Vietnam achieves remarkable outcomes in child protection

Vietnam has made important achievements in child care and protection through its special policies and priorities, National Assembly Vice Chairman Tong Thi Phong said at a workshop in the northern province of Bac Giang on August 27.

According to Phong, children protection is a common concern of humankind and the UN includes it in its millennium development goals.

Vietnam is honoured to be one of the first countries in Asia to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), he stressed, adding that the country has always given priority to protecting, caring for and educating children. It has made substantial progress in this area over the last 25 years.

The NA issued the 2013 Constitution and many important laws, which define that the State respects, ensures and protects human and civil rights, including children’s rights.

The Constitution strictly prohibits injuring, mistreating, abandoning and abusing children; child labour; and any acts that violate children’s rights. It also stipulates children’s rights to participate in child-related issues, she said.

Children’s rights and child-related issues are included in lawmaking, while the NA and agencies in localities pay more attention to supervising the implementation of the law on children’s rights, she noted.

However, Vietnam is meeting difficulties and limitations, as it still sees abused, mistreated and exploited children – especially girls, and those living in rural and disadvantaged areas, Phong said. Improving these situations requires more proper interest from the political system.

She underlined the need for Vietnam to make more efforts to assure the legitimate and inherent rights of its children.

Vietnam wishes to receive support to enhance people-elected agencies’ ability to build and supervise policies, promote campaigns to raise public awareness of children’s rights and assure that the country’s lawmaking adheres closely to the CRC, she said.

At the event, held by the NA Standing Committee’s Legislative Research Institute, representatives from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF in Vietnam, foreign embassies and organisations in Vietnam shared experience in supervising the implementation of children’s rights.

Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, Chief Representative of UNICEF in Vietnam, said his agency is honoured to work with the Vietnamese NA to organise workshops on building an independent mechanism for supervising children’s rights in Vietnam.

He promised that UNICEF will help Vietnam complete the work./.