The government has proposed a mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill,
which stimulates that if professional practitioners in the social welfare, education
and healthcare sectors have reasonable grounds to suspect that a child
has been suffering serious harm, they must report the incident.
While children do not know how to call for help when being abused,
there must be many signs and clues in serious child abuse cases.
Early detection and reporting by a third party is especially important
to the prevention of child abuse. The United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child suggested as early as 2011 that local governments
should establish a reporting mechanism for violence against children.
However, there has never been any mechanism or administrative measures
in HK requiring professionals who have direct contact with children to report
child abuse incidents to the Social Welfare Department or the police if they
suspect or are aware of them. This loophole is finally set to be closed with
the government's proposed Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill.
Over the past 10 years, child abuse cases in HK have been on the rise in general.
Although this might have been related to the rising public awareness of reporting
child abuse, the fact that serious child abuse cases have been brought to light
repeatedly highlights the many deficiencies in the entire reporting mechanism.
In the past, people in the social welfare, education, and healthcare sectors
had many reservations about the mandatory reporting of child abuse.
It was not until 2018, that the society was shocked by the death of "Lam Lam",
a five-year-old girl, who was suffering from chronic abuse and had over 100 bruises
found on her body. That marked a turning point in the campaign for relevant legislation.
Afterwards, the Office of the Ombudsman issued an investigation report, suggesting that
the government explore the idea of making the reporting of suspected child abuse mandatory.
The Law Reform commision even proposed the introduction of a "failure to protect" offence.
If caregivers are aware of but fail to report incident or take steps to protect children
from being abused, they can be liable to criminal prosecution. Last year, the government
consulted relevantindustry shakeholders on the mechanism for the mendatory reporting
of child abuse and finally came up with this Bill.
When it comes to the mandatory reporting of child abuse, legislation is the first step,
and there is still a lot of supporting work need to be done. The govenment has stated that
it will provide training for those with a mandatory role in reporting child abuse in the
future. it will also formulate practical guidelines to help them identify suspicious cases,
intervene and report early. Considering the inevitable increase in child abuse cases being
reported after the mandatory reporting legislation, the authorities will increase the places
of residential care services for children, providing emergency placement when needed.
All these are, of course in the right direction. As for the actual effects, they will depend
on whether the authorities' implementation and execution are adequately done. The
authorities must communicate closely with relevant sectors to ensure that the practical
guidelines are clear and easy to understand. At the same time, they need to organise more
introductory activities to let the sectors understand how to protect children in practice.
Furthermore, the authorities must strengthen the publicity and education campaign on
child abuse prevention and recruit more foster parents.
The aim of the Bill proposed by the govenment this time is to establish a mandatory
mechanism for reporting child abuse, and it does not touch on the proposal of introducing
a "failure to protect" crime. With the implementation of mandatory reporting, the authorities
can consider the introduction of the "failure to protect" offence through legislation so as to
improve child abuse prevention laws.