Vietnam has achieved many achievements and seriously implemented international commitments on children's rights.

Children's rights are everything children need to live and grow up in a healthy and safe way. It ensures that children are not only recipients of love and care from adults, but also active participants in the development process. Protecting, caring for,educating , and ensuring children's rights to live safely and happily is a guarantee for the country's sustainable future development.

On November 20, 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and opened it for signature, ratification and accession by countries under Resolution No. 44/25.

It is the most comprehensive statement of the rights of the child ever made and the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. The UNCRC entered into force on 2 September 1990.

[caption id="attachment_577489" align="alignnone" width="804"] Vietnam always fulfills its international commitments on children's rights. (Photo: Propaganda Magazine)[/caption]

Vietnam always fulfills international commitments on children's rights.

Vietnam was the first country in Asia and the second country in the world to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child on February 20, 1990.

Over the past 30 years, as a member state of the UNCRC, Vietnam has fulfilled its international commitments. In addition, Vietnam has also demonstrated the responsibility and seriousness of a member state in periodically reporting on the implementation of the UNCRC, affirming the determination and efforts of the Vietnamese Government in ensuring the best rights of children and resolving issues related to children.

On December 27, 2022, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund in Vietnam (UNICEF) organized a workshop to introduce the Recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the 5th and 6th national reports of Vietnam.

At the workshop, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha said that the CRC Committee highly appreciated Vietnam's process of preparing the report as well as responding to the list of issues of concern of the Committee and participating in serious and responsible dialogue.

CRC Committee members welcomed Vietnam's achievements in the process of developing laws, policies and measures to promote and protect children's rights. The process of developing the national report involved the participation of ministries and sectors responsible for implementing children's rights to prepare for dialogue with the CRC Committee.

During the meeting, CRC Committee members raised hundreds of questions for Vietnam. The Vietnamese delegation also exchanged in a frank, open, focused and very complete spirit with CRC Committee members.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha, the fact that CRC Committee members raised so many questions also showed their interest in the achievements as well as the challenges that Vietnam is facing, aiming to help Vietnam do better in promoting and protecting children's rights in the spirit of the United Nations Convention.

"It can be said that the general assessment of the report results and the results achieved this time by Vietnam is very positive," said Ms. Ha.

The Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs affirmed that the Vietnamese Government always carefully considers and develops plans to implement the Committee's recommendations through action programs, socio-economic development plans, and projects on children.

"Vietnam has shown itself to be an active and responsible member country in implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, considering it an important task in implementing the Party and State's proactive foreign policy of active international integration.

Through this dialogue session, many lessons, solutions and models of Vietnam were shared with members of the CRC Committee and other countries in the process of promoting and ensuring children's rights," Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha emphasized.

The United Nations highly appreciates Vietnam's achievements.

Also at the workshop, Director of the Department of Children (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) Dang Hoa Nam added that in the 5th and 6th reporting periods, the CRC Committee assessed that Vietnam achieved comprehensive results.

Firstly, the CRC Committee highly appreciated Vietnam's progress in developing and amending laws, especially the 2016 Law on Children compared to the 2004 Law on Child Protection, Care and Education.

In particular, the 2016 Law on Children has more broadly defined the contents of children's rights, and the scope of application of most provisions has also been expanded (children's rights are not only guaranteed for Vietnamese citizens living in Vietnam).

The 2016 Law on Children also provides a clearer mechanism for planning and monitoring the implementation of children's rights at all levels of management, while ensuring the allocation of appropriate resources for ensuring the implementation of children's rights and addressing children's issues.

In addition, the 2016 Law on Children provides for a new inter-sectoral coordination organization for children established by the Prime Minister to direct, coordinate and harmonize the handling of issues related to children as well as the implementation of children's rights. The law also includes a new chapter on children's participation rights (Chapter V) and more detailed provisions on child protection at three levels and alternative care (Chapter IV).

The 2016 Law on Children also provides a more complete definition and regulation of groups of "children in special circumstances," shifting from a situational and individual approach to a systemic approach, fully and continuously responding to prevention methods, providing early intervention and response services based on the individual needs of children and families.

Second, the CRC Committee also highly appreciated the efforts of the Vietnamese Government in linking economic development with social development and sustainable development.

The Government not only focuses on economic development but also on social development, including issues closely related to children such as education and training, healthcare, poverty reduction... to ensure human rights in general and children's rights in particular.

Third, the CRC Committee is concerned with new issues related to children's rights in the context of many changes. For example, climate change and the global economic recession have significantly affected people's livelihoods and lives as well as the implementation of issues related to children and the implementation of children's rights in Vietnam.

Especially since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic that has occurred worldwide has seriously affected Vietnam's economic and social development, including ensuring the implementation of children's rights.

Director Dang Hoa Nam reaffirmed that Vietnam's active participation in the CRC Committee's dialogue mechanism and implementation of the CRC Committee's recommendations are very meaningful to the implementation of children's rights in Vietnam.

First of all, Vietnam's serious participation in the CRC Committee's dialogue mechanism demonstrates that Vietnam has responsibly fulfilled its obligations as a member state of the UNCRC.

Through the process of consultation and development of national reports, dialogue with the CRC Committee, review, approval and implementation of recommendations through the Government's Action Program, Vietnam has demonstrated itself to be an active and responsible member country in implementing the UNCRC, contributing to the implementation of the Party and State's proactive foreign policy of active international integration.

The second meaning is that through this process, Vietnam has shared with members of the CRC Committee and with other countries its experience in promoting and ensuring children's rights.

At the same time, during the implementation process, Vietnam also had the opportunity to discuss with the Committee about issues and challenges that need to be overcome, and at the same time learn from many international experiences to be able to do this work better domestically.

Besides, Vietnam also learned a lot of experience to incorporate into plans, strategies and specific measures so that the implementation process can better ensure children's rights in Vietnam.

[caption id="attachment_577490" align="alignnone" width="1187"] Head of the Child Protection Program, United Nations Children's Fund in Vietnam (UNICEF) Le Hong Loan speaks at the workshop introducing the Recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child on Vietnam's 5th and 6th national reports. (Photo: Dan Tri)[/caption]

Further promoting the implementation of children's rights in Vietnam

Ms. Le Hong Loan, Head of Child Protection Program of UNICEF in Vietnam, acknowledged the achievements that Vietnam has made in implementing children's rights.

"Over the past 30 years, we have made significant progress in realizing children's rights, such as reducing the mortality rate of children under 1 year old and under 5 years old; increasing vaccination rates, improving health care; increasing the rate of children going to school; and perfecting the legal system and policies to protect children from violence and abuse," Ms. Loan summarized.

In addition, Ms. Loan also expressed concerns about inequalities in the enjoyment of rights of vulnerable children, especially ethnic minority children, children with disabilities, children affected by migration issues...

The Head of the Child Protection Program said that the 5th and 6th reports are a comprehensive framework to review and re-evaluate the implementation of children's rights, contribute to the development of policies, laws and plans and further promote the implementation of children's rights in Vietnam.

The representative of UNICEF Vietnam also emphasized the importance of measures to improve the implementation of children's rights in Vietnam, and emphasized key issues that need specific actions such as amending the definition of "children" in the Law on Children; increasing the budget for child protection services; improving the quality of education and addressing inequality in access to public services, especially for vulnerable children...

"Implementing children's rights is UNICEF's mission. We are committed to continuing to work with the Government of Vietnam, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, ministries, sectors, organizations, people and children of Vietnam to discuss and develop action plans to effectively implement the recommendations of the CRC Committee," said Ms. Loan.

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