Conclusion
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
28 June 1989
香港立法局 ———————————一九八九年六月二十八日
64
Sir, article 24 of the draft Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that states parties should recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health. Hong Kong, Sir, has the expertise and the resources. We now have the people with the right mind; it is for us to show our determination.
With these remarks, Sir, I support the motion.
MRS. TU: Sir, in a recent speech, President Aquino of the Philippines said that a possible 20 to 30 million Asian children are living on the streets. I believe that very few of them can now be found in Hong Kong. With nine years' compulsory education as well as many youth programmes, I think Hong Kong children are probably among the most privileged in Asia. But that does not mean that all the rights of all children are being protected, or that there is no room for improvement as my colleagues have rightly pointed out.
I shall briefly touch on only one category that needs attention, that is, children whose homes, for one reason or another, put them at risk.
A child whose parents do not live in harmony with each other is not likely to enjoy a sense of family security, because friction between parents can lead to one or both parents working out their frustrations on the child who happens to get in the way. The pressure of life in Hong Kong on parents who are incompatible, or on single parents who cannot cope, is probably the most common cause of child abuse, sometimes resulting in a child's death.
I believe a great deal could be done to save a child from physical and emotional abuse if every school had a full time social worker, trained to communicate with children at risk, and parents in need of guidance. This would be in line with article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A social worker in every school could examine the home problems in depth. The solution could be a simple one, such as recommending that a single parent be transferred to a public housing near to a sympathetic relative or friend. In some cases, the parents of an abused child may need to be referred to a marriage guidance counsellor. In an extreme case, a child may need to be placed under the care of the Social Welfare Department for protection from abuse. In a modern society, we need to find new solutions to family problems that affect the well-being of children.