Only two of four children's rights covered in current Act: Expert

With Malaysia striving to become a fully developed nation, the proposed amendments to the current Child Act 2001 by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry were timely, said Early Childhood Care and Education Council (ECCEC) president, Prof Datuk Chiam Heng Keng.

She noted that the current Act only focused on two of the four rights of children enunciated in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), and that is survival and protection.

The other two areas to be included in the amendments are development and participation.

"Development is particularly important for children. The other purpose is to rectify the weaknesses of the Act and to strengthen the protection of children.

"The framework needs to consider our culture. But this doesn't mean that we cling onto traditions that are harmful to the children's survival, protection, development and participation.

"The nation's economic status, the needs of parents and society as well as other pertinent factors also need to be considered," she said.

She said the issue needs to be handled delicately with the amendments' main objective being to rectify discrepancies, weaknesses and taking into account the recommendations by various parties.

The guiding principle to work the amendments, she said, was to ensure the best interest of the child is top priority.

"We need to help them develop to their utmost potential. But parents do need to be assisted as well, especially those who are financially challenged in raising their children," said Chiam, who is a former University of Malaysia (UM) Social Psychology professor and UM founder of the Bachelor and Master in Early Childhood Education.

She said the CRC was very clear and transparent on the rights of both parents and children.

Under the CRC, Article 5 states that the States Parties (the government) shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents and the extended family to provide guidance for the child which is appropriate to her or his evolving capacities.

There are other articles which provide for the well-being of the child such as protection from abuse and neglect (Article 19), rights of disabled children (Article 23), rights to education (Article 28), sexual exploitation (Article 34), sale, trafficking and abduction (Article 35) and torture and deprivation of liberty (Article 37).

Chiam said, the penalties for parents who are convicted, would vary.

"It will depend on the nature of the abuse and neglect. For minor cases, counselling and community services should be appropriate but for serious offences such as abuse resulting in the child being physically and or mentally maimed, and death, proper justice has to be carried out," she said.

Repeat offenders, she said, should not be treated lightly.

"There are parents who play around with the leniency of the legislation, for example, when they don't take counselling seriously and perceive it as a means of getting away from punishment."

Having said that, the remodeling of the Child Act was not all about punishment and fines, said Cham, but for the legislation to be holistic and wholesome.

Most importantly, enforcement needs to be tight. If not, all efforts to better the law would be pointless.

On Jan 18, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim announced that the Child Act 2001 was in the midst of being amended, with more than 70 percent of changes to take place.

She said the amendments were to be tabled in Parliament by June, latest.

The issue stirred controversy when the minister stated that caning of children could be an offence, under the new Act.