Hong Kong's children need better protection of their rights

"When the lives and rights of children are at stake," said Unicef director Carol Bellamy, "there must be no silent witnesses". In the 20 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was applied to Hong Kong, there has been much progress, although some rights remain unfulfilled. While Article 3 states that "in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative bodies or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration", views diverge on the way forward.

The criminal justice system, in particular, has taken giant steps towards ensuring that people who commit crimes against children are accountable, not least by facilitating the evidence of young victims. Strict evidential rules have been relaxed, and child victims can now testify by means of a live television link, avoiding the trauma of a court attendance.

Although the UN convention recognises that children must be cared for emotionally as well as physically, the child cruelty law in Hong Kong is deficient, The law needs tightening, as in England, to fully criminalise psychological harm, even without physical injury.

There are an estimated 1.1 million children under the age of 18 in the city, and their interests require protection, just as their voices need to be heard. Although the government has done much to alleviate poverty, with the overall poverty rate, according to official figures, falling from 14.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent of the population, the situation of many children remains alarming.

The Hong Kong Institute of Education has estimated that one in four of Hong Kong children, or roughly 275,000, are living in poverty, with the problem being particularly acute among new immigrant and single-parent families. In the 2014 policy address, the government announced plans to "nurture young people through education, employment and whole-person development", but the success of its proposals is, inevitably, tied to better living conditions at home.

Although the policy address envisaged a HK$3 billion-per-year Low Income Working Allowance to help more than 200,000 poor families, this has fallen foul of mindless politicking in the Finance Committee. It may not now come to pass until 2016, if at all, which is a crying shame, with children being the big losers. Those behind the filibustering must remember that their antics are doing nothing to advance social justice, quite the reverse.

After all, in 2013, Oxfam Hong Kong found that while 60 per cent of low-income parents were cutting down on food and medical expenses to provide for their children, cash shortages left 30 per cent of their children short of learning materials and unable to participate in activities outside school.