Worst forms of child labor is a serious issue in this contemporary world. There are millions of children working under hard labor condition. In Vietnam, it is not a new issue, but the awareness of this situation is limited. It leads to many adverse results such as forced child labor, child trafficking, child pornography, hazardous work. To prevent the development of this issue, the Vietnam government should pay more attention, find out the causes to make appropriate plan and solutions.
This dissertation includes five main chapters. The first chapter is the introduction to the topic, general background, and development not only in Vietnam but also in the world. Also, it illustrates the reason to conduct this research, rationale, scope, and limits of the study, the objective of study, research methodology.
Chapter II is about the Vietnam legal framework and the international convention on the WFCL. Domestic legal instruments before and after the existence of Labor code are introduced. The general legal system of child labor is described by Vietnam labor Code 2012, Children Law 2016 and Vietnam Criminal Code 2015. Also, international law on eliminating the WFCL such as The CRC, Convention No. 138 and Convention No. 182 is illustrated in this chapter. The number of valuable articles is mentioned in details. This chapter shows the light bordering of Vietnam legislation on WFCL.
Chapter III talks about the basic legal definitions relating to this topic such as children, children laborer, WFCL and the causes of WFCL. Legal shortages of WFCL in Vietnam shows clearly in this chapter. Most of the terms above are not defined under Vietnam law but need support from international regulation to build the general definition. Moreover, the difference in term 'child laborer' in Vietnam is different from any international convention. Finally, in this chapter, some popular forms of WFCL occurring in Vietnam currently are described specifically such as hazardous work, child trafficking, forced or bonded child labor.
Chapter IV and Chapter V is the most important chapters. Chapter IV demonstrates the comparison between Thailand and Vietnam legislation relating to WFCL. The awareness and situation of WFCL in Thailand was introduced. Labour Protection Act is compared with Labor Code 2012; Penal Code is compared with Criminal Code; Child Protection Act is compared with Children Law and some other vital regimes of Thailand relating to child labor are also mention such as Anti-trafficking in Persons Act, Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, Narcotics Act and Beggar Control Act. The final part of this chapter is international Conventions which Thailand verified, but Vietnam has not done. It explains the effectiveness of enforcement of international Conventions in Thailand legislation.
Chapter V has an important linking to chapter IV. From the differences between the legislation of two countries, Thailand is a good example Vietnam can learn from. Numbers of the proposals to develop in eliminating WFCL are introduced. Vietnam can apply the enforcement of the International convention, ratify more international agreements. Other suggestion affecting directly to Vietnam law also introduced such as amending sections of chapter XI Vietnam labor Code, constitute a new legal document, strengthening the existing policies to punish the WFCL, improve the statutory regulations of using children on prostitute activities and child pornography. Also, social programs are also crucial in the combat of WFCL.
Overview, WFCL is not a new issue, but Vietnam legislation is not strong enough to control its development. Vietnam should pay more attention to child labor because children are the most vulnerable people in society. They are too young to recognize by themselves the danger they are in. However, it is not simple to solve this issue. We need the time, efforts as well as the international cooperation to deal with this issue.