A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee (Photo: daibieunhandan.vn)Hanoi (VNA) - The Supreme People’s Procuracy, the nation’s premierprosecuting agency, has requested changes in the Penal Code to facilitateinvestigations into and legal proceedings against child sex abuse suspects.
The request was made at a meeting of the National Assembly’s Justice Committeeand the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth,Adolescents and Children in Hanoi on March 27.
The meeting dealt with the recent exposes of several cases where children weresexually abused in different parts of the country, denoting a serious, growingproblem.
The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) estimates thataround 2,000 Vietnamese children face violence and abuse annually, of whom1,200 suffer sexual abuse. Among these, more than 13 percent are girls belowthe age of six.
But the real number of Vietnamese children being sexually abused may be muchhigher, said MoLISA Deputy Mminister Dao Hong Lan.
Lan said that in Vietnam, sexual abuse, especially of children, is such a culturallysensitive issue that the families of both victims and offenders do not wantsuch incidents to be publicly revealed. The victim’s family fears that publicexposure would affect the future of their children.
Furthermore, there are loopholes in the legal protection that children areentitled to, Lan said.
Representatives from the Supreme People’s Procuracy said that in order tohandle sexual abuse of children, forensic examinations and other evidence arerequired by law. However, in reality, victims’ families cannot obtain all thenecessary evidence because it is very difficult to collect. In many cases, theyapproach the police long after the abuse has happened, which makes follow-upaction even more difficult.
Therefore, the Supreme People’s Procuracy is proposing special investigationmethods be applied in cases where a child is sexually abused, therepresentatives said.
They also proposed that some methods applied in foreign countries be consideredas reference to ensure the collection of adequate traces and evidence of child sexualabuse.
Nguyen Thu Ha, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women’s Union, said media needs to berequired to keep victims’ information confidential, and schools should take sexeducation very seriously.-VNA
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