National action plan to be implemented to prevent violence against children

All children will be provided with useful knowledge and techniques to protect themselves from sexual assault or abuse in any forms.

The goal is set in Prime Minister Decision 1863/QD-TTg of December 23, approving a national action plan on prevention and combat of violence against children and child abuse.

Father-son pairs at an event on prevention of violence against women and girls in Ho Chi Minh City in November__Photo: Thanh Vu/VNA

According to the plan, all children will be provided with age-appropriate knowledge and trained in skills of self-defense against assaults and sexual abuse.

In addition, all collaborators engaged in child protection at all levels and volunteers will get training to improve their capacity for child protection.

Child protection services will be intensified and developed in all provinces and cities.

The plan also sets the goal of increasing child care service capacity of health centers at commune and district levels and improving child-friendly investigation skills of police officers in charge of investigating cases of violence and abuse against children.

To realize the above goals, communication and education campaigns will be carried out to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of authorities at all levels and all organizations, families, schools and communities to protect children and prevent violence and abuse against children while quality of children protection services and capacity of service providers will be further increased.

Interdisciplinary coordination mechanisms and social networks for child protection and prevention of violence and sexual abuse against children among related agencies and organizations will be built soon.

The plan also requires further improvement of laws and policies on child protection and prevention of violence and sexual abuse against children; issuance of standards and regulations on provision of child protection services; participation of the private sector in providing child protection services; provision of more child protection services in the fields of social welfare, health, education, and justice as well as in families and at educational and medical establishments.

The application of information technology for connecting to the national child protection hotline will be encouraged while a national database on child protection and prevention of violence and sexual abuse against children will be developed soon.

(Source:VLLF)