Lawmakers Jose Pereira Coutinho and Leong Veng Chai, both key members of the Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM), said Wednesday that they have submitted a bill which aims to promote the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and international labour conventions in schools.
The two covenants and labour conventions are enshrined in Article 40 of the Macau Basic Law.
The duo jointly presided over a press conference on the ATFPM premises to push their cause.
Coutinho bashed the government for not providing local schoolchildren with political education. He also said that the government’s 10-year plan for non-tertiary education also lacked any subject related to political education.
“Thus local youths have little awareness of politics…there is a need to give schoolchildren a basic knowledge of different political systems and human rights through legal means so that they can discuss and analyse the city’s social issues,” Coutinho said, adding that they submitted the bill to the legislature last week.
Coutinho also said he was confident that their bill would be approved by his fellow lawmakers as he believes they realise that residents are becoming “more concerned about their [civic] rights and duties” after last month’s two mass protests against a government-initiated bill that would have granted the city’s principal officials generous retirement perks and other benefits.
After the protests, the biggest since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), the government abruptly withdrew the bill.(macaunews/macaupost)
