Background

Plan International Hong Kong has been actively engaged in advocating a strengthened system approach to address the complex causes and consequences of children’s rights violations, and translate our knowledge into action to ensure no child is left behind in the protection of their best interests.

Child Rights Impact Assessment, which can be applied at both the policy and community practice level, would be conducive to ensuring that the enforcement of any proposed or existing law, policy or decision does not violate the best interests of the child. The assessment tool requires relevant stakeholders to identify every positive and negative impact any decision may have on children and stipulate mitigations where negative impacts are identified. This is particularly important for the protection of vulnerable children in our community.

Our actions

Plan International Hong Kong has commissioned The University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL) to conduct the captioned project as a first step in the longer-term process to engage officials and different sectors through dialogues and awareness building on the advantages of Child Rights Impact Assessment, to safeguard children’s rights as undergirded in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The first phase of the project comprises:

1. Research on overseas models and experiences on Child Rights Impact Assessment
2. International Conference on ‘Safeguarding Children’s Best Interests: Translating policies into local practices —Combating Violence against Children’