RTCCD proposes to amend law on child

After studying the Law on Child proposition which was deliberated at a law revising workshop on 29/9/2015 in Da Nang, RTCCD has made a proposal to the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Education, Children and Adolescents, who is responsible for examining the Proposition, asking for verifying two amendments below. This proposal had received consent from participants of Revising Child Law to Promote Early Childhood Development and Child right Protection Monitoring Conference which was organized by RTCCD and Evidence Based Health Policy Development Advocacy Coalition (EBHPD) on 6/10/2015 in Hanoi.

Care for child comprehensive development in the early years

Rationale: Scientific achievement of the Century XXI has underlined that child development in the early years is a foundation for effective economic development and sustainable community development. All the care for children from family, community, and society must count towards an ultimate goal of Child comprehensive development in the early years.

Issue: The existing Law on Child is not constructed on the fundamentals of contemporary child development scientific concepts and has not made basis to build legal frame for family, community, and society to best invest in child comprehensive development.

Proposed amendment:

• To add to Chapter I, Article 5 (Glossary) the following terms: (1) Child development; (2) Early years, Core developmental stage, Sensitive periods in child developmental stages; (3) Child comprehensive development
• To add to Chapter II (Child rights and duties) a new right: Children reserve the prioritized right to be taken care of for comprehensive development in early years.
• The new right will be considered central to adjust related contents in the Proposition in order to ensure that the logical foundation for Law on Child is based on child development science of the Century XXI.

Child right protection monitoring mechanism

Rationale: Managerial science has proved that efficient monitoring takes place when and only when it is done independently, regularly, in high quality and effective execution of sanction for monitoring’s outcomes. For child development, the monitoring process must involve the participation of children or their representatives.

Issue: The existing Law on Child has not made clear about the necessity for independent governance and implementation in monitoring process; and has not met the realistic requirements of a child right protection transparent mechanism.

Proposed amendment: To add to Chapter I (General regulations) a new Article: “The principles of child rights violation monitoring and evaluation framework”, in which clearly stated: “Any organization that assumes the responsibility of child right protection monitoring and evaluation must perform this function upholding the principles of independent monitoring with the participation of child rights expert and representatives from agencies for rights of the child”.