📝 OP-ED: Joint efforts needed to protect child rights: Expert

Hanoi (VNA) – Caring for and protecting the children is the responsibility of not a particular agency but the whole political system and society, ensuring that children get the best access to their rights, stated Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Child Rights.

In an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency, Hoa said that over the past 15 years, the association has given advice to the design of 18 legal documents, bills, policies, programmes and projects regarding children.

Leaders of the association have joined the National Assembly supervision groups on the implementation of policies and laws on the prevention and combat of child abuse in 12 out of 17 cities and provinces.

In the 2018-2023 period, the association received about 500 reports on violations of child rights, asking relevant agencies to verify and settle the cases and provide direct consultations and support to the victims and their families to protect the children’s legitimate rights, she said.

Hoa highlighted the association’s activities to popularise child rights and call for resources to support needy children, adding that it has so far mobilised about 475 billion VND (20.25 million USD) to assist millions of children. So far, the association's network has covered 41 cities and provinces nationwide, according to Hoa.

Regarding challenges in the caring for and protection of children, Hoa pointed to a lack of knowledge and skills of many people, citing a survey carried out by the association on more than 3,000 people as showing that only 4.7% of the total understood about children's right to be protected from violence, and 3.9% knew about children's right to be protected from sexual abuse.

Another challenge is child abuse in the online environment, along with other new problems such childhood obesity, she said, adding that child abuse has still happened, even in educational institutions. Particularly, children are still suffering from sexual abuse, by family members in one out of every five cases.

Hoa said that to improve the situation, it is necessary to renovate communication activities with the strengthened application of information technologies in the work.

For sensitive issues such as sexual abuse on children, it is crucial to find suitable approach, she added.

Hoa went on to say that although Vietnam has full legal regulations and policies on child protection and care in place, the implementation of the regulations and policies should be more effective.

She underlined the need to strengthen the movement of all people engaging in protecting children, while calling on all people to promote their personal strengths for the work, and increasing programmes to guide children to use the Internet safely and healthy.

As child protection and care has been integrated into the agenda of a number of associations in localities, the association suggests that localities continue to pay adequate attention to its affiliates and support them in performing their tasks.

Hoa said that in the coming time, the association will focus on promoting communications to raise public awareness of child rights, while continuing to provide consultations and support to children, especially abused ones, and raising its voice in necessary cases to protect the rights of children./.