NA leader hosts UNDP, UNICEF representatives

The top legislator was speaking at a reception in Hanoi on August 15 for Kamal Malhotra, UN Resident Coordinator and UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s Resident Representative, and Youssouf Adbel-Jelil, the UN Children Fund’s (UNICEF)’s Representative for Vietnam.

Vietnam was the first country in Asia to ratify the UN Convention on the Children’s Right in 1990. The country has come up with specific measures to ensure children’s rights, including building its legal system and the establishment of a National Committee on Children, Ngan told her host.

The Vietnam NA has regularly supervised the implementation of the Child Law 2016, while continuing to research theoretical, scientific and realistic foundations to consider the change in defining the age of children, Ngan said.

Vietnam has a clear legal system aimed at protecting the rights of children and adolescents, enabling them to fully develop their physical and mental health and morality, Ngan said.

Kamal Malhotra congratulated Vietnam on being the first country in Asia and second in the world to adopt the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (in 1990). Since then, the NA and relevant agencies of Vietnam have redoubled efforts to protect and take care of children.

Adbel-Jelil also spoke of his appreciation for Vietnam’s special policies to protect citizens aged between 16-18 years old, while also praising the NA’s role in safeguarding and caring for children.

The Vietnamese Government has shown strong determination in the work, evidenced through the national online conference on August 6 on the protection of children against violence, abuse, and risks to their life and health, he noted.

The UNICEF representative expressed his delight at the partnership between UNICEF and the NA of Vietnam, pledging to his organization’s continued financial support to the cooperation process, to which UNICEF will place its priority in 2019.