Youngsters plan to set up their own NGO
Two candidates to represent HK at children's rights session in Geneva
Hong Kong children are poised to set up the city's first non-governmental organisation to be run entirely by and for young people.
The teenagers have yet to sort out the logistics and legal basis of the group, but are determined not to have adults representing - or misrepresenting - their views on issues that affect them most directly.
The 80 members of the Children's Council Working Committee, who last week sent a report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on the concerns of children in Hong Kong, want to empower more young people with knowledge of their rights.
'Before I joined the Children's Council, I did not know anything about the Children's Rights Convention,' said Kevin Kung, 15. 'The government has come up with such a thick publication on children's rights in Hong Kong, but I did not even know about it. Here, I have learned that I have the right to voice my opinions.'
Hong Kong children will also be represented at a session of the UN committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva for the first time this year by youngsters elected by their peers this month.
The Children's Council Working Committee has planned a weekend retreat where elections will be held to decide who travels to Geneva in the summer.
Phoebe Wan Tak-yan, 14, said the group had drafted eight criteria that candidates would have to meet to be eligible for election. They include having attended at least half the committee's meetings, understanding the group's common goals and being outspoken and expressive.
'We will elect two representatives and at least one of them should be under 18,' Ms Wan said.
The two representatives will attend the UN child rights committee's session on non-governmental organisations in June, present a report they have compiled on the state of children's rights in Hong Kong and propose ideas to improve the conditions and involvement of children in decisions that affect their lives.
The working committee was formed after three non-governmental organisations - the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights, Against Child Abuse and the Hong Kong Committee for Unicef - organised the UN Committee on Children's Rights Child Ambassadors' Scheme in 2000.
Twenty children travelled to Geneva in 2001 to meet UN representatives, as well as representatives of the Children's Parliament of Lucerne.
