VIET NAM: National Laws

Summary: General overview of Viet Nam's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.

National laws on children's rights

Status of the CRC in national law
Article 6 of the Law on the conclusion, accession to and implementation of treaties provides that ratified treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, take precedence over conflicting national legislation.  In addition, under article 76 of the Law, the National Assembly Standing Committee has the competence to interpret treaties that contravene national law, and can do so on its own initiative or at the request of certain senior legal authorities.  National courts should in theory be able to cite and enforce the CRC, although it is not clear whether this has happened.

Constitution: Chapter V of the Constitution of Viet Nam contains a number of rights provisions that apply regardless of age, but a small number that specifically address the rights of children can be found throughout the Constitution:

• Art. 36(5): creates a duty for mass organisations, particularly the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, social organisations, economic organisations, families and schools to educate youth, teenagers and children
• Art. 40: provides that it is the responsibility of the State, society, the family and the citizen to ensure the care and protection of mothers and children, and to carry into effect the population programme and family planning
• Art. 59(6): requires the State and society to create the necessary conditions for “handicapped” children and other children in particularly difficult circumstances to enjoy appropriate general and vocational education
• Art. 64(4): creates a duty for parents to bring up their children as good citizens and for children and grandchildren to show respect to and look after their parents and grandparents
• Art. 64(5): provides that the State and society shall recognise no discrimination among children
• Art. 65: provides that children shall enjoy protection, care and education from the family, the State and society

Legislation: There is no comprehensive or consolidated Children's Act in national law, though there are thematic Laws that cover significant areas of the law in relation to children. Relevant legislation includes, but is by no means limited to:

• The Law on Child Protection, Care and Education 2004
• The Youth Law 2005
• The Criminal Code
• The Law on Criminal Procedure
• The Civil Code
• The Law on Civil Procedures 2005
• The Labour Code
• The Law against Human Trafficking 2011
• The Law on Adoption 2010
• The Law on Nationality 2008
• The Law on Education 2005
• The Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control 2006
• The Law on Gender Equality 2006
• The Law on Legal Support 2006
• The Law on Universalisation of Primary Education 1991
• The Law on Marriage and Family 2000

Legal Research
The Vietnamese National Assembly (Quốc Hội) maintains an official website in Vietnamese and English (http://www.na.gov.vn/#Ie8UnU7o4iXJ), and new legislation is published online in Vietnamese via the Official Gazette (http://congbao.chinhphu.vn/).  The Ministry of Justice maintains an online database of national legislation in English and Vietnamese (http://moj.gov.vn/vbpq/en/pages/vbpq.aspx), and the Asian Legal Information Institute publishes legislation in English (http://www.asianlii.org/vn/legis/laws/). The Constitution is available in English through the International Constitutional Law Project (http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/vm00000_.html). In addition, the GlobaLex project at New York University has published a guide to legal research in Viet Nam (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Vietnam1.htm), and both the World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/vn/) and the U.S. Law Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/vietnam.php) provide access to a selection of legal and governmental resources.

Case Law
CRC Jurisprudence
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national law that references the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Case Law Research
The website of the Supreme People's Court publishes limited information on case law in Vietnamese (http://www.toaan.gov.vn/), and a parallel English version of the site is under construction.

Compliance with the CRC
In its 2012 Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child welcomed the adoption of legislation on the protection of children, but noted that many areas of national law remained inconsistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee highlighted the slow pace of legal reform as a significant problem, and noted that the areas of national law regarding the definition of the child and juvenile justice fell short of the principles and provisions of the Convention.

In depth analysis
The Committee also raised a number of specific concerns with regards to the inconsistencies between national law and the Convention. Of particular concern was the national juvenile justice system; the Committee noted that there was an absence of juvenile courts, juvenile justice legislation applied only to children under 16 years of age, there were few alternatives to detention for children convicted of offences, and there were limited reintegration programmes for children in conflict with the law. The Committee urged the State to reform its juvenile justice system to protect all children under 18 years of age, including by expediting current legal reform projects regarding the Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes.

In a related area, the Committee expressed serious concern about children in drug detention centres, including allegations of ill-treatment and forced labour. The Committee urged the State to reform its legislation to ensure that forced labour is effectively prohibited, ensure that all allegations of torture or ill-treatment are properly investigated and prosecuted where appropriate, and institute an easily accessible mechanism with the authority to decide on complaints.

The Committee also expressed concern that current laws on sexual exploitation and trafficking had not adequately combated the exploitation of children and risked treating children as criminals rather than victims. The Committee urged the State to combat child prostitute and trafficking by amending and enforcing the law as well as ensuring that all forms of sexual abuse addressed by the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child trafficking are expressly criminalised in domestic law.

Current legal reform projects
In its 2012 report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the State party indicated that it intended to amend the Law on Child Protection, Care and Education 2004, the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.