The
Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance becomes operational in Hong Kong on January 20, and will enhance child protections. It contains a mechanism for the early and effective detection of child abuse cases. It requires
particular professionals to report if, during their work, they come to suspect a child has been suffering serious harm, or is at real risk of it.
The acts considered serious harm include inflicting physical injury, forcing or enticing a child to participate in a sexual act, and intimidating, terrifying or denigrating the child in a severe or repeated way that impairs the child’s mental health. If a child’s basic needs are repeatedly neglected, causing its health or development to be endangered, this could also constitute causing serious harm.
However, progress notwithstanding, nobody should think “job done”. Unfinished business aplenty remains, and the government will hopefully take the initiative with a comprehensive package of proposals to protect the most vulnerable. Once it does so, the
incoming Legislative Council must facilitate the legislation, and in the meantime, it should hold the government’s feet to the fire.
In 2021, for example, the Law Reform Commission
proposed a new offence of “failure to protect a child or vulnerable person where the child’s or vulnerable person’s death or serious harm results from an unlawful act or neglect”. It would facilitate the prosecution of people who, for example, fail to protect a child in danger and for whom they are responsible.
A classic
instance was five-year-old Yeung Chi-wai, born with Down’s syndrome, who died in horrifying circumstances after swallowing the drug methamphetamine hydrochloride that his carers had left lying around at home.
The Law Reform Commission proposal derived from a British law that, given its urgency, was fast-tracked through parliament in 2004. After four years, it must be hoped that this much-needed reform will also receive an expedited passage through the Legislative Council next year. After all, delays can – and do – cost lives.
