Child Safeguarding Charter

Say “NO” to Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Neglect, and Psychological Abuse

Our staff and associates should:
Respect the rights, integrity, and dignity of children regardless of their differences in age, sex, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, race, language, religious belief, ability, disability, health, socio-economic or cultural background, or any other circumstances.
Display high standards of professional behaviour at all times, providing a positive role model for children and young people.
Respond to any concerns, suspicions, incidents or allegations of actual or potential abuse to a child or young person, and report in accordance with established procedures.
Cooperate fully and confidentially in any investigation of concerns or allegations of abuse to children.
Our staff and associates should not:
Hit, physically assault or physically abuse children including the use of corporal punishment or any harmful practices.
Engage in any form of sexual activity or develop physical/sexual relationships with service clients under the age of 18 regardless of the age of sexual consent in Hong Kong.
Use language which is intended to shame, humiliate, degrade or belittle the child, or otherwise offensive or abusive, sexually provocative, culturally insensitive, or otherwise perpetrate any form of emotional abuse.
Leave children unattended or unsupervised for an excessive or inappropriate timeframe that might result in harm or potential harm to them.
Use any computers, mobile phones, cameras, video or digital cameras or any such medium to exploit, harass or bully children; or to access, view, create, download or distribute child pornography, or any other abusive images of children.

The above is not an exhaustive or exclusive list. The principle is that staff and associates should avoid actions or behavior which may constitute poor practice or potentially abusive behavior. Children should also be EMPOWERED about their rights, what is acceptable and unacceptable, and what they can do if there is a problem.

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Appendix

Why do we need a Child Safeguarding Charter?

All children have the right to be protected from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Sadly, many of these acts are carried out by people children know and should be able to trust; or by people in places that they should feel safe.

Keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility. For this reason, organizations and professionals who work with children must do their part and ensure that their policies and practices reflect this responsibility. A Child Safeguarding Charter helps organizations formulate the code of conduct for its child related workers as an initial step to develop a Child Safeguarding Policy. We hope to draw the community’s awareness, gather support and join hands to protect children.

Together, the community join hands to create a violence-free and child friendly environment for children.

Advantages

Protects Children:
Establish rules and raise awareness to keep children safe by creating a child safe organisation.

Protects Staff and Associates:
Staff and associates have better awareness and are clear on expectations on their behavior with children, and what to do when there are concerns related to the safety of children.

Protects organizations, companies, schools, or institutions:
Reputation, integrity and credibility is protected and enhanced.

Who is a child?

In line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a child is defined as any person under the age of 18.

What is Child Safeguarding Policy?

It is the Standards and Guidelines that set forth the responsibility that organizations / companies / schools / institutions have to make sure that their staff, associates, operations and programmes do no harm to children. The Policy also ensures that children are not exposed to harm and abuse as a result of their contact with the organization / company / school / institution.

Child Safeguarding Policy Standards
Policy

Make clear to everyone of the policy goals and that the policy applies to all of the organization’s staff and associates. It also outlines what measures are in place to respond when safeguarding concerns arise.

Procedures

Detail the steps to be carried out when there are concernsrelated to the safety of children so as to fulfil the policy. Policycommitments are integrated into existing organizational processes and systems and where necessary, new procedures should be introduced.

People & Culture

Clear responsibilities and expectations for staff and associates and support for them to understand and act accordingly. Key staff are designated at different levels as ‘focal points’ with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

Accountability

Measures and mechanisms in place for monitoring and regular review to ensure both upward and downward accountability in relation to child safeguarding. Progress,performance and lessons learnt are reported to key stakeholders.

Before we develop a full-fledged Child Safeguarding Policy, we need to agree on the Code of Conduct of our staff and associates to keep our children safe. This is the reason why we have developed this Child Safeguarding Charter to better explain the case so as to gather support in the community. We hope to have your support in this Charter, so better policies, systems, training and programs could be put into place to safeguard our over 1.1 million children population in Hong Kong.