Opinion | City must expedite proposed mandatory reporting of child abuse

By Grenville Cross

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recognizes and protects children's fundamental freedoms and inherent rights. The UN adopted it in 1989, and Hong Kong became a signatory in 1994. It requires the parties to take all available measures to protect and fulfill children's rights (Art.4), and there is a positive obligation to create an environment where children can grow up safely and achieve their full potential.

Apart from the right to life, the UNCRC highlights the child's right to protection from violence, abuse, neglect and ill-treatment, whether by parents or carers (Art.19). It also stipulates that, in all actions concerning children, "the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration".

In 2013, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which supervises the UNCRC, recommended that the parties should adopt compulsory reporting mechanisms for suspected child abuse cases. Many signatories obliged, and mandatory reporting has been adopted in over 70 countries. They include Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the US, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region must follow suit, as its government recognizes.

In 2022, in his first Policy Address, the chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, prioritized the issue. He announced his government would proceed "at full speed" with its plan for a mandatory reporting mechanism. This was widely welcomed by everyone who knew the scale of child abuse in Hong Kong.

On June 2, 2023, the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill (the bill) was gazetted, and it was presented to the Legislative Council for its first reading on June 14, 2023. It reflects the government's policy objective of safeguarding the best interests of children and zero tolerance of child abuse. It requires professionals who deal with children, including care workers, medical personnel and teachers, to report suspected instances of child abuse. Those who fail to make a report face a fine of HK$50,000 ($6,400) and three months' imprisonment, which is very low. In the Australian state of New South Wales, for example, the maximum penalty is two years' imprisonment, while in Canada, it is six months' imprisonment.

Be that as it may, the proposed law is urgently needed, as the evidence shows. On March 10, the Police Force revealed that 1,349 child abuse cases were reported in 2023, a 12.3 percent rise over the previous year. Whereas half of the cases involved physical abuse, the remainder entailed sexual abuse.

In 2023, moreover, the Social Welfare Department reported 1,457 newly registered child protection cases, a figure that reflected the number of children who were maltreated or might have been, as well as those at risk of mistreatment.

If child abuse is not reported, it can have dire consequences. Even if serious physical harm does not result from ongoing abuse, there may be grave mental trauma. It is an offense that must be treated seriously by everybody, and attempts to eviscerate the bill should be resisted

Although shocking, these figures were only the tip of the iceberg. Most victims of child abuse suffer in silence, and their plight is never brought to the attention of those who might be able to help them. Even when professionals and others become aware of their plight, the temptation all too often is to look away. Most cases never feature on the radar, and until people realize that they have a duty to take steps to report suspected instances of child abuse, the situation can only get worse.

In 2021, the Children's Residential Care Home scandal in Mong Kok highlighted the horrors that can arise. It showed the public that even when they are supposedly in safe hands, children can still face great danger. Over 100 charges were brought against 34 staff members for abusing children aged 3 or younger in their care. The victims were slapped, shaken and kicked, and one defendant was sentenced to 27 months' imprisonment after admitting 11 charges of child abuse, with one toddler having faced multiple abuses over 10 days. It is hard to believe that everybody was unaware of what was going on, yet nobody acted. It is fortunate that none of the children died, though others are not always as lucky.

One child who was not so fortunate was 5-year-old Yeung Chi-wai, who died in horrific circumstances after prolonged abuse and neglect — much of it drug-related — by his carers in 2013. He might have been saved if somebody had alerted the authorities to his situation. But nobody did, and 11 years later, there is still no law that mandates the reporting of similar cases backed up with criminal sanctions.

In March, moreover, a 38-year-old mother was charged with child abuse for ill-treating her 4-year-old daughter, who was found to have 11 injuries to various parts of her body. The victim was found unconscious in a bathtub, and her multiple injuries were discovered after she was rushed to the hospital. As with Yeung Chi-wai, it seems she could have been spared her ordeal if the authorities had been timeously alerted by a responsible adult.

The alarm bells are now ringing loudly, and delays in addressing the situation cannot be tolerated. Hong Kong has fallen behind many other places regarding child protection, and it might have been expected that the legislators would have fast-tracked the government's bill.

However, 11 months after it was first introduced into the Legislative Council, the legislation is still bogged down in a bills committee. Worse, the government has faced requests to water it down, even though, by international standards, it is already very mild. One legislator even called for the penalty of three months' imprisonment to be removed altogether, which was extraordinary. If heeded, this would only leave the fine, rendering the bill toothless. It would also strip the bill of any meaningful incentive to outsiders to report child abuse.

As criminal offenses go, a maximum of three months' imprisonment is already very lenient. It suggests that the offense falls into the less serious category of criminality, when it does not. After all, sentences of three months' imprisonment are reserved for very minor offenses, like obeying a call of nature in a public place, unlawfully taking fish from a private place, or obstructing a footpath. It makes no sense to bracket a failure to report child abuse with offenses of that sort when it comes to penalty, let alone to treat it as even less serious, such being the consequence of what the legislator proposed.

If child abuse is not reported, it can have dire consequences. Even if serious physical harm does not result from ongoing abuse, there may be grave mental trauma. It is an offense that must be treated seriously by everybody, and attempts to eviscerate the bill should be resisted.

Next month marks the first anniversary of the bill's arrival in the Legislative Council, and the duty of legislators to finally get it over the line is obvious. Hong Kong has clear responsibilities to its children as a signatory of the UNCRC, which must be discharged. Our children have been denied this basic protection for far too long, and the bill will help not only to alleviate their suffering but also to prevent further tragedies.

The author is a senior counsel and law professor, an honorary consultant to the Child Protection Institute of Against Child Abuse, and a former director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The article was first published in China Daily.