Viet Nam Human Rights
Universal Children’s Day: A wake-up call on child rights violations
22/11/16
Despite enormous
progress realized for children since the adoption of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child in 1989, the rights of millions of children are being
violated every day, UNICEF said on November 20th 2016 as it marked Universal
Children’s Day.
“With conflicts, crises, and
crushing poverty putting millions of children’s lives and futures at risk in
the world, protecting child rights is more urgent than ever – and a critical
key to building stronger, more stable societies,” said Youssouf Abdel-Jelil,
UNICEF Representative in Viet Nam. “We need to stop these violations happening
around the world by investing more in reaching the most vulnerable children, or
pay the price in slower growth, greater inequality, and less stability.”
Viet Nam was the first country
in the region and the second country in the world to ratify the CRC in 1990.
The world’s most rapidly and widely ratified human rights treaty, the CRC sets
out a basic, universal standard for a healthy, protected, decent childhood for
every human being. Since ratification, the lives of millions of children in
Viet Nam have been improved and the country has made steady progress in poverty
reduction, school enrollment, maternal mortality and child mortality.
However, the progress have not
been shared equally. Children from ethnic minority groups in remote mountainous
areas are twice more likely to experience various and serious forms of
deprivations than those from the Kinh majority. Prevalence of infant mortality,
early marriage and lack of access to sanitation and education are much higher
among ethnic minority children.
The recent enactment of the
Child Law by Viet Nam’s National Assembly is in many ways a genuine
breakthrough in the protection of children from violence by introducing for the
first time an approach that covers both the prevention of violence before it
happens, and responding to violence when it does happens. However, the Child
Law still considers a child to be someone under 16, rather than the age
specified in the CRC of under 18 which leaves the 16-18 year olds unprotected.
UNICEF will continue to call for the age of the Child Law to be raised to 18.
Despite marked progress for
children globally in recent decades, nearly six million children still die
every year from preventable causes – and children from poor households are
twice as likely as children from wealthier homes to die before reaching their
fifth birthdays.
Nearly 50 million children have
been uprooted - 28 million of them displaced by conflict. Children trapped in
besieged areas – including Syria, Iraq, and northern Nigeria are at greater
risk of having their rights violated, with their schools, hospitals and homes
under attack. Globally, around 250 million live in countries affected by
conflict.
Almost 385 million children
live in extreme poverty and over a quarter of a billion school-aged children
are not learning. Nearly 300 million children live in areas with the most toxic
levels of outdoor air pollution – six or more times higher than international
guidelines.
Next month UNICEF will mark 70
years of working to bring life-saving aid, long-term support and hope to
children whose lives and futures are endangered by conflict, crises, poverty,
inequality and discrimination.
“Every child has the right to
grow up healthy and strong, to be educated and protected, and to have a fair
chance in life,” said Mr Abdel-Jelil. “Our commitment to child rights must be
matched with action for every child.”
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All comments [ 10 ]
The period of childhood is a phase in which the human being is more vulnerable because they have not finished developing physically or mentally.
The principle of the superior interest of children is also tied to the necessity to protect children.
All the decisions regarding children have to be taken in the exclusive interest of each child to ensure their immediate and future well being.
All the decisions and acts must imperatively guarantee the child rights. The superior interest of children is subordonated to a protection of the child.
Child protection must be ensured by the parents and the community which surround them, then by the states.
The well being of each child can not be obtained in the same way. Each child is a unique human with specific needs.
In order to ensure the child’s well being and superior interest the states must establish a protection system for the child.
In order to set up an effective protection system, the States must first ratify the main principal international standards of protection of children’s rights and then implement it in their legislation.
An efficient protection is essential to the children’s well-being because, as vulnerable people, they are more exposed to problems of mistreatment, exploitation, discrimination and violence.
Around the world children are being abused, beaten, violated and exploited.
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