1993
Conference on Children's Rights Children and Youth Summit
In order to encourage children and youth to express their views on matters relating to their rights, a summit targeting at children and youth of ages between 8 to 17 was held on 30th October, 1993. The Hong Kong Baptist University, Centre for Child Development, Playright, TREATS, Kelly Support Group, World Visions, Sara Beattie College and Against Child Abuse were involved. On that day over 150 children and youth warmly participated. It was a day of fun and excellent beginning for all of us. Children, youth and adults learnt what children’s rights mean through drawing, story telling/ building and discussing issues relating to their rights.
Conference on Children’s Rights in Hong Kong
In light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, multidisciplinary professionals took part in this conference held on November 6th, 1993, on the rights of the child in Hong Kong. The recommendations made by the Conference were incorporated into a report and subsequently submitted to the United Nations.
The Hon. Mrs. Elsie Tu was the patron and Dr. Stuart Hart, an
internationally well known advocate of Children’s Rights, was the keynote
speaker. Together with the enthusiastic support and participation of many
scholars and experts on children’s welfare and rights, the conference
was truly an invaluable occasion for professionals to share their experience
and insights in the issue of children’s rights.
1995
Conferences on Children’s Rights "
"From Child Protection to the Relevance of Children’s Rights in
Hong Kong."
In view of the extension of the Convention to Hong Kong in September 1994,
the promotion of children’s rights took on a new dimension. The emphasis
is now on how the Convention can be and should be implemented in Hong Kong.
With the generous support from the International Council on Childhood in the
21 st Century and International Association for the Child’s Right to Play,
the Committee organized a large scale multi-disciplinary conference that focused
on and beyond child protection to children’s rights on October 26-28,
1995.
"the child, by reasons of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguard and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth (Preamble of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child)"
The 3-day conference was a success. Over 170 professionals from a variety of disciplines attended the conference. With Miss Elsie Leung as the patron and Dr. Janie Thomas as the keynote speaker, the participants had a fruitful sharing on a number of topics ranging from different levels/ forms of child protection to how children’s rights can be promoted from multidisciplinary collaborations. Indeed this is not the end of the good news. Because of the enthusiastic participation and support, we were endowed with a healthy surplus. With this surplus the Committee published a proceedings covering both the 1993 and 1995 professional conferences.
Youth Conference on Children’s Rights
Children are what the Convention is all about, so they were not neglected. On 18th November, 1995, a Youth Conference on Children’s Rights was held. Unlike the previous conference, the target of this conference was secondary school children from various background. We had children from mainstream secondary schools, international schools, vocational schools, a special opportunity school, Vietnamese refugee camp, and new immigrant family from China. The main activity included a model UN debate by the older youth in the Council Chamber of the Baptist University on issues of children’s rights. The younger participants were divided into 6 groups. Under the skillful leadership of experienced and dedicated facilitators they were encouraged to think and discuss their various rights of survival, education, protection and development through games and role play.
"I found the Conference on
the Rights of the Child to be very interesting and informative. It was a great
learning experience. I wish I could do it again. It was a lot of work finding
the position of children in various countries, but it was worth it. I realize
that children are really cared for. People realize that children, too, have
rights." (Comments from one participant of Youth Conference)
Report on the Sharing Session
among the NGOs on the Rights of the Child in Hong Kong held on January 18,
1997
A sharing session organized by the Hong Kong Committee on Children’s
Rights aiming at promotion of the rights of children in Hong Kong and exploration
of opportunities for joint effort to deal with issues of children’s rights
was held in the morning of January 18, 1997 at the Hong Kong Council of Social
Service. The specific objectives of the sharing session were: (1) to update
participants on the progress of Hong Kong’s reporting to the UN on the
Convention on the Rights of the Child; (2) to discuss issues on children’s
rights on concern to the NGOs; and (3) to identify means of working together
to promote the rights of the child in Hong Kong.
It was felt that community education was a means to change social attitude of discriminating children with special needs and for promotion of children’s rights in Hong Kong where parental rights seemed to be predominant. Moreover, it was also felt that there was a need to review existing laws, policies and services affecting children’s rights so that changes may be made where appropriate. It was noted that coordination among governmental and non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to promote children’s rights in Hong Kong.
The major concerns related to local children are: children’s rights to play are undermined by the parents and the education system; housing policy should consider making living environments child-friendly; a holistic approach in promoting children’s rights and working on issues related to children’s rights should be encouraged; segregation of all children in Hong Kong is a concern which requires attitude change as in the case of local parents discouraging normal children from playing with and relating to disabled or mentally challenged children; children’s liability to criminal offence at age 7 should be reviewed; children should be educated the concepts and meanings of the rights of the child; children should be protected from sexual exploitation which is negatively promoted by pornographic publications and violent films; health concerns in terms of nutrition, medications for children, and mental health for children such as teenage pregnancy, child suicide, play facilities and programs in hospitals should be given due attention; equal opportunities and rights for children to choose and participate in decision-making should be promoted.
In addition, concerning new immigrant children, their integration into the community should be helped by a review of the following policies; (1) education policy should consider an increase of school places and provision of remedial help on English lessons for these children, (2) housing policy to provide adequate living space for their families, (3) immigration policy to consider granting landed immigrant status to family as a unit so that children will be parented by both parents and united by their siblings, and (4) new immigrant children aged 15-18 are deprived of schooling and vocational training, female children are especially discriminated against in obtaining places in these system. It was hoped that work group(s) would be formed in the near future for further discussion of work plan and strategies for responding to the above-mentioned concerns.