UNICEF appreciates Vietnam's children-related progress
The situation of children in Vietnam has changed a lot since 1990 with exceptional progress, an official of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said.
UNICEF representative in Vietnam, Jesper Morch, cited as an example that infant, child and maternal mortality rates have declined substantially. Between 1990 and 2006, the under-five mortality rate fell from 58 to 27 per 1,000 live births, and the infant mortality rate decreased from 44 to 22 per 1,000 live births.
Children in Vietnam are better educated now. Around 95 percent of children are enrolled in primary schools.
He also highlighted the country's consistently high immunization coverage and effort in reducing the poverty rate as well as the level of malnutrition, local newspaper Vietnam News reported on Tuesday.
However, he recommended that Vietnam should raise the age of minors to 18 as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) because the country's laws currently consider children only those aged under 16.
The CRC, binding 193 state parties, was adopted on Nov. 20, 1989. Vietnam was the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the convention.
Xinhua - November 20, 2007.
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