Vietnam co-chairs int’l seminar on children at UNHRC session

Vietnam, Kenya, Portugal, and Uruguay jointly held a seminar on “Investing in children and their families to avoid unnecessary separation” in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 22, on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s ongoing 30th session.

Delegates shared multi-level experience and situations in intensifying social welfare to children and their families with a view to reducing the number of children abandoned by family break-ups or poverty.

Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh, Head of Vietnam’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and other international organisations, spoke of the attention paid by countries and organisations to children’s unnecessary separation from their parents due to different socio-economic reasons.

He shared Vietnam’s efforts to protect and care for abandoned and homeless children.

The country’s 2004 Law on child protection, care and education devotes a chapter to regulate protection and care measures for children living in difficulties, including orphans and abandoned ones.

Besides, the Vietnamese Government has also approved five-year plans to intensify care for disadvantaged children and those living with HIV, he stated.

According to Thanh, approximately 350,000 underprivileged children are receiving monthly allowances, free school textbooks and tuitions, vocational training, health insurance, and free-of-charge medical treatment.

The ambassador affirmed that Vietnam will exert more efforts to ensure all children are cared well and is willing to coordinate closely with countries and international organisations in this issue.-VNA