Why Hong Kong child custody reform faces more delay despite lawyers’ support
Chief justice and Bar Association have endorsed legislative proposal that would clarify outdated and confused concepts such as child custody, care and control, but government inertia may hold up its enactment
Eleven years after the first proposals were made in the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong’s “Child Custody and Access” report, we are still awaiting reform of the law relating to children.
In November 2015, it was heartening to hear the chief justice - the city’s top judge - finally express full support for a Children’s Bill that would simplifiy, consolidate and clarify the myriad laws and outdated concepts relating to children in Hong Kong.
There was a public consultation, which ended in March 2016, and an endorsement of the legislative proposal from the Hong Kong Bar Association followed in April. As lawyers, we are eager for this law to be made a reality.
What would the Children’s Bill change? To illustrate how confused current laws are, different ordinances give different ages to define a “child”. The new bill proposes a child should be defined as someone below the age of 18. Most people probably thought this was already the case.
One of the fundamental proposals is to replace outdated terminology. The existing terms “custody”, “care and control”, and “access” may be familiar. However, they give the wrong impression that the parent who “gets custody” of children can make all the decisions for them, and the parent who does not is disenfranchised and kept out of their children’s lives.
