Children’s rights bring challenges for Vietnam

The major challenge to Vietnam in the implementation of children’s rights is probably making sure that no children are left behind.

Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Vietnam, Lottay Sylwander made the remark at a discussion on children’s rights hosted by the Swedish Embassy in Hanoi on Dec.13

This risk can be seen clearly in children of ethnic minorities and in remote and mountainous areas, poor children and children with disabilities, she said.

UNICEF’s analysis of the situation of children in Vietnam in 2010 showed that Vietnam had made tremendous progress for its children in a remarkably short period of time, with an unprecedented reduction in under-five mortality rates and poverty.

However, segments of child and adolescent populations in Vietnam continued to live in conditions of deprivation and exclusion, and ethnic minorities were among the poorest in the country, benefiting the least from the country’s economic growth, according to the report.

Vietnam’s concentrated efforts to fulfill the Millennium Development Goal on clean water supply and sanitation will improve children’s health and remove an obstacle for the country in the implementation of children’s rights, said the UNICEF representative.

At the discussion, representatives from the National Assembly’s Culture, Education, Youth and Children Committee, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and the Vietnam Association for Protection of Children’s Rights said that there many challenges the country is facing in implementing children’s rights. They include the awareness of families and society, inequality of development opportunities for poor children, risks in living environment and the application of the UN Convention on Children Rights to Vietnam’s legal framework and reality.

They also suggested measures, with a focus on promoting communications combined with improving skills for communicators, to raise community awareness, improve the legal system and policies to ensure harmony between the Children’s Rights Convention and Vietnam’s reality as well as increasing the role of social organisations.

According to Head of the Children’s Protection and Care Department under the MOLISA Nguyen Hai Huu, these solutions should be done synchronously, requiring time and widespread community participation.

Save the Children US Country Director Pham Sinh Huy said in the context where Vietnam joins the group of middle-income countries, children’s voices should continue to be heard.

Representatives of Vietnamese students from Son Tay senior secondary school, Hanoi expressed their wish for a reduction of theory-focused school subjects and for additional of more subjects that helped improve their living skills.

They also hoped for a safe environment for children to avoid child labour abuse, child trafficking and violence to children.

If they could change the world, the children also expected that children’s rights would be implemented equally./.

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Support available for firms employing ethnic minorities

Workers with the Son La Rubber Joint-Stock Company, most of whom are from ethnic minorities, prepare seedlings for new rubber plantations in mountainous Son La Province's Thuan Chau District. Businesses employing ethnic minorities are tipped to receive Government support. — VNA/VNS Photo Dieu ChinhToi

HA NOI — Enterprises in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region employing workers from ethnic minorities will be entitled to receive State support from January 1.

As part of Government Decision 75, the State will give targeted financial aid to agroforestry companies, management boards of protected and specific-use forests and to non-state enterprises which use land for the manufacture of agro-forestry products.

"The aim is to create jobs for ethnic minorities and help reduce poverty," said Director of the Tay Nguyen's Gia Lai Province Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Ngoc Thach.

He said that although vocational centres in Tay Nguyen region had trained more than 50,000 people from ethnic minorities in the past three years, most could not find proper jobs.

To improve the situation, the State will now pay all workers up to VND3 million (US$150) for three-month vocational training courses.

In a further incentive for business, companies where 30-50 per cent of workers belong to ethnic minorities will receive a 50 per cent reduction in land rent for one year. If this rate is more than 50 per cent, companies will then be exempt from land rent for twelve months.

The State also plans to pay the social, medical and unemployed insurance for ethnic minority workers within five years.

Tran Tam, director of the Krong Ana Coffee Company in Dac Lac Province, said that 350 of 475 workers in his company belonged to ethnic minorities.

"In previous years, few enterprises employed ethnic minority workers because they did not adapt to the company working environment and only worked for a short time," he said.

Tam added that he believed the new decree and proper training would result in more people from these groups finding jobs in the future.

Foreign-owned enterprises will not receive State support under the new scheme. — VNS

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Land key to ethnic settlement

A corner of the resettlement area for Gia Rai ethic minority people in Chu Se District in the Central Highland province of Gia Lai. Ethnic minority people still find it difficult to give up their moving around to find cultivation land because there are not many better alternatives. — VNA/VNS Photo Sy Huynh

HCM CITY— Efforts to help ethnic minorities adopt a sedentary lifestyle and stop shifting cultivation have not been effective so far because viable alternatives have not been provided, a new report says.

This conclusion was presented in a report prepared by the ministries of Finance; Agriculture and Rural Development; and Planning and Investment in co-operation with the National Assembly's Nationalities Council.

The report follows a two-month supervision of the assistance policy being implemented to help ethnic minority people improve their lives.

Limited capital, a shortage of land for settlement, cultivation and lack of clarity about the ethnic minorities eligible to receive the Government's support were recognised as major challenges in implementing the assistance policies, the report said.

The policy has been applied in 24 provinces that have local residents practising shifting cultivation.

A sum of VND572 billion (US$29 million) was allocated to assist an estimated 9,000 households. However, the number of households needing assistance was later revised to 30,000.

"We should define clearly who really need assistance as well as who are wandering cultivation farmers," said Ksor Phuoc, head of the council.

According to the report, the construction of resettlement areas is very slow with only 42 per cent or 126 out of 297 projects completed so far. By the end of last year, only four provinces had partly finished their work after two years of implementing the policy.

It was hard to find flat land in mountainous provinces to build resettlement areas and the State budget was not able to provide the planned capital for these projects, the report said.

"There are so many difficulties, especially in finding agricultural and resettlement land, along with shortage of capital for infrastructure construction and production," said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Minh Quang.

He said that if local authorities were not able to prepare good resettlement areas and land for cultivation, ethnic minorities would continue to practise shifting cultivation.

"We should focus on each detail of a project to resettle local residents and capital should be provided from the beginning of the year," said Ha Hung, deputy head of the nationalities council. — VNS

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UN report cites rising inequalities among Vietnamese children

A United Nations report on August 31 about the situation of children in Vietnam called for the country to make greater efforts in dealing with child poverty, especially among ethnic minorities and rural communities.

The 300-page report, which analyzes the socio and economic conditions of about 30 million children, is considered the most comprehensive analysis in a decade. It suggests that the country’s children are facing increased inequalities, with segments of the child and adolescent population in Vietnam continuing to live in “deprivation and exclusion.”

More improvements must be made in areas including hygiene, sanitation, child poverty, nutrition, child protection, and education quality and management.

“We have an obligation to guarantee to each and every child the ‘highest obtainable’ standards of health, education, protection and participation,” said Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF Country Representative.

The UNICEF chief in Vietnam said child poverty should no longer be seen as children living in low-income households, but instead “as a deprivation in several areas such as health, education, recreation, water and shelter.”

Under this new approach, 62 percent of ethnic minority children are considered poor compared with 22 percent of the Kinh and ethnic Chinese, according to the report.

Poverty is also attributed to a lack of education, with much lower enrollment and attendance rates for HIV-infected and disabled children, and ethnic minorities, who have very limited access to education in their mother tongue.

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Vietnamese children still deprived, says UNICEF

HA NOI — The lives of Vietnamese children have improved remarkably, yet segments of the child and adolescent population continue to live in conditions of deprivation and exclusion while ethnic minorities remain among the poorest in the country.

These were some of the findings of the UNICEF "An analysis of the situation of children in Viet Nam-2010" report, the summary of which was presented in Ha Noi yesterday.

The analysis was carried out between 2008 and 2010 by the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Government and represents an important milestone in documenting, analysing, and understanding the situation of children in the country. The document focused on child survival rates, child development and education, child protection and child participation.

The document, adopting a human rights-based approach, is intended to serve as an up-to-date and comprehensive reference for all stakeholders involved in promoting childhood well being, and supports the development and implementation of policies and strategies to further realise the rights of Vietnamese children, according to Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF Viet Nam Representative.

"The analysis paints a very positive picture for children in Viet Nam. The country's strong economic growth and socio-economic policies have led to major improvements in all areas of children's lives", said Sylwander.

The analysis said that a comprehensive range of national policies, programmes, strategies, decisions and standards have been developed.

Meanwhile, Sylwander empha-sised the challenges that remained. "The single most important message of the situation analysis relates to the need to reduce disparities in outcomes for children. In particular, ethnic minority children, children with disabilities, children affected by HIV and AIDS all continue to suffer from unequal access to social services, threatening their ability to grow into healthy and productive members of Vietnamese society."

According to the analysis, infant and child mortality halved between 1990 and 2006, but disparities persist, with mortality rates being much higher among ethnic minorities, who are very poor and living in remote regions. The overall mortality rate was estimated at 75 per 100,000 in 2008 but remains four times that among ethnic minorities and those in remote rural, mountainous areas.

Significant improvements in recent years related to early childhood care and development have been seen, with primary school enrolment exceeding 90 per cent for all major groups except ethnic minorities, which stands at only 80 per cent.

Ethnic minority children face major obstacles in the attainment of a quality education caused by language barriers. Most of them do not speak Vietnamese when they start school, while their teachers lack skills in ethnic minority languages, the analysis found.

Dang Nam, deputy director of Bureau for Protection and Care of Children under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The analysis had pointed out challenges and difficulties facing Viet Nam in implementing effective programmes that ensure the survival, development and protection of all children in the country. —VNS

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