THE ZUBIN FOUNDATION Improves the lives of Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities by reducing suffering and providing opportunities
Domestic Violence Team, Family and Child Welfare Branch, Social Welfare Department, Room 721, 7/F, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong 7th September, 2022
The Zubin Foundation’s Response to the Proposal on the Mandatory Reporting Requirement for Suspected Child Abuse Cases 1. Introduction to The Zubin Foundation (TZF) 1.1. The Zubin Foundation (IR: 91/12344) is a registered charity committed to improving the lives of Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities by providing opportunities and reducing suffering. 1.2. We conduct outreach projects by providing training, counselling, and other well-being services to our service users, including managing the Call Mira helpline for women and girls and our scholarships programme Ethnic minority children and their parents are one of our key stakeholders, in particular, ethnic minority children in emotional distress, ethnic minority children with special educational needs and their parents, parents who lack parenting skills, parents and children who need immediate safety support, etc. The following responses are drafted based on our experience working in the ethnic minority community. 2. Background 2.1. TZF agrees that setting legislation that mandates reporting on child abuse is necessary and important. 3. Whom to protect? 3.1. TZF supports the proposed definition of children as persons aged below 18. 4. Who are mandated to make reports? 4.1. The professions that have frequent contact with children and the profession are currently subject to some form of regulation – we understand the need of receiving appropriate training to enhance the capacity of the profession. However, if we look into children’s best interests – there are other significant individuals who are not included in the proposal. This omission of these individuals poses a significant risk to children. 4.2. TZF Recommendations to the current list 4.2.1. Religious sector – this whole sector is missing. We know there are a
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