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Children play at the Velodrome Park in Tseung Kwan O in May 2021. Hong Kong would benefit from positive parenting programmes for all. Photo: May Tse
OpinionLetters

Letters | Eight steps Hong Kong must take to protect children from abuse

  • Two tragic cases of children tortured to death that were heard in court this year should be a wake-up call for Hong Kong to improve legal and systemic protection of its young
Crime in Hong Kong
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Hong Kong is heartbroken by the death of 22-month-old Heiley Or, who weighed just 8kg and had 70 injuries when she died in mid-2019. A couple was recently sentenced to five years and four months in jail for abusing a friend’s daughter left in their care.

The judge said the husband and wife escaped a murder charge because prosecutors had insufficient evidence to prove they had contributed to the child’s fatal head wound.

This reminds us of another case heard earlier this year of a five-year-old girl who died after being subjected to months of cruelty that weakened her immunity. Her father and stepmother are appealing their murder convictions, which resulted in life sentences.

The Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights calls on the government to take the following steps to protect Hong Kong’s more than 1 million children:

1. Quicken child protection law reforms, including work on the proposed new offence to penalise bystanders for failing to protect children and other vulnerable people from death or serious harm, so as to close a legal loophole that makes perpetrators of abuse difficult to identify.
2. Ban corporal punishment completely and ensure an effective and adequately monitored system. Launch positive parenting programmes for all, but especially for families with newborns.
3. Set up a child fatality inquiry system to thoroughly investigate every unnatural death of a child, if not all serious cases, to understand the root causes, actions taken or not taken, and whether there existed opportunities for the child to be identified early and suffering and death prevented.

4. Initiate a community discussion on setting up a mandatory reporting system for suspected child abuse. Allocate sufficient resources to ensure this system is reliable and accountable.

5. Review childcare support and services in view of the vulnerability of infant and preschool children. In particular, the custody of a young child should be considered together with that of their siblings.

6. Conduct a comprehensive reform of child protection laws and incorporate the stipulations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Begin with public consultations on a child protection bill.

7. Educate the public, including children, on children’s rights and the concept of collective responsibility in child protection. The general public, such as neighbours, need to understand their role in protecting children from harm.

8. Set up a statutory children’s commission with a child commissioner mandated to champion and uphold the rights and the best interests of children in Hong Kong.

Billy Wong, executive secretary, Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights

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