Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts on RTHK Agender Café (a Media KE event) to discuss the Report by TALK on child sex abuse in Hong Kong (KE)

Introduction: Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts was involved in the research and publication of the report by TALK on child sex abuse in Hong Kong. Consequently, Taura (the founder of TALK) and Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts were on RTHK Agender Café (podcast) in November 2022 to discuss the report.  To view the RTHK session on Facebook, click here.

New Report Sheds Light on Child Sexual Abuse in Hong Kong: 
Understanding the Magnitude and Impact of the Problem

Child sexual abuse is a serious and pervasive problem that affects children of all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Unfortunately, despite its prevalence, child sexual abuse is often underreported and misunderstood. In an effort to better understand the magnitude of this issue in Hong Kong, a new report has been released that brings together recent data and trends from surveys and official departments and bureaus records.

     The report, entitled "Child Sexual Abuse in Hong Kong: What We Do and Do Not Know," was produced by TALK Hong Kong, a volunteer peer-led group of women/femme survivors of sexual abuse and assault founded in Hong Kong in 2019. TALK provides support group meetings and undertakes advocacy work on related issues, believing that to tackle child sexual abuse we must understand its causes, scope, scale, and impact. The organization's purpose is to collate the evidence on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong into a single report that can inform the development of prevention efforts.

      This report was produced without any funding and with the pro bono support of, amongst others, Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts, Senior Lecturer at The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law & TALK Hong Kong Advisory Network.

      The report highlights the lack of comprehensive and accurate data on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong, which is a barrier to understanding the true extent of the problem and developing effective prevention strategies. However, the report's authors hope that by bringing together the available data and trends, they can make a meaningful contribution to the conversation around child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. They also intend to make this an annual report, to be updated on regular basis and in this way, provide a clearer picture of the situation.

      This inaugural report serves as an important resource for anyone working to understand and address child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on the issue and highlights areas where further research is needed. By working together and sharing information, we can hope to make progress in preventing child sexual abuse and providing support to those who have been affected by it.

     Taura Edgar, the founder of TALK Hong Kong and Darcy Davison-Roberts, appeared on RTHK’s Agender Café, where they shared results of the report and the work they've been doing to help bring the issue of child sexual abuse out of the darkness, by providing valuable insights and perspectives on the problem of child sexual abuse in Hong Kong, and discussed the various ways in which individuals and organizations can take action to prevent abuse and support survivors. 
To view the report, click  here. 

To view the RTHK interview, click here. 

Puja Kapai Delivers Keynote Speech at Plan for Every Child 2018 (India)

Puja Kapai, Associate Professor and Convenor of the Women's Studies Research Centre, was invited to deliver a special keynote address by Plan International India and the Government of India's Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment at the Plan for Every Child 2018: Girls Get Equal Conference​ held in New Delhi at the India Habitat Centre from 5 to 7 December, 2018. Other speakers included Mr Justice Lokur, Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Ms Mikiko Otani, member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, magistrates, government ministers, the police, academics, civil society leaders, media representatives, as well as children themselves. It was a multidisciplinary and interactive event which engaged thousands of stakeholders working with children across India, focusing in particular on the girl child, those at risk of trafficking and sexual and domestic abuse, street children, and juveniles in the criminal justice system.

   Puja’s keynote, ‘Pathways to Gender Justice: A Critical Intersectional Framework’, focused on the need for legal and social justice advocates to adopt an intersectional framework to address specific vulnerabilities which children who sit at the intersection of multiple sites of oppression experience. Drawing on gender as the focal lens, she presented specific examples of how such a lens enables an enriched understanding of the nexus of pull and push factors which impoverish the girl child’s access to a range of human rights, including education, freedom from violence, and access to justice. Puja also presented an intersectional assessment framework integrated with the Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) framework which she launched earlier this year with Plan International Hong Kong at the Conference on Safeguarding Children’s Best Interests . This serves as a shared tool for frontline responders, encouraging them to adopt a common language and framework for the identification and management of relevant and responsive interventions.

     Excerpt from the speech:

‘Critical intersectional inquiry urges the mapping of the various axes of inequity, oppression, discrimination or exclusion onto a framework. It then enables us to critically examine not only the prevalence of multiple vectors in the equation but more importantly, their inter-relationship and how they intersect to create the conditions which entrench individual children in a particular context to a life of deprivation. Using this framing and critical lens then, organisations and frontline responders working with children can build their capacities for more effective identification of specific environmental, substantive as well as structural challenges which warrant targeted interventions to formulate strategies to deliver responsive, accessible and meaningful justice. In essence, it means building up an entire ecosystem for the actualization of a unique model of justice which responds to intersecting axes of marginality in particular children or groups of children.

When we can accurately problematize issues, we render visible the invisible – the unseen, hidden, yet embedded – realities. We are able to capture within our analytical lens the aggressions, power, oppression or structurally entrenched constructs and relationships between issues. This knowledge presenting a fuller picture with all its layers of complexity enhances the prospects of justice, in particular, gender justice.’

Puja Kapai on Child Protection and Children’s Rights in Hong Kong (RTHK Radio)

"Child Protection and Children’s Rights"

Presenters: Hugh Chiverton and Jim Gould

Backchat, RTHK Radio 3

13 September 2018

Description: A report by the Social Welfare Department indicates that child abuse is on the increase, particularly where very young children are involved. In the first six months of this year there were 554 newly reported cases of abuse, compared with 947 for the whole of 2017. Those figures, and several widely reported cases before the courts in the past few months have led to calls for stronger penalties and an overhaul of child protection laws. So how could child abuse be prevented, and how could children's rights be better safeguarded?   Panelists: Puja Kapai, Priscilla Lui, Azan Marwah, and Dennis Ho. Click here to listen to the programme.  Kapai co-organised the Centre for Comparative and Public Law's Conference on Safeguarding Children's Best Interests at HKU on 8 September 2018.

New Issue of Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law - Special Section on Viet Nam

ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW

Editors-in-Chief: Simon NM Young and Kelley Loper

Publisher: Brill, Leiden

2016, Vol. 17, Issue 1

Special Section on Viet Nam

Introduction 1
Rhona K.M. Smith

The Impact of the Rule of Law on Protection of Human Rights in Viet Nam 11
Do Minh Khoi 

Enhancing Mechanism for Protection of Constitutional Rights in Viet Nam Today: The Case of the Right to Environment 28
Van Nghia Hoang

Business and Human Rights in Viet Nam: The Human Rights Implication of Involuntary Resettlements for Hydro Power Dams 42
Nguyen Thi Thanh Hai

The Suspect’s Right to Silence in Viet Nam 54
Lam Tien Dung

The Rights of Victims in Viet Nam 70
Dinh Thi Mai

Rights of Child Victims and Child Witnesses in Criminal Justice in Viet Nam 88
Le Thi Nga 

The Process of Viet Nam’s Preparation of the National Report under the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review 102
Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan 

Articles

Juvenile (In)justice: Children in Conflict with the Law in Indonesia 119
Sharyn Graham Davies and Jasmin Robson 

Human Trafficking and China: Challenges of Domestic Criminalisation and Interpretation 148
Bonny Ling

Katherine Lynch on Children's Dispute Resolution in Hong Kong (Cardozo J Conflict Resln)

"Reform of Family Justice: Children's Dispute Resolution in Hong Kong"
Katherine Lynch
Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution
Spring 2016, Vol. 17, Issue 3, pp. 909-936

The last twenty years have witnessed a transformation of family justice systems across the common law world, featuring particular emphasis on ensuring that the best interests of children are protected when resolving family disputes. The evolving paradigm has shifted away from resolving family disputes in formal courtrooms via a litigious process that is viewed as lengthy, slow, complex, expensive, and far too adversarial, particularly when children are involved. In response to these challenges, many family procedural reforms, such as modifying court rules to accommodate more informal and flexible processes and expanding judicial roles to provide greater case management and settlement facilitation, have been introduced within the global common law community. More non-adversarial approaches to dispute resolution have developed, with increased use of informal out-of-court dispute resolution--processes often referred to collectively as "alternative dispute resolution" or "ADR" processes. Increasingly, disputes involving children are being handled through more informal, non-adversarial processes like mediation and collaborative practice. Prevention and early resolution of disputes are said to reduce the detrimental effect of conflict on children. The need to protect the best interests of children is now an important feature of family justice reform. The central focus is on providing better, more effective ways of determining what is in the children's best interests and providing children with the opportunity to be heard and to participate in proceedings affecting them - either directly or through a representative... Click here to download the full article.

Report on Third Hong Kong Children's Issues Forum (Collaborative KE Project)

COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE: THIRD CHILDREN’S ISSUES FORUM

On November 13 and 14 the HKU Faculty of Law co-hosted the Third Children’s Issues Forum in collaboration with the Chinese University Faculty of Law, the Hong Kong Family Law Association, and the Law Society of Hong Kong (with support from the Hong Kong Bar Association). The purpose of this Forum (and the previous two) was to highlight the legal and related issues affecting children in Hong Kong and globally and to advocate for multidisciplinary reform of the law and policy on children and family justice generally. After a welcome from the Deans of the CUHK and HKU Law Faculties, Prof. Chris Gane and Prof. Michael Hor, The Hon. Chief Justice Mr. Geoffrey Ma Tao-li opened the Forum noting the importance of protecting the best interests of children, and the role of law in doing so, especially as they are often amongst the most vulnerable in our society.

     During the course of the Third Forum held at CUHK, a packed conference hall heard over 40 speakers address child related topics as diverse as child custody, the Family Court’s innovative Children Dispute Resolution procedure, perspectives on representing children in legal proceedings, frontline workers’ experiences of addressing children’s issues and the need for accurate and sustained data collection to inform the creation and implementation of effective policies on children’s issues.

     Speakers from Hong Kong included members of the Judiciary, barristers and solicitors, medical professionals, academics and also social workers, therapists and representatives from NGOs. Importantly for a conference on children’s issues, young people form Kids’ Dream, one of the first children-led NGOs in Hong Kong, also took part in various panels during the Forum. 

     Speakers from overseas included senior judiciary from England, Australia, Singapore, Macau and Canada; lawyers from the UK and the PRC; academics from Japan, Singapore, Norway and Israel; and the Asia regional representative of UNICEF. For more information on the programme and speakers, please go to www.cifhk.org.

     During the first panel of the Forum, the Secretary for Labour & Welfare, Mr. Matthew Cheung GBS JP announced - for the first time in public - the imminent publication of the long awaited Children’s Bill and the government’s commitment to set aside resources to ensure the successful implementation of the practical infrastructure necessary to support the legislative changes, for example, supervised contact centres. Mr. Cheung confirmed that the Children’s Bill will be released by the end of November. This reform is something which has been discussed and advocated at the previous two Children’s Issues Forums in 2009 and 2012 and so we were delighted that the Secretary chose to make this announcement at the Third Children’s Issues Forum in the presence of the HK media.

     We look forward now to receiving the Children’s Bill and to continuing the progress towards legislative and practical reforms, particularly the creation of a Children’s Commission, to ensure that Hong Kong children have the best child law possible.  Written by Katherine Lynch.

New Books: International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection (2 Volumes)

International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection Collected Essays on Parental Responsibility and Children’s Dispute Resolution (Vol.1)
Edited by Katherine Lynch and Anne Scully-Hill
Chinese University Press
2015/11, 248 pp.

Description: The essays in Volume 1 focus on the substantive law relating to the child-parent relationship in terms of custody and access and on procedural frameworks adopted around the world to resolve disputes arising between parents in relation to their children. The first group of essays offers a comparative analysis of the paradigm shift occurring in post-divorce child law away from notions of custody, care and control to that based on “parental responsibility” in diverse jurisdictions such as England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, China and Europe. In the second section, essays focus on the procedural framework within which disputes relating to parenting and care of children post-divorce may be resolved, with particular focus on the development of specialized children’s dispute resolution procedures in various jurisdictions. The final essays highlight the progressive work of the Hong Kong Judiciary in introducing many procedural reforms in family law and children’s dispute resolution (with many involving a greater use of ADR processes), but also lament the lack of legislative reform in family justice. Volume 1 concludes by focusing on the need for greater empirical research and collection of data to allow for better evidence-based and informed policy making in family justice and child law reform in Hong Kong.

International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection Collected Essays on Preventing Abuse, Parental Responsibilities and Empowering Children (Vol.2) 

Edited by Katherine Lynch and Anne Scully-Hill

Chinese University Press

2015/11, 236 pp.

Description: The essays in Volume 2 provide insights on the serious problems of child abuse and child sex trafficking in Hong Kong and internationally and focus on the need for effective child advocacy and protection. The first group of essays discuss the incidence and prevention of child abuse and child sex trafficking and highlight the urgent need for more empirical research and quantitative data to gauge the real extent of child abuse and to help calculate the huge financial costs of child maltreatment to society. The need for a coordinated multi-disciplinary community based approach to preventing and treating child victims of abuse and sex trafficking is discussed. The consequences of emotional abuse of children in high conflict separation and parental alienation cases are also considered. The essays in the second section focus on parental responsibilities, empowering children and effective child advocacy. The inappropriateness of a “rights based” discourse for matters of parents and children is analyzed, stressing the new paradigm for parent child relationships reframed as “parental responsibilities”. Allowing children to express themselves and to directly participate in proceedings involving them is discussed. Volume 2 concludes by focusing on the need for effective child advocacy and policy formulation through the appointment of independent Children’s Commissioner in Hong Kong.

     Click here to view the table of contents from both books.  To follow the impact of the Children's Issues Forum, click here.

Puja Kapai on the Issue of Undocumented Children in Hong Kong (RTHK)

"

"RTHK's Vicky Kung spoke to local NGOs and lawyers about cases of 'undocumented' children and young people and why their parents choose to live with their families under the radar."  Puja Kapai was asked why there were no statistics on the prevalence of the problem.  Click here to view the video interview.

HKU Study on Children's Rights Education: Policy Implications for Hong Kong

Children's Rights Education: 

Hong Kong's Obligations Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Puja Kapai, John Bacon-Shone, Annelotte Walsh, Fay Wong
The University of Hong Kong

As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Hong Kong’s obligation under Article 42 “to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike” should have directly influenced both education policy and training and practice of educators. However, to date, Children’s Rights Education (CRE) is seldom incorporated as an element of teacher training, is not a significant part of the school curriculum and is not entirely part of the school ethos across most Hong Kong schools and educational institutions.  

     In the only comprehensive study of its kind in Hong Kong, a multidisciplinary team of scholars from the University of Hong Kong examined the extent to which the HKSAR Government has met its Article 42 obligations. In particular, the study explored the current state of CRE implementation in Hong Kong schools and compared the pedagogy, policy and practices in Hong Kong against international best practices identified through an extensive literature review and qualitative surveys. Drawing on the findings, the research team proposes recommendations for structural and substantive improvements to Hong Kong’s policies in relation to fulfilling its Article 42 obligations pertaining to CRE under the UNCRC. This policy brief provides an overview of the key research findings.  Click here to download the policy brief and here for the Executive Summary.

Puja Kapai Delivers Keynote Speeches at Youth Summit and Model UN Conference

Puja Kapai spoke on children's rights in her keynote address at the International Model United Nations Conference, St Paul's Coeducational College held on 1 July 2015.  The conference also focused on empowerment of women and the right to information (media freedom).  Other keynote speakers included Dr York Chow (Equal Opportunities Commission), Ms Anna Wu (Executive Council) and Mr George Chen (South China Morning Post).

Puja also delivered the keynote address at the Diversity Youth Summit organised by the United World College's Li Po Chun Ma On Shan School, held on 27 May 2015.  In her address, she spoke on minority rights and change through empowerment.  

     Puja Kapai is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law and Director of the Social Justice Summer Internship.

North Korea - One Year After the UN Commission of Inquiry's Report (new volume APJHRL)

In the latest volume of the Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, Professors Dino Kritsiotis, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann and Danielle Chubb reflect on the legal and broader implications of the UN Commission of Inquiry's report on North Korea released in March 2014.  The Chair of the Commission, the Honourable Michael Kirby writes an introduction to the special section.  Other articles in the volume address corporal punishment in Tonga, the police complaints system in Hong Kong, the challenge of internally displaced persons in South Asia, targeted killings in the Philippines and justifying government surveillance.  The Journal is edited by Simon NM Young and Kelley Loper, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, The University of Hong Kong.  The table of contents of volume 15 is as follows: