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Call for mandatory reporting of child abuse in Hong Kong after murder ruling

蘋果日報 2021/04/21 21:40


Hong Kong’s jailing of a couple for life over the murder of their five-year-old daughter has stirred fresh calls from the government’s law reform advisers to set up a mandatory report system to expose suspected cases of child abuse.
Prosecutors often found it difficult to collect evidence in such cases, including details of when the abuse took place, said Stephen Hung, a member of the government’s Law Reform Commission.
Child abuse would not happen over just one day, and the victim might be too young to say who the perpetrator was, Hung told Radio Television Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The commission has been discussing the addition of a new offense, of “failure to protect a child or vulnerable person where the child’s or vulnerable person’s death or serious harm results from an unlawful act or neglect.”
It suggests imposing criminal liability on people who fail to take steps to protect a child or a vulnerable person from death or serious harm.
The proposed change targets caretakers and other people living under the same roof and would make them responsible for reporting any suspected child abuse.
Teachers had a responsibility to care for a child, said Hung, who had been sitting on the commission’s Causing or Allowing the Death of a Child or Vulnerable Adult Sub-committee.
They would be able to spot any abnormal injuries and could check with the child and follow up the issue with a social worker. In such circumstances, the teacher would not need to bear criminal liability.
Hung said that the proposed law should not be regarded as an additional liability for teachers.
Donna Wong, director of non-governmental agency Against Child Abuse, supported setting up a mandatory reporting system to uncover suspected cases.
Wong said the repeated occurrence of different cases showed that many more were hidden in the community and were not being followed up by government departments. She questioned the effectiveness of the existing reporting system, which was voluntary in nature.
Wong also suggested that legislation was needed as well to prohibit physical punishment of children.
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