failing to comply with the code and makes recommendations to the government and recruitment industry on how better to project the human and labour rights of migrant domestic workers.

The report is based on qualitative interviews with 105 Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers between April and June 2021. It was produced by the Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU) in collaboration with the Union of United Domestic Workers (UUDW) as a follow-up to the 2018 report Agents of Change? that provided a similar assessment of the CoP.

The research was published in February 2022 and is available here in Chinese and English.

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Union (FADWU)

PROJECT SPONSOR: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)

The Hiring Challenge 徵聘挑戰

The Hiring Challenge is an immersive multimedia web experience that casts the user in the role of a soon-to-be parent trying to hire a migrant domestic worker in Hong Kong using an employment agency. Their task is to navigate a series of real-life choices in order to find an agency that provides a professional service, whilst at the same time not exploiting the worker they eventually hire. The employment agency sector in Hong Kong has historically been plagued by unscrupulous and illegal practices, drawing both local and international criticism.

The website aims to provide employers with strategies to help avoid the exploitation of workers they hire and as a result contribute to the reform of the employment agency sector.

The website can be accessed here in both Chinese and English.

PROJECT CLIENT: Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment, ILO

PROJECT SPONSOR: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)

Do The Math

Do The Math is a social media and advocacy campaign produced for Bridging the Gaps, an alliance of nine international and 88 national civil society organisations/networks working towards achieving universal access to HIV/STI prevention, treatment, care and support for sex workers, people who use drugs and LGBT people—including those living with HIV—in order to end of the AIDS epidemic among key populations.

The campaign called for an end to the inequality in funding available internationally for key populations. A series of six videos were produced in four languages (Bahasa Indonesia, English, Russian and Vietnamese), accompanied by social media images for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter).

PROJECT CLIENT: Bridging the Gaps

PROJECT SPONSOR: Bridging the Gaps

Ethics and Integrity in Visual Research Methods aims to unpack the multiple considerations for ethics and integrity that accompany research methods involving visual data generation and analysis. This volume focuses on the media of photography and film. Contributing authors cover a variety of topics, including: consent and dignity when working with vulnerable and marginalised populations; the limitations of participatory methods within a context of inequity and postcolonialism; the challenges of anonymising visual data; and the risks of sharing visual data online.

Rights Exposure’s Executive Director, Robert Godden contributed “Can I Take Your Photo? The Practicalities Of Managing Informed Consent With Vulnerable Populations” to the volume.

PROJECT CLIENT: QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST

PROJECT SPONSOR: EMERALD PUBLISHING

The Shouldering Responsibility research report examines the implementation issues in South Korea’s Refugee Status Determination procedures. Between 2014 and 2019, only 2% of applicants in South Korea were granted refugee status. The current system suffers from a significant backlog of applications with applicants waiting over a year on average for an initial decision, during which time they struggle to meet their subsistence needs. 

Refugee applicants interviewed for this report revealed that Immigration officers displayed prejudiced and hostile attitudes towards them; failed to examine the merits of their case; prevented them from providing evidence to support their application; and even falsified the interview transcript.  

The report is available in English and Korean.

Project Client: NANCEN refugee rights center

Project Sponsors: RIGHTS EXPOSURE

The Price of Justice - Research Report

The Price of Justice is a research project based on a qualitative survey conducted with Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers on the challenges they face making claims against their former employers in Hong Kong.

The research was published in December 2019. The full research report is available in Chinese and English here. A leaflet summarising the research findings is available here.

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers UnionS (FADWU)

Project Sponsors: International Labour Organisation (ILO), Oak Foundation, Oxfam Hong Kong

The Price of Justice - Documentary Film

The Price of Justice examines the challenges migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong face when bringing cases against their employers. The film follows four Filipino women and their families as they try to seek justice for wrongful termination and breaches of their contracts.

IMDb profile

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers UnionS (FADWU)

Project Sponsors: International Labour Organisation (ILO), Oak Foundation, Oxfam Hong Kong

Human Rights Observer Project

The objective of the Human Rights Observer Project was to monitor the protests in Hong Kong that began in June 2019 to oppose a controversial Extradition Bill. Rights Exposure deployed a team of volunteer human rights observers to document the protests using video. They used a framework of international human rights and policing standards to assess whether human rights violations related to freedom of assembly and police use of force were taking place. The documentation will form part of a larger archive that will be made available for future use by individuals and organisations.

PROJECT CLIENT: rights exposure

PROJECT SPONSOR: Oak Foundation

My Fair Home

My Fair Home is a short promotional video made for the #MyFairHome campaign. The campaign is an initiative from the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) and aims to improve the working conditions of domestic workers by reaching out to their employers. It encourages them to personally take a pledge to commit to upholding the rights of domestic workers in their own homes. 

You can learn more about the campaign and how to take the pledge here.

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU)

Project Sponsor: International Labour OrganizatioN (ILO)

STORIES OF EVERYDAY RACISM

Stories of Everyday Racism was produced in partnership with the Resolve Foundation (Hong Kong) and the participants in their inaugural fellowship programme in 2018. A series of seven short films were made that focus on the everyday experience of racism by ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

Video 1: Darius; Video 2: Lamia; Video 3: Marissa; Video 4: Micka; Video 5: Payal; Video 6: Prativa; Video 7: Shabab

Project Client: Resolve Foundation (HONG KONG)

Project Sponsor: LUSH (HONG KONG)

THE ETHICAL IMAGE

The Ethical Image conference was organized by the World Press Photo Foundation's 'Explore' programme, the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong and Rights Exposure in October 2018. The conference brought together leading experts from Asia and beyond working in academia, the media and the NGO community to discuss the ethical challenges faced in producing and disseminating images, with the Rohingya crisis being the main case study. Over a single day, four panels were convened. Videos of all the panels from the conference are available via the links below: 

Panel 1: The Ethical Image: Challenges in Visualising a Changing World

Panel 2: The Rohingya Crisis: Politics of Representation

Panel 3: How to Produce and Use Images Ethically

Panel 4: The Way Forward: Building Practical Solutions

A short ‘Notes and Outcomes’ document summarising the issues discussed, solutions suggested and possible pilot projects is available here. The conference programme, including all the panelist bios, can be found here.

Project Client: Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong, Rights Exposure, World Press Photo Foundation's 'Explore' programme.

Project Sponsors: Google News Initiative and WYNG Media Award (WMA)

Agents of Change is a research project based on a quantitative survey conducted by Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers on the implementation of the Hong Kong SAR government's new Code of Practice for Employment Agencies. It highlights how agencies are failing to comply with the voluntary code and makes recommendations to the government and recruitment industry on how better to protect the human and labour rights of migrant domestic workers. The project ran from March 2017 to June 2018. The full research report is available in Chinese and English.

Project Client: HONG KONG Federation of ASIAN DOMESTIC WORKERS UNIONS (FADWU)

Project Sponsors: International Labour OrganisatioN (ILO), Oak Foundation, Oxfam Hong Kong

AGENTS OF CHANGE 推動變革的中介？

Explainer Video

Agents of Change explainer video presents the results of a quantitative survey conducted by Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers on the implementation of the Hong Kong SAR government's new Code of Practice for Employment Agencies. It includes undercover filming that took place in agencies, providing evidence of illegal business practices.

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU)

Project Sponsors: International Labour Organisation (ILO), Oak Foundation, Oxfam Hong Kong

Between a Rock and a Hard Place is a research and advocacy project investigating the illegal fees charged to Filipino migrant domestic workers by employment agencies in both the Philippines and Hong Kong. It documentes human and labour rights abuses, including trafficking and forced labour. The project ran from March 2016 to February 2017. The full report is available in Chinese and English.

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU)

Project Sponsors: HER Fund / Oxfam Hong Kong

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE 左右為難 , 進退維谷 - Documentary Film

Between a Rock and a Hard Place is a short documentary film made for the Progressive Labor Union of Domestic Workers - Hong Kong (Pludw Hk) and Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Union (FADWU). The film investigates the illegal activities of employment agencies in Hong Kong through personal stories, expert analysis and undercover recordings in agency offices. It highlights the failure of the Hong Kong​ government to protect the rights of Filipino migrant domestic workers and punish the illegal activities of the agencies.

Project Client: Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU)

Project Sponsors: HER Fund / Oxfam Hong Kong

STRANGERS AT HOME 外傭—住在家中的陌生人

Strangers at Home / 外傭—住在家中的陌生人, winner of the RTHK Hong Kong Book Prize 2016, Hong Kong Biennial Publishing Awards 2017 and Publishing Concept Prize at 27th Hong Kong Publishing Awards 2015, explores the lives of migrant domestic workers employed in Hong Kong and the impact that this migration has had on their families back home. The book features a series of personal stories and photo essays, as well as interviews with employers and experts. The book was published in September 2015 and is now in its 3rd edition.

Project Client: Amnesty International Hong Kong / Joint Publishing

Project Sponsor: Amnesty International Hong Kong / Private Funder

MOVING ASIA

Moving Asia was a collaboration with photo.circle for Photo Kathmandu 2016, Nepal's only international photography festival. Rights Exposure curated a public slideshow with work by 12 photographers from 11 countries, as well as organising a public talk and panel discussion on migration in Asia (Photo © Kevin WY Lee).

Project Client: photo.circle

Project Sponsor: Multiple

SIU FUNG LAW

Photographic assignment for Amnesty International in November 2017 documenting gender queer bodybuilder Siu-fung Law who was part of Hong Kong’s successful bid team to win the 2022 Gay Games. Hong Kong will become the first Asian city to host the world’s biggest international sporting and cultural event featuring athletes and artists with different sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in what is hoped will be a catalyst for LGBTI rights across Asia. Siu-fung was born female and is socially male. He has not had sex reassignment surgery and competes in the female bodybuilding category.

Project Client: Amnesty International

Project Sponsor: Amnesty International

UMBRELLA MOVEMENT

Photographic assignment for Amnesty International in September 2017 documenting four activists who were at the forefront of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong.

Project Client: Amnesty International

Project Sponsor: Amnesty International