What factors retreat Hong Kong children from active participation in society?

A qualitative research on child participation

Cheng Po YanCity University of Hong Kong

10 July 2012

Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development: Action and Impact

Article 12“States Parties shall assure to the child who is

capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being

given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”

Child Participation in

HK context

• 1st Concluding Observation in 1996• 2nd Concluding Observation in 2005

• NGO Report of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Convention on the Rights of the Child” 2005

Methodology

• In-depth interview• Content analysis• Key questions asked:

Government performance

Reason for participating/not participating

Child rights education

Male Female TotalChildren aged 12 – 17 1 3 4Young people who have at least 3 years of community engagement before 18

2 2 4

Total 3 5 8

Male Female TotalSocial worker 1 1 2Professor of educational institution 1 1Child rights advocate 1 1 2

Total 3 2 5

Findings

Poor child rights education

“We are never taught about child rights and human rights. I only came to know after learning from the [child rights education] programme.” (16 years old, male)

“There is a very little part talking about human rights in Liberal Studies but there is nothing about child rights.” (16 years old, female)

“What I think about my school is that they know nothing about CR at all. From principals to teachers to students, all of them are not aware of CR.” (17 years old, male)

Inactive government

“Um…they are not really active…but anyway the officers are just influenced by the macro environment. The environment…as the government are not taking it seriously, it’s hard do anything.” (15 years old, female)

“the answer is simple - why should I listen to you when you have no vote? There are a lot of influential groups and people in society, but not the children.” (17 years old, female)

“There are too many things relevant to us! My priority must be studying. We really don’t have enough time to study. As well as for my classmates, they all talk about tutorial classes, sports and music. It’s a strange thing to talk about public affairs.”(16 years old, female)

“I didn’t engage much in other public affairs cos I’m too busy. I don’t have much time to engage in lot of event. (16 years old, male)

Frankly, I seldom take part in social events if they are not rewarding. Once I joined a programme related to public affairs but that was just for earning academic credits.

Academic performance as the paramount consideration

Implication and Discussion

HK under Residual Welfare Model

• Government’s role: Enabler VS Duty-bearer• Children’s role: Service user VS Rights-holder

Cultural factors in Chinese society

Collectivism IndividualismVSHierarchical relationship

The way forward