Simplify procedures to support cases of child abuse

After the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly, voters of Yen Bai province sent a petition to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs regarding the review, amendment and simplification of the process and procedures for supporting and intervening in cases of child abuse, ensuring compliance with reality and ensuring children's rights.

In the petition, voters of Yen Bai province said that according to the provisions of Article 53, Article 72 of the Law on Children and Clause 1, Article 27, Clause 1, Article 28, Clause 1, Article 29, Clause 1, Article 30, Clause 3, Article 31 of Decree No. 56/2017/ND-CP dated May 9, 2017 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Children, people working in child protection at the commune level are responsible for performing tasks of assessing risks and identifying the needs of children in need of protection; participating in the process of developing and implementing support and intervention plans for children.

However, some forms under Decree No. 56 are not suitable for the qualifications of commune-level child protection workers.

Đơn giản hóa thủ tục hỗ trợ các trường hợp trẻ em bị xâm hại - 1 — The national child protection hotline 111 operates a 24/7 "hotline" (Photo: Nguyen Son).

Voters recommend that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs review, amend and simplify the process and procedures for supporting and intervening in cases of child abuse, ensuring that they are consistent with reality and ensure children's rights.

Responding to voters' petitions, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said that, in performing the function of state management of children, in recent years the Ministry has regularly directed, developed documents and organized awareness raising and capacity building for civil servants and public employees working on children at all levels, especially those working on child protection at the commune level, to ensure the implementation of support and intervention plans for children in need of protection according to the provisions of the Law on Children and Decree No. 56 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Children.

On June 10, 2023, the Government issued Decree No. 33/2023/ND-CP regulating commune-level cadres, civil servants and part-time workers at the commune level, in villages and residential groups, including regulations on standards for cultural and social civil servants and part-time workers, who are those assigned by the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level to do child protection work at the commune level according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 90 of the Law on Children.

"However, in practice, the qualifications and capacity of child protection workers at the commune level in some localities have not met the requirements for implementing legal regulations on developing and implementing support and intervention plans for children," according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

In 2023, the Ministry conducted research, surveys and assessments on the implementation of support and intervention plans for cases of abused children or children at risk of violence, exploitation, abandonment and children in special circumstances.

From there, assess the advantages and disadvantages in the implementation of the support and intervention plan to propose solutions and a roadmap for research to amend and supplement a number of articles of Decree No. 56. This includes reviewing, amending and simplifying the process and procedures for supporting and intervening in cases of child abuse, ensuring that they are consistent with reality and the rights of children.

"When commune-level child protection workers encounter difficulties or problems in the initial assessment of risks and levels of harm to children (including form No. 03 on Report on information collection, verification and assessment of specific risks), they can request the National Child Protection Hotline (No. 111) and child protection service providers under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to support implementation according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 27 of Decree No. 56/2017/ND-CP", the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs guides.

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