THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To ratify the Program of Action for protection of children with special circumstances in the 1999-2002 period with the following main contents:

1. Objectives of the Program

a/ General objective: To create a strong change of concept and action in the entire society about the protection of children. To prevent, gradually reduce and eventually solve in a fundamental way by the year 2002 the question of children wandering in search of a living; children working in heavy and noxious conditions; children who are abused of their life, health, dignity and honor; and juvenile delinquency.

b/ Concrete objectives:

- To prevent, gradually reduce and eventually solve in a fundamentally way by the year 2002 the question of children wandering in search of a living. To solve in a fundamental way by the year 2002 the question of children under 15 years old having to work in heavy, noxious and dangerous conditions.

- To prevent, gradually reduce and eventually reduce fundamentally the abuse of the dignity and honor of children and sexual abuse of children especially for commercial purpose; to organize education and medical treatment and reintegration of these children into the community.

- To check the spread, to gradually reduce and eventually eradicate by the year 2002 the use of drugs among children.

- To struggle, to check, to gradually reduce the crimes against children and crimes in the child age group. To reduce fundamentally by the year 2002 the serious offences among children.

2. Main projects of the Program.

- Project 1: To prevent and settle the question of children wandering in search of a living and being abused of their labor. The main responsible agency is the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Coordinating agencies: the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, the Ministry of Public Security and related agencies.

- Project 2: To prevent children from being abused in their dignity and honor, from sexual abuse, especially for commercial purpose. The main responsible agency: The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Coordinating agencies: The Ministry of Public Security, the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women�s Union, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and related agencies.

- Project 3: To prevent and fight against the use of drugs among children. The main responsible agency: the National Commission for Drug Prevention and Combat. Coordinating agencies: the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Health, the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, the Commission for Ethnic Minorities and Mountain Regions, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women�s Union, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, and related agencies, mass organizations and social organizations.

- Project 4: To struggle to prevent and combat various kinds of abuse against children and criminality in the child age. The main responsible agency: the Ministry of Public Security. Coordinating agencies: the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women�s Union, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, and the related agencies, mass organizations and social organizations.

- Project 5: To organize the popularization, education and consultancy in different forms (such as popularization centers, education and consulting centers...) for the families and communities on the protection and care of children with special circumstances. The main responsible agency: the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children. Coordinating agencies: the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities and related agencies.

3. The budget for the realization of this Program shall be concretized for each component project.

Funding from the State budget shall be projected in the annual plans: through the national target programs (eradication of hunger, alleviation of poverty, employment, prevention and fight against crime, prevention and fight against HIV/AIDS, prevention and fight against drug abuse) for Projects 1, 2, 3 and 4; funding for the regular activities of the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, and the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities for Project 5.

Besides funding from the State budget, it is necessary to mobilize the funding from other sources in the country and abroad for the projects of the Program.

In particular, in 1999 the related ministries and branches and the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall take the initiative in providing funding for the component projects from the draft State budget already allocated to them.

4. Duration of the implementation of the Program: from 1999 to 2002.

Article 2.- Organization of implementation.

1. To assign to the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children the task of helping and coordinating with the Government in elaborating the plan, guiding, inspecting, supervising and summing up the situation of the implementation of the Program at the ministries, branches and localities as currently prescribed; to report annually to the Prime Minister on the situation of the implementation of the Program; to make a preliminary review in the year 2000 and the general review in the year 2002 on the implementation of this Program.

2. The agencies responsible for the component projects stipulated in Clause 2, Article 1 of this Decision shall have to elaborate and organize the implementation of the projects as currently stipulated. The People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to direct the implementation of the Program in the localities.

3. The ministries, branches and People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities which are asked to carry out a number of tasks in this Program shall have to organize the implementation of the related contents aimed at step by step deploying the Program; annually they shall report to the Prime Minister through the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children on the situation of the implementation of the Program as provided for by the State. Each locality shall elaborate its own program and plan of action to protect the children with special circumstances associated with the implementation of the plans of socio-economic development. The mass organizations and social organizations are asked to deploy the program in their spheres of activity and at the same time to take part in supervising the implementation of the programs of action of the different related echelons of the administration.

Article 3.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 4.- The ministers of: Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Public Security, Planning and Investment, Finance, the Minister-Head of the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, the heads of the related agencies, the presidents of the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decision

For the Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister

After nearly ten years implementing the Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children (1991), thanks to the enormous efforts of the Party, State and the entire people, the protection, care and education of children has recorded substantial progress in both concept, ideology, organization and in the improvement of the situation of the children, and has won the support and high appreciation of the international community. This has been clearly manifested in the rising percentage of children receiving all the six vaccines, safeguarded against infant tetanus, having reached primary education, organized to take part in cultural and recreational activities...

However, in recent years, the question of children wandering in search of a living, abused of their lives, health, dignity and honor and law-offending children has shown sign of increase and evolved in a complicated manner. These are children who suffer many injustices, who lack care and protection, run a high risk of being abused and are liable to bad consequences on their overall development, physically, intellectually, morally, mentally and socially. By the end of 1997, the whole country had around 16,000 wandering children concentrated mainly in major cities and tens of thousands of children having to work for a living in private enterprises, service establishments, small production establishments, craft villages or as hired labor for the families. Most worryingly is that a section of these children have to work in hard, noxious and dangerous conditions, unsafe for their lives. At present, the whole country has about 7,000 prostitutes, 15% of whom are girls under 16 years old. The number of rapes against children has not diminished (638 cases in 1996, 1,103 in 1997) and continues to develop in a complicated manner. The trafficking in women and children for illegal transportation abroad is taking place seriously. Among the persons bought and sold to abroad, 14.6% are children under 16 years old. In spite of many efforts in the prevention and fight against drug abuse among youth and adolescents, the use of heroin among students in both high schools and universities has not diminished but tends to increase in an intricate manner in the major cities and in the areas of free-living population. In 1997 nearly 4,000 children were listed as drug addicts. Juvenile delinquency tends to increase in both the number of cases and in the seriousness of the offences; robbery and murder, attacks causing physical wounds, public disturbances, or resistance against law enforcement personnel among children have become more and more frequent. In 1997 in the whole country, more than 8,500 children committed offences against law, and the courts at different levels tried 2,845 under-age accused.

The above situation stems from many causes but chiefly from socio-economic causes (such as the disparity of economic development among the various regions and areas, the increasing gap between rich and poor, lack of employment, lack of education, disunited or broken families, lack of family responsibility, decadence of morality among a number of persons...) as well as the inadequate concern and appropriate and balanced investment of the different branches and echelons to cater for the needs of children. The legal system is not yet synchronous, the enforcement of law is not yet strict, and there is the lack of guidance and inspection and supervision of the activities related to children. The prevention against abuse of children in the family, school and population community aimed at preventing and checking such abuse has not been given due attention.

In order to achieve the aim of the Resolution of the VIIIth Party Congress of caring for building up the human resource for the country right from the infancy (including care for the development while preventing all kinds of abuse) in order to carry out better the Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children, the resolutions of the different sessions of the Xth National Assembly and in response to the Plan of Action for special protection of children launched by the Children Fund of the UNICEF, the Declaration of the International Conference in Stockholm on the fight against sexual abuse of children for commercial purpose, the Declaration of the International Conference in Oslo on child labor aimed at preventing, gradually reducing and eventually solving in a fundamental way by the year 2002 the question of children wandering in search of a living, children having to work in heavy and noxious labor conditions, children being abused on their lives, health, dignity and honor and law- offending children, the Prime Minister has decided to carry out the "Program of action for protection of children with special circumstances in the 1999-2002 period" with the following objectives, measures and concrete plans of action:

I. OBJECTIVES AND MAIN PROJECTS OF THE PROGRAM

A. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAM

1. General objective: To create a strong switch of concept and action in the whole society about the protection of children. To prevent, gradually reduce and eventually solve substantially by the year 2002 the question of children wandering in search of a living, children having to work in hard and noxious conditions, children abused on their lives, health, dignity and honor and law offending children.

2. Concrete objectives:

- To prevent, gradually reduce and eventually solve in a fundamental way by the year 2002 the question of children wandering in search of a living. To settle fundamentally by the year 2002 the question of children under 15 years of age having to work in hard, noxious and dangerous conditions.

- To prevent, gradually reduce and eventually solve fundamentally by the year 2002 the question of children abused on their dignity and honor and sexually abused, especially for commercial purpose; to organize the education and medical treatment for and reintegration of these children into the community.

- To check the spread, gradually reduce and eventually eradicate by the year 2002 the use of drugs among children.

- To struggle to prevent, gradually reduce the kinds of crime of abusing children (such as murder of children, child rapes, kidnapping, traffic or swapping of children, inducement of children to use drugs, serious maltreatment of children...) and criminality in the child age. To fundamentally reduce by the year 2002 the commitment of serious crimes by children.

B. MAIN PROJECTS OF THE PROGRAM

- Project 1: To check and settle the question of children wandering in search of a living and the abuse of child labor.

- Project 2: To prevent the abuse of the dignity and honor of children, sexual abuse of children especially for commercial purpose.

- Project 3: To prevent and combat the use of drugs among children,

- Project 4: To struggle to prevent and combat the crimes against children and criminality in the child age.

- Project 5: To organize the popularization, education and consultancy in different forms (such as communication centers, education and consulting centers) for the families and communities on the protection and care for children with special circumstances.

II. MAIN SOLUTIONS

1. To elaborate, complement and perfect the legal system and policies on the protection of children, concentrating on elaborating draft laws for submission to the Xth National Assembly: the draft Law on Criminal Proceeding (amended); the Law on Marriage and the Family (amended), the Law on Protection, Care and Education of Children (amended)...

To elaborate and issue in time the regulatory and legal documents in order to direct the implementation of the above Laws right after they are adopted by the National Assembly. The ministries, branches and the People�s Committees in the localities should continue directing the implementation of the current regulatory and legal documents on the protection of children in order to make a vigorous progress in this work.

2. To step up the legal education. To organize the regular popularization and education and to launch widespread communication campaigns in the whole country as well as in key areas, key groups of the population with a view to raising their knowledge and sense of responsibility and the sense of duty of all branches, all echelons and communities and all families for the protection of children. To pay importance to guiding the families and communities in the education of children especially girls and other children in the 12-15 age group.

3. The agencies managing socio-economic programs (at the center and in the localities), the national target programs, especially the national target program (eradication of hunger, alleviation of poverty, employment, prevention and fight against crimes, prevention and fight against HIV-AIDS). It is necessary to bring the targets of this program into the above programs and to elaborate a support plan for the families with children with special circumstances and for the children with specially difficult circumstances themselves.

4. To mobilize the integrated strength of the entire society into the protection of children. To build a healthy living environment in society. To continue mobilizing the masses to build a movement of the entire population taking part in the protection of children. To build and implement the statute for coordination in protecting, caring for and educating children in the family, at the school and in the society. To encourage the establishment of the networks and interlinked and cooperative activities among the law enforcement agencies and specialized agencies with regard to children, the communication agencies, the mass organizations, the social organizations, the families, the economic units and charitable individuals.

5. To promote international cooperation in the protection of children on the principle of conforming with the national and international laws: to increase the mobilization of the international resources in support of the Program; to increase the exchange of information and experiences among the nations in the region and in the world on this work.

6. To build a mechanism of coordinating actions among branches, to build policies toward the forces engaged in social work, the network of volunteers working with the children at the grassroots. To raise the capacity of work of the agencies and mass organizations related to the strategy of protecting the children with special circumstances (including prevention, settlement, rehabilitation and reintegration into the community). To increase research on the objects and the strategy of protecting children.

III. ASSIGNMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES

1. The Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the related agencies in study to elaborate the strategy and propose policies of protecting children; study to work out the regulation for efficient inter-branch cooperation in the protection of children; promote international cooperation aimed at mobilizing resources and exchange of information and experiences in service of this task; assume the main responsibility and coordinate with related agencies, mass organizations and social organizations in surveying the real situation of children with special circumstances; popularize and multiply models of prevention and settlement of the questions of street children, children victims of labor abuse and sexual abuse and law-offending children; coordinate in organizing training and fostering courses for social workers dealing with children with special circumstances, and workers in the judiciary programs for minors.

2. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is requested to issue the Regulation on the setting up and management of the activities of the establishments for raising, caring, educating children with special circumstances, and reintegrating them into the social community; to study, elaborate and supplement the policies toward children with special difficulties and appropriate policies for social workers dealing with children with special circumstances; to broaden the forms of job training appropriate for children with special circumstances and children without conditions to continue to go to school (after finishing junior high school), create jobs for these children and reintegrate them into the social community.

3. The Ministry of Public Security is requested to coordinate actions with the international organizations in preventing the trafficking of drugs and of children in the country and their illegal transportation abroad; to coordinate with the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children to have a firm grasp of the situation of children with special circumstances in the communities; to direct and guide the education of law-offending children in the communities; to educate and train jobs for law-offending children at the detention centers and reeducation schools.

4. The Ministry of Planning and Investment is requested to assign annual budgets for the Program; to assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children and related agencies to mobilize other resources in the country and abroad to support the Program.

5. The Ministry of Finance is requested to assure enough and timely funding from the State budget for the related ministries and branches and the localities.

6. The Ministry of Justice is requested to assume the main responsibility and coordinate with related agencies to organize the education of legislation on the protection of children.

7. The Ministry of Culture and Information is requested to exert unified guidance and to inspect and supervise the mass media and mass organizations engaged in information, popularization and education among the different strata of the population on the undertakings and measures to protect children; to increase inspection and supervision of the cultural activities and services aimed at preventing the cultural works harmful to children.

8. The Ministry of Education and Training is requested to assume the main responsibility and coordinate actions with the Ministry of Finance and related agencies in studying and elaborating the policies of appropriate remuneration for teachers of primary education, especially in the remote, deep-lying and difficult regions and policies of appropriate encouragement to children with special circumstances; to direct the introduction of the educational contents of preventing and fighting against drugs, preventing and combating crimes into the intra-curriculum or extra-curriculum at the schools; to take the main responsibility in the education and teaching of legislation on preventing and fighting against drugs, preventing and fighting against crime in the schools; to increase citizen education in the schools, broadening the appropriate form of education aimed at attracting the quasi totality of children with special circumstances to the classes and helping them afford primary education; to study and conduct appropriate forms and measures to attract children of repeat classes and drop-outs and pupils with specially bad records to return to classes and have conditions to develop healthily; to promote vocational education in the schools.

9. The Vietnam Television, the Radio Voice of Vietnam and the Vietnam News Agency are requested to assume the main responsibility and coordinate with related agencies in carrying out and at the same time guiding the local stations to promote the popularization and education of the sense of law abiddance and adoption of the life style according to law for the population, on the right and duty of children, on the responsibility of the various echelons, branches and the families and communities and all the citizens for the protection of children, on the method of educating children and grandchildren in the family, on the examples of good people and good deeds in the protection of children.

10. The People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities are requested to integrate the activities of this Program into the related programs within their localities; to make the objectives of the program one of the targets of the socio-economic programs of their localities which shall be concretely reflected in the national target Programs, especially the national target programs (eradication of hunger, alleviation of poverty, employment, prevention and fight against crimes, prevention and fight against HIV/AIDS, prevention and fight against drugs); to direct the specialized agencies to have a firm grasp of children with special circumstances in order to work out plans and measures to settle in a synchronous way and effectively (preventing while settling the question of abuse against children); to coordinate with the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations in maintaining and developing the reconciliation groups at the grassroots, to mobilize for limiting the number of divorces; to promote the mobilization and education for the enforcement of law down to each family and each citizen aimed at raising the sense of responsibility of each person in the management and education of the members in the family and in their community, in order not to let the children fall victims to abuses.

11. The Supreme People�s Procuracy is requested to assume the main responsibility and to coordinate with the related agencies in studying and suggesting the amendments and supplements the procedures of proceedings toward the offending minors in the Code of Criminal Proceedings to make them conformable with the policies of our State on the protection of children and the Convention of the United Nations on the Rights of the Child; to increase the supervision and prosecution of the cases of abuse of children; to form a contingent of procurators specialized in the affairs of children at various levels.

12. The Supreme People�s Court is requested to increase its guidance in the trial according to law of the cases of abuse of children; step by step to form a contingent of judges and people�s jurors specializing in the trials of crimes related to minors; in the immediate future to organize the training on the rights of children for the judges taking part in the trial of cases where the accused are minors.

13. The Central Committee of the Vietnam Women�s Union is requested to closely coordinate with the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children, the related ministries and branches and the various echelons of the administration in the education, raising the knowledge, and the method of protecting children for the mothers and other women; to engage the families with difficult economic situation to take part in the program of women helping one another obtain loans to develop family economy; to cooperate with the Vietnam Peasants� Association, the Horticulturists� Association... to popularize the technique of developing the family economy for the poor peasant households.

14. The Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union is requested to closely cooperate with the ministries, branches and various echelons of the administration in the mobilization and education of their members to take part actively in the protection of children, to organize useful cultural, sport and social activities for the members of the Young Pioneers Organization and other children in the population centers.

15. The Vietnam Peasants� Association is requested to closely cooperate with the different echelons of the administration in mobilizing and educating their members to take part actively in the protection of children, in building programs of action for the children in the rural areas.

16. The Vietnam General Federation of Labor is requested to closely cooperate with the ministries, branches and various echelons of the administration in mobilizing and educating its members to take part actively in the protection of children; to deploy the plan of preventing the abuse of child labor at the trade union organizations of all levels, all branches and in the production and business establishments.

17. The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front is requested to work out the plan and mobilize its member organizations to take part in carrying the policy of the entire people taking part in the caring and protection of children; to strengthen their organization and guidance of the member organizations in carrying out well the movement "exemplary adults and well-behaved children and grandchildren" in the campaign "the entire people united to build a new life in the population centers".

The Minister-Head of the Vietnam Commission for Protection and Care of Children