Where can I report child abuse in Vietnam?
Tuesday, January 04, 2022, 12:01 GMT+7
Vietnam’s 2016 Law on Children clearly stipulates that agencies, organizations, and individuals shall assume responsibility for providing information on, and denouncing acts of, child abuse to authorities.
It was emphasized by Dang Hoa Nam, head of the department of children's affairs under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, in a recent interview with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about the fatal beating of an eight-year-old girl in Ho Chi Minh City at the hands of her father’s fiancée.
On December 30, Nguyen Kim Trung Thai, 36, was arrested for an investigation into his offense of “maltreatment or abuse of one's grandparent, parent, spouse, child, grandchild, or caregiver,” as prescribed by the Vietnamese Penal Code, police of the city’s Binh Thanh District said.
Thai is the father of N.T.V.A., who was beaten to death on December 22 by his 26-year-old fiancée Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang, at their apartment in the district, where they had lived together since May 2020.
Trang, who had allegedly abused the little girl for a long time, was taken in on December 23 and has been charged with “torturing others.”
Talking to Tuoi Tre, Nguyen Phuong Linh, head of the Vietnamese non-governmental organization Management and Sustainable Development Institute (MSD), said that violence always tends to escalate and become habitual.
If people find physical or mental punishment in young children around them which tends to be severe or repetitive, they have to immediately notify relevant authorities and the National Child Helpline 111 to prevent further violence against the children, Linh said.
The National Child Helpline 111 has worked as a 24/7 toll-free hotline which directly receives and processes information, reports, and denunciations on risks and acts of child abuse.
The helpline received more than 27,000 calls in 2018 for issues related to children such as child abuse, child trafficking and kidnapping as well as providing counselling for children, according to its website.
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