TNAG-1856-FCO40-2631-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 170

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

28 June 1989

香港立法局.

·九八九年六月二十八日

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before us. For the purpose of this debate, a child is defined as a person aged under 18.

This year will also witness the completion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child launched in 1979. The convention, containing statements on human rights geared to the needs of the child, is designed to lay down international standards for the protection of children all over the world.

Here in Hong Kong, public attention has seldom been focussed on the rights of the child who is often treated as a possession of his parents. Social and economic conditions have compelled many working parents to live with their "weekend children" who are deprived of parental care, influence, and love so essential to them during their formative years. In some cases, the lack of proper care has developed into child neglect, resulting in tragedies that destroy children's right to protection. Our educational system, placing undue emphasis on academic learning, coupled with parents' lack of proper understanding of early childhood education, has become a punitive force crushing hard the creative talents of our young children. Furthermore, the easy access to inappropriate information has also left the young, vulnerable minds open to insidious influences.

On the other hand, I have yet to be convinced that the basic rights of the child are being taken seriously in Hong Kong. The fragmented child care services provided by the government and voluntary agencies will attest to this. Lacking social service resources and taking the traditional non-intervention approach, the Government is paying a lip service by just providing residual child care services mainly for problem families and people least able to help themselves. Without a clearly stated policy, service providers, parents and educators are in quandaries over the future direction of care and protection for children in Hong Kong.

Indeed, Hong Kong is at best offering child minding services to our younger generation; a big number of them are struggling to survive in tragic plight.

I am therefore grateful for this opportunity of a motion debate and the support shown by my honourable colleagues in voicing their concern over the rights and well-being of children in Hong Kong. Sir, to abide by the time limit of an hour and a half, each Member will speak for about five minutes on an agreed aspect chosen to avoid duplication. It is our intention not to expound on the well-known problems of child welfare, but to propose concrete suggestions for action.