News

Championing children's rights

By Hazel Parry (HK Edition)
Updated: 2011-04-01 07:00

Director of Against Child Abuse Priscilla Lui Tsang Sun-kai. Provided to China Daily

Hong Kong has become a much more caring place in the three decades Priscilla Lui Tsang Sun-kai has been involved in the child protection group Against Child Abuse.

Lui, who retires Thursday as director, first became involved in the Against Child Abuse in 1979, not long after it had been founded.

At that time, she said the attitude in Hong Kong was very different than it is today, with little attention being devoted to child protection.

Lui, 59, said: "I have always been interested in working with children. I have a huge extended family which has always placed a lot of emphasis on children.

"So when the job at Against Child Abuse came along I found it very tempting and attractive," said Lui, who now has two grown-up children of her own.

"At that stage, Hong Kong was in denial thinking that child abuse was someone else's problem," she said.

"The general attitude was that we are pretty good with children, why on earth are we spending attention, resources, manpower and discussion on children. There was no special system for child protection."

Lui, who has been a prominent voice campaigning for children over recent years, said she was pleased to have seen some progress being made in building a better and safer city for children.

"Now after 30 years we have Against Child Abuse, a specialized agency recognized in the community.

"The government and the social welfare department have a family and child protective service which is specialized agency. Hospitals have special child abuse coordinators and there is a special unit with the police. These things are changes in a good direction."

However, there are still things developments she would like to see. One of them is the appointment of a child commissioner or commission who would be responsible for bringing all things connected with children under one umbrella.

"We were pleased that in 2007, LegCo unanimously passed a motion urging the government to set up a children's commission. The government instead introduced the Family Council which they thought would take care of children's well being and interests.

"The Family Council has been there for two to three of years now and how many times have children's rights and issues receive paramount concern on their agenda?

"We continue to say, why on earth is there a youth commission, a women's commission, elderly commission, but not a children's commission?

"I would urge the government to set up a children's commission. I believe it is the way forward. It is something I would have liked to see before my retirement, but the sooner the better.

"In terms of law, the UK has drastically reviewed child-related law twice, which should not be underestimated. That reflects some real sense of determination to ensure child perspective is reflected. Unfortunately, we have not seen this in Hong Kong.

"My hopes are that the world will become a better place for children, particularly in our home town of Hong Kong. I hope to see a more decent, more dignified and more caring place."

(HK Edition 04/01/2011 page5)