Peter Reading Email & Phone Number

A leading international human rights lawyer with over 22 years experience in conducting strategic advocacy and securing legal and policy advancements on diverse human rights issues in Australia, Asia, United Kingdom and Europe. Significant senior management experience, leading large teams of staff and as a Board member of several international and national NGOs in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.Key achievements have included:Securing improved protections from discrimination in Hong Kong: at the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) Hong Kong, I have successfully led the Discrimination Law Review to modernise all the existing discrimination laws in Hong Kong, managing all aspects of the project including leading a large staff working group, drafting submissions to the Government, conducting a large scale public consultation, and collaborating with key stakeholders to secure improvements in protections from sexual harassment, racial and disability discrimination.Advocacy on LGBT peoples’ human rights in Hong Kong: at the EOC, I have led the advocacy work on advancing LGBT peoples’ rights in Hong Kong on issues such as relationship rights, gender recognition laws for transgender people, anti-discrimination laws and criminal laws affecting LGBT people. I have also collabroated with key stakeholders such as NGOs, the business sector, Consulates and academics to achieve change throught Asia including in Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, and Cambodia. I was awarded the Community Business LGBT Advocacy Award in 2018 for my work.Work to protect and improve human rights in the UK: as Director of Legal Poicy at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) I led a team of staff a landmark human rights projects including developing a human rights strategy, conducting research on the human rights situation in the UK, drafting submissions to Government on retaining and improving protections of human rights under the Human Rights Act, giving evidence to the United Nations on the human rights situation in the UK, and successfully applying to the United Nations for the EHRC to be accredited as a National Human Rights Institution.Equality Act 2010: as Director of Legal Policy leading a team that successfully advised the UK government on the development and implementation of the Equality Act which modernised all existing equality law in Britain, as well as leading the drafting of comprehensive guidance on the Act for the the public and private sectors.

Listed skills include Human Rights, Policy, Legal Advice, International Human Rights, and 24 others.