Law on Protection of Children’s Rights and Interests on deliberation

The proposed Law on Protection of Children’s Rights and Interests was on debate on 21 December at the session of the National Assembly (Sixth Legislature).

            Members of the National Assembly considered the law, expressing debates on some Articles with the aim of making the law to be capable of protecting and assisting children, particularly in healthcare and education. They also deliberated the law in order to enhance understanding of rights and interests of children, parents’ responsibilities for them and non-discrimination against them. The debate was focused on the issue regarding lenient punishment that will be imposed on children, who commit wrongdoing. This includes warning and educating to avoid bringing children to a court.  

            The Ministry of Justice considered the law as very important to the fate of children and the Lao society so they asked members to pay attention to debate and deliberation with the aim of making the law to be complete for further adoption and application.

            The Party and Government always pay attention to mothers and children. This issue is showed in the Article 22 and Article 29 of the Constitution of the Lao PDR, for instance,”the State and society attend to developing high quality national education, to create opportunities and [favourable] conditions in education for all people throughout the country, especially people in remote areas, ethnic groups, women and disadvantaged children, “the State, society and families attend to implementing development policies and supporting the progress of women and to protecting the legitimate rights and benefits of women and children”.

            Other Articles of laws also intend to protect rights of children: Family Law (Article 1,5,23,24, 29-46), Criminal Law (Article 29, 30, 36, 37, 47, 119, 120 and 123), Labour Law (Article 38 and 41) and Law on Development and Protection of Women (Article 24, 29, 35 and 37). The Lao PDR has become a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child since 7 June 1991.

            Even thought the Lao PDR has laws and regulations regarding children, they are not comprehensive and clear. This constrains the law enforcement, being a reason for social ills to occur such as child prostitution, street children, drug abuse and other activities, which violate the laws. Some groups of people use these loopholes to seek profits from children such as child trafficking, child labour abuse and so on.

Therefore, the Law on Protection of Children’s Rights and Interests was formulated and is still on debates in the National Assembly’s session.