Hong Kong Watch urges United Nations to protect children in Hong Kong
Today, Hong Kong Watch made a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Office’s Committee on the Rights of the Child ahead of its review of the People’s Republic of China, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), highlighting the systemic impact of Hong Kong’s national security legislation on children’s rights in the HKSAR.
The submission addresses the treatment of children detained under the Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNSL), documenting patterns of physical and sexual abuse in juvenile correctional facilities, the routine use of solitary confinement, and the absence of any independent international body with monitoring access to these institutions. It draws on a September 2025 report by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation, “We Were Made to Suffer,” which found juvenile facilities to be “especially notorious for excessive violence,” including cases of minors subjected to prolonged assault while in custody.
The submission also sets out how compulsory national security education, now taught from age six across 27 subjects, has been accompanied by the widespread removal of books from school and public libraries, including children’s titles, and the disqualification of teachers over lesson content and personal social media posts. It further highlights how the HKNSL has extended to children’s online activity, citing the December 2025 sentencing of a 16-year-old to three and a half years in prison over online meetings and social media posts, and Hong Kong Watch’s November 2024 report, Invisible Decline: Violations of Digital Rights in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Watch’s submission urges the Committee to treat these patterns, spanning detention conditions, education, and online expression, as a systemic issue under Articles 3, 12, 13, 17, 19, 37, and 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, rather than isolated incidents. It calls on the Committee to request disaggregated data from the State party on the number of children currently detained on national security or sedition-related charges, and to recommend independent international monitoring access to Hong Kong’s juvenile correctional facilities.
Please click here to read the full submission.
Megan Khoo, Policy Director of Hong Kong Watch, said:
“The Hong Kong government’s use of national security legislation against children, whether through imprisonment, curriculum control, or online surveillance, represents a systemic failure to uphold its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We urge the Committee to press the State party for full transparency on the number of children affected and to recommend independent oversight of Hong Kong’s juvenile detention facilities and classrooms.”
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