SURVEY REPORT ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS FOR RAISING AWARENESS AND LEGAL SUPPORT ON VIOLENCE AND CHILD ABUSE

PART I: OVERVIEW
I. Background
          The International Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989 and came into effect on September 2, 1990. The International Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first Convention to legally regulate the Rights of Children in a progressive and humanitarian spirit. Among the 41 rights of children mentioned in the Convention, the right to be protected from abandonment, maltreatment and abuse stipulated in Article 19 most directly refers to the prevention of violence and abuse against children. On February 20, 1999, Vietnam ratified the Convention, establishing an important legal framework for the care and protection of children in general and the prevention of violence and abuse against children in particular in our country. Since joining the Convention, Vietnam has continuously improved its legal standards and mechanisms to ensure the prevention of violence against children. In addition to the provisions in the 2013 Constitution stating that “Children are protected, cared for and educated by the State, family and society; they are allowed to participate in children's issues. It is strictly forbidden to abuse, torture, mistreat, neglect, exploit, exploit labor and other acts that violate children's rights”, Vietnam has issued a system of documents specifying this issue . From the Law on Child Protection, Care and Education in 1991 to the Law on Child Protection, Care and Education in 2004 and now the Law on Children in 2016, it has demonstrated the development of law-making work in protecting children from abandonment, mistreatment and abuse. In addition, the 2015 Penal Code, the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family, the 2006 Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control and the Decree guiding the above documents have specific regulations on the mechanism for preventing violence and child abuse.
          Children are the happiness of the family and the future of the country. During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh always gave children and teenagers special love and care. He often reminded and assigned the task of protecting and caring for children. Today, our Party and State always follow that tradition on the basis of promoting internal strength and taking advantage of cooperation and assistance opportunities from countries, territories and organizations around the world. On December 22, 2015, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 2361/QD-TTg approving the Child Protection Program for the period 2016-2020, setting out the goals, scope, content, tasks and solutions for implementing the Program. Among the contents of the Program, three key issues emerge: first, communication, education, and social mobilization to raise awareness and skills in protecting and caring for children for authorities at all levels, organizations, families, schools , social communities, and children themselves; second, strengthening the organizational system, human resources, and improving the capacity of civil servants, public employees, and collaborators working in child protection and care; third, developing a professional child protection service system with sufficient conditions to meet the protection needs of all children. Thus, this is an important highlight for state agencies, families, schools, and children themselves to have an appropriate approach to raising awareness and strengthening legal support for violence and child sexual abuse in the community.
          However, communication, education and social mobilization work on child protection and care is still ineffective. The awareness and skills of parents, family members, teachers, people in the community and children themselves on child protection are incorrect and incomplete. Specifically, many children have not been equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to prevent sexual abuse; when sexually abused, most children have a mentality of fear, guilt and inferiority, so they do not dare to share or denounce the offender. The parents of the children have not yet provided basic knowledge for them to proactively prevent sexual abuse or, because they are afraid of affecting their children's future, they do not denounce the offender; they even accept compensation compromises or organize weddings, leading to child marriage, especially in rural and mountainous areas. The lack of legal knowledge and irresponsible lifestyle of some families also create insecurity for children in their own families. The role and responsibility of families, schools and communities in protecting and caring for children have not received due attention, resulting in a lack of effective coordination and support in managing, educating and helping children. In reality, the system of cadres and networks of collaborators working on child protection and care at the grassroots level is still lacking in quantity and limited in capacity. The role of child protection officers and social workers working on children has not been specifically defined in the State's legal documents to ensure legal authority when intervening and supporting child protection, especially child protection in emergency situations. The child protection service system is incomplete and inconsistent, and does not ensure the conditions for implementing the process of early detection, intervention, counseling, and active rehabilitation for all children and reintegration for child victims of violence and sexual abuse.
          At the same time, in recent times, people and communities have witnessed many problems of “children being slapped in the face, children being forced to participate in sexual acts, minors being murdered in their own communities – violence against children spares no one and has no boundaries” [1]. The consequences are causing serious damage to children’s health and physical health, more seriously, children may suffer from psychological trauma, autism or mental problems [2]. The cause of the problem comes from the lack of appropriate measures, mechanisms and resources to prevent violence and child sexual abuse; limitations in access to services for abused children [3]. Therefore, the joint efforts of the whole society including the state, schools, families, other organizations and children themselves in the process of reducing and preventing violence and child abuse in Vietnam in particular and in the three provinces (Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Nghe An) through improving knowledge, arousing emotions and correct attitudes, equipping skills and implementing legal support activities for the community is extremely urgent at present.
2. Raising awareness and providing legal support on violence and child sexual abuse for the community in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Nghe An provinces.
          Reports from agencies related to child protection and child violence prevention in the three localities all confirm the need to raise awareness of violence and child abuse in the community. However, all three localities have not yet implemented separate topics on preventing violence and child abuse. The reason comes from the limited funding for implementation and the lack of experts (reporters) with expertise. Some localities (Hoa Binh) have integrated this into the annual Children's Day on June 1 but have not yet implemented it on a large scale. On the government side, there are no specialized staff working on children, so it is difficult to make recommendations from the grassroots level to the higher levels on violence and child abuse; on the school side, there has not been an extracurricular program on preventing violence and child abuse. Therefore, understanding and increasing measures to prevent this issue has become urgent.
          Regarding legal support, state legal aid centers under the Department of Justice are the main units responsible for providing legal support for cases of child violence and abuse. However, currently, the legal support force is quite thin, and the state's financial support is not much. According to Ms. Lan (Head of the branch of the Hanoi State Legal Aid Center), she became a legal aid worker because of sympathy and sharing with the situations of abused children, otherwise she would not have been able to maintain her job until now because of financial problems. Moreover, as a woman, she often has to work in districts in Hanoi, so she must really love her job to be able to stick with legal aid activities for so long. According to some officials providing legal aid in the field of violence and child abuse, this is a difficult and sensitive issue, difficult because society has many incorrect views on the issue, sensitive because victims and families are afraid to reveal all information, and difficult to preserve evidence because written records of the incident are lost.
          PART II. SURVEY
1. Objectives of the Survey
          The survey aims to find out general information of the survey participants, find out their awareness of violence and child sexual abuse. At the same time, through this activity, know specific information about the current situation of violence and child sexual abuse in Hanoi.
          Grasp some information and recommendations of the survey participants to limit violence and child abuse in the community (about the law, about support services, about coordination between agencies, etc.). Furthermore, the survey also aims to grasp the need for raising awareness, that is, what content they want to improve their knowledge, attitudes, and skills.
          In addition to the above objectives, the important objective of the survey is to receive timely information and legal support on violence and child sexual abuse in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Nghe An provinces. Violence and child sexual abuse can cause serious physical and mental damage, greatly affecting the future and happiness of children. Although we all want children to enjoy a safe and healthy living environment, that is only an ideal. Violence and child abuse still occur here and there, so the survey is to quickly find out information about the case, provide support, transfer to the appropriate level, and make recommendations to competent authorities.
2. Requirements:
The organization of activities must meet the following requirements:
- Meet the purposes of the Project's activities; the requirements on time progress according to the Project's regulations.
- Ensure practicality, savings and efficiency.
- Create a premise to conduct training activities and disseminate knowledge to the community in Hanoi about violence and child sexual abuse.
- Stick to the implementation of the set goals;
- Attract full participation of the community including children, parents, community leaders in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Nghe An provinces.
3. Conduct a survey
          To conduct the survey, the group of experts researched and developed a survey outline which identified:
+ Survey participants include: children, parents, community leaders, teachers, lawyers, legal assistants, etc.
+ Survey content:
- General information (need to participate in the survey, gender, year of birth, address, marital status, education, job, income - if adult; education status, parental status, parents' age, family income - if child) of the survey participants, their understanding of violence and child sexual abuse;
- Specific information on the current situation of violence and child sexual abuse in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Nghe An provinces;
- Information and recommendations from the survey group to limit violence and child abuse in the community (on laws, support services, coordination between agencies, etc.);
- Information on awareness raising needs, i.e. what content they want to improve their knowledge, attitudes and skills in;
- Timely information and legal support on violence and child sexual abuse in Hanoi, Hoa Binh and Nghe An provinces.
+ Survey and interview form:
- Survey form for children (mainly between the ages of 10 and 15);
- Parent survey form;
- Interview form for community leaders at commune, district and provincial levels.
          The survey and interview forms were sent to collect opinions from experts, children, parents, community leaders, teachers, lawyers, legal aid workers, police, and prosecutors in three batches in three localities (Hanoi, Hoa Binh, and Nghe An) through phone calls and direct inquiries. The opinions were received and completed by the research team of experts.     
+ Survey location:
          The group of officials and experts conducted a survey in 03 provinces: Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Nghe An. Two of the 03 localities are provinces with a large number of poor people, ethnic minorities (Hoa Binh and Nghe An) and are provinces with a relatively high number of cases of violence and child abuse in recent times, especially Hanoi and Hoa Binh.
Nghe An is a locality with many poor districts according to Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP dated December 27, 2008 of the Government on the Program to support rapid and sustainable poverty reduction for poor districts and poor communes according to Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP dated May 19, 2011 of the Government on the orientation of sustainable poverty reduction from 2011 to 2020. At the same time, Hoa Binh and Nghe An are areas with a large number of ethnic minorities (Hoa Binh has more than 7 ethnic groups, Nghe An has about 5 ethnic groups) with underdeveloped socio-economic conditions, and people's lives are still difficult.
          In Hanoi, the survey team conducted the survey in My Duc district (focusing on 2 poor communes with ethnic minorities living in An Phu and An Tien). In Hoa Binh, the survey team conducted the survey in Hoa Binh city (focusing on 3 communes/wards including Trung Minh, Dong Tien, Huu Nghi). In Nghe An, the group of officials and experts conducted the survey in Tuong Duong district - a district about 185km west of Nghe An provincial capital.
4. Information collection method
          The expert group proactively contacted child management agencies, child protection organizations, and a number of research institutions to collect reports on child protection, prevention of violence and child abuse, and previously conducted survey reports on issues related to the topic of information collection. At the same time, the group reviewed current legal regulations on children's rights and the responsibilities of organizations and units in preventing child violence. In addition, the expert group conducted statistics and synthesized quantitative information and data from reports of the Department of Children - Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of a number of provinces/cities, Department of Justice, Department of Education and Training on the current situation, results, advantages, and limitations of child protection work.
          - Sociological investigation: conducting survey and in-depth interviews
          + In-depth interview:
          In-depth interviews were conducted in two forms: direct interviews with each subject and group discussions. When conducting in-depth interviews, the expert group introduced the information and purpose of the survey. Recording was used to listen to the interview again in parts that could not be recorded in time and a commitment was made to keep all notes and data of the interview confidential. Conducting in-depth interviews with community leaders, lawyers, state managers of child protection and people with the authority to conduct proceedings was relatively easy because they already had certain understanding of violence and child abuse, so there was a more frank exchange without hesitation. Particularly for parents of children (especially parents in Tuong Duong - Nghe An, My Duc - Hanoi and some parents in Hoa Binh city - Hoa Binh) and children, it takes a lot of time to collect information about violence, child abuse, difficulties in protecting their children and themselves from violence and abuse that they often encounter in daily social life. Due to the limited level of awareness of people in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions, some people do not know Vietnamese, some are illiterate, so the interviewers have difficulty in exchanging and collecting information.
          + For group discussion
          Each discussion group has 15-20 people representing local agencies and organizations: Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Department of Education and Training, Women's Union, prosecution agencies, Lawyers Association, Bar Association in the area to exchange knowledge, reality of violence and child abuse; habits, barriers that make people the subject or indirectly cause violence and abuse against their children. In addition, the discussion also discussed the group's assessment of legal regulations related to child protection, prevention of violence and child abuse from a number of perspectives such as suitability, feasibility, progress, points that need to be proposed for amendment; responsibilities of agencies; activities to promote understanding, knowledge, attitudes, skills for agencies, people, and communities; coordination mechanism in receiving and handling information about children being abused and abused. During the discussions, the experts in charge suggested issues that needed to be discussed and asked the participants to frankly exchange their observations and objective thoughts from their work experiences to help the expert group obtain useful information in their research. During the group discussions, many officials, leaders, and lawyers frankly pointed out the “lowlands” in the work of protecting children and preventing violence against children.
          + Distribute survey forms
          The respondents will be invited to the headquarters of the People's Committee of the commune, school, and village cultural house. Then, the surveyor will explain the meaning and purpose of the survey; and guide the respondents on how to fill out the questionnaire. During the survey, the experts will monitor and immediately answer questions that people do not understand clearly in the questions of the survey to ensure that people fill out the questionnaire correctly. For those who do not know Kinh, the expert group will receive support from local officials (commune officials, village officials) to translate for people to understand and answer the questions, and the supporting officials will record the information they answer on the questionnaire.
          + Survey processing:
Number of ballots issued: 600 ballots
Number of votes received: 597 votes
03 parents and caregivers did not participate in the survey due to being busy with work.
          The person filling out the form was instructed on how to fill out the form and had staff to assist.
support, explanation without intervention from others, so the information shown in the form ensures objectivity. The received form is processed and analyzed by a team of experts on a specialized processing system.
PART III. RESULTS
          Based on the survey results in the above 3 localities, we have the following main findings:
          1. Awareness and need to raise children's awareness of violence and child abuse
          Survey data shows that nearly 52% of children aged 14 participated in the survey, the rest were aged 13 accounting for 21%, 12 accounting for 16.7%; 20.3% were aged 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16. This age range is relatively suitable for the purpose set out in the survey plan of the Project. Of these, 58.3% were ethnic minority children (Thai, Muong, Kho Mu); 75.7% of children participating in the survey had both parents, 24.3% of children had divorced parents or lost their parents or both parents; nearly 60% of their parents were farmers, the rest were in other occupations (workers, non-agricultural workers, civil servants and others). Of the 86% of children who know about children's rights, 46.3% know through family channels, 63% know through school, only 30.8% know through friends and relatives sharing, 33.6% know through reading books and newspapers, 31.1% through watching TV, 29.8% through the internet, and 17.6% through local propaganda channels.
          Through research on child abuse, 29.7% of children participating in the survey said that they scolded, criticized, humiliated, or ridiculed their children; 42.6% said that they told their children that no one loved or wanted them; 37.4% said that they used language or performed actions that hurt their self-esteem; 39.4% said that they called their children names that were demeaning; 42.1% said that they did not care about their children skipping school or dropping out; similar numbers for not creating conditions for children to go to school, forcing children to study too much, and children always having to witness their families beating, arguing, and cursing each other were not acts of violence.
          According to the survey results in 3 provinces (Nghe An, Hoa Binh and Hanoi): 37.8% of children said that "talking obscenely or commenting obscenely about children's body parts in front of children", 35.4% of children said that "texting obscene content or sending nude adult images", 26.7% of children affirmed that "Letting children watch sensitive movies, nude adult movies", 27.4% of children answered that "letting children witness other people's sexual intercourse" is not an act of sexual abuse. Also through the survey, only 35% of children learned about violence and abuse through family channels, 52% through school channels, 40.1% through bookcases and newspapers and only 26.5% through local channels. The number of children who were beaten, humiliated, forced to study, and had to witness family beatings and quarrels was 23.3%, 21.8%, 22.1%, and 35.5%. Support when experiencing violence and abuse often comes only from family and teachers. Children rarely know about government support agencies. 80% of children do not seek help from the 111 hotline and nearly 90% of children do not know about shelters. Regarding the consequences of violence and abuse, 71.6% of children said that using alcohol, beer, and drugs; 59.3% of children got pregnant without any consequences.
          Over 60% of children want to raise awareness of the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence and Child Violence, knowledge on prevention and control of child sexual abuse, skills to prevent violence and child sexual abuse. Through in-depth interviews with teachers who are managers of the Department of Education and Training, school principals urgently need to have documents with enough information and attractive skills to prevent violence and child sexual abuse for students.
          Thus, many common daily behaviors are not recognized as acts of violence and abuse against children (beating, insulting, forcing children to study; sending nude images of adults, etc.). This situation further deepens the habit of "spare the rod and spoil the child" of adults towards children, and illegal behaviors are still accepted and commonly occur in the lives of generations of children.
2. Awareness and need to raise awareness of parents (caregivers) about violence and child abuse
          Among the parents participating in the survey, 55% of parents were ethnic minorities (Muong, Tay, Thai, Kho Mu, H'mong, Dao); 88.8% of parents (child caregivers) had a spouse, 11.2% were single or divorced/separated, their spouse had died and did not want to answer; 52% of parents (child caregivers) had completed high school or had not completed high school, the rest had intermediate, college, university and postgraduate degrees; 40% of parents (child caregivers) did not have stable jobs.
          84% of parents (child caregivers) surveyed said they knew about children's rights, of which 68.4% knew through newspapers, radio, 53.9% through propaganda materials, 23% through seminars and talks. When asked about what acts of violence and child abuse were: 18.8% of parents (child caregivers) said that "not dressing children properly, not cleaning children (especially young children who are not yet able to clean themselves)" are not acts of violence against children; 12.7% of parents (child caregivers) said that "beating children (punching, kicking, slapping, pulling hair, using whips, ...)" is not acts of violence against children; 15.9% of parents (child caregivers) said that "scold, criticize, humiliate, mock children" are not acts of violence against children; 21.8% of parents (caregivers) said that “using language or performing actions that hurt a child’s self-esteem” is not violence against a child; 22.4% of parents (caregivers) said that “calling a child by demeaning names” is not violence against a child… The fact that parents (caregivers) think that “forcing a child to study too much, letting the child witness parents arguing, swearing at each other, and not caring about the child’s wishes and interests” is not violence, child abuse exists in more than 1/5 of parents participating in the survey.
          Regarding parents (child caregivers), the majority of parents understand the forms of violence, the consequences of violence, and child abuse. However, 62.5% of parents still want to be equipped with knowledge about the 2016 Law on Children, the percentages of parents wanting to learn about the 2006 Law on Domestic Violence Prevention, skills to prevent violence and child abuse, and child protection skills are 71.8%; 87.3% and 86% respectively. This can be understood as the need to raise awareness of violence and abuse among parents (child caregivers) is very high. This situation is quite consistent with the initial plan of Hanoi Law University.
          The survey also helped the Project see clearly that the coordination mechanism of local state agencies in preventing violence and child sexual abuse is still unclear, some units responsible for protecting children in the locality still exist in a formal way (Child Protection and Care Board at commune and ward levels), especially the dissemination of laws on violence and child abuse has not been focused on.
          Below are some solutions to "prevent violence and child abuse" suggested by parents (child caretakers):
          “ We need wider communication channels so that everyone knows and understands the issue of child sexual abuse. Ward and commune radio stations need to inform more regularly about child sexual abuse and violence. Commune police and security agencies need to pay more attention to school security and reduce the chaos at school gates and shops.” (35)
          “Open some psychological counseling clubs or rooms with addresses and free psychological counseling for families and children that are publicly posted, and post some locations. Coordinate with an organization such as the commune women's association regularly, provide legal documents, teach children about violence and sexual abuse, and open seminars for mothers with children of child-bearing age to better understand.” (43)
          “ To limit violence and child sexual abuse in public, we need to increase propaganda to let everyone know how to prevent and combat child violence. Coordinate with organizations to propagate skills to prevent and combat child violence, and pay more attention to our children.” (45)
          “Provide materials on child protection laws and skills for handling dangerous situations.” (55)
          “Propaganda and dissemination of the law on preventing violence and child sexual abuse to all classes of people in the community, especially to parents and children. There are classes teaching self-defense skills, especially in the current 4.0 era. There are organizations and hotlines to support abused children 24/7.
          Support: Improve the quality of support services, prevent and limit violence and sexual abuse in children. Improve the quality of prevention and training sessions for children when they encounter abuse situations. Establish 24/7 support services for cases of abused children in need of urgent support. Coordinate with departments, especially the police, to properly handle perpetrators of child abuse.
          Coordination: There needs to be close coordination between relevant parts of the community to limit violence and child sexual abuse, such as coordination between families and schools, between the community and support services for children who have been abused, and teaching abuse prevention skills to all remaining children.” (122)
          “ Regularly post propaganda articles so that everyone knows and can prevent their children from violence and child sexual abuse.” (205)
          “ Strengthen the supervision of the implementation of the law on children, especially the arrangement of specialized staff for child protection at the commune level; supervise the implementation of support according to regulations for abused children, especially in cases of second-time abuse, which requires the independent involvement of provincial-level units” (217)
          “ Organize seminars for students and distribute leaflets on the topic of preventing child sexual abuse; promote on neighborhood loudspeakers.” (218)
          “ Increase cameras in public places; increase the maximum possible sentences for those who commit acts that are also a warning to those who intend to do bad things” (258)
          “ There should be supplementary situations and courses to help children gain deeper understanding.” (203)
          “ Establishing communities to protect children; Establishing communities to participate in educating and raising awareness for children; Opening extracurricular classes for schools to promote awareness of self-protection and protection of others; Teaching children manual lessons to prevent abuse from happening; Opening centers and hotlines to advise on possible actions to prevent abuse; Teaching children skills to refuse in situations of abuse.” (265)
          “ Organizations should be established to propagate and educate people to raise awareness; extracurricular activities should be organized to talk about violence and child sexual abuse; and the reality of violations should be brought to newspapers and television so that people know how to prevent it for their children.” (266)
          “ Regarding coordination: Commune and village officials should coordinate to organize training sessions, seminars and propaganda in all forms such as printing banners and slogans and coordinating with schools to disseminate information to students to protect themselves.” (208)
          “ There needs to be close coordination between families, victims, and local authorities to eliminate these cruel and evil acts; parents need to pay more attention to their children.” (250)
          “ Between family and school, it is necessary to closely manage children; it is necessary to regularly educate and guide children on what to do to protect themselves.” (270)
          “ Coordination between family, school and community should not leave children alone, regularly and encourage children to participate regularly in community activities in a positive way.” (276)
          “ It is necessary to soon have a plan to train in psychology and educational science for people under 18 years old; to propagate and educate laws on gender, sexuality, and women's (children's) rights.” (280)
          3. The reality of violence and child abuse in localities and the need for legal support
          * The reality of violence and child abuse in localities
          Most of the children participating in the survey had experienced one or more of the following behaviors: not being allowed to wear proper clothes, being beaten (punched, kicked, slapped, etc.), being choked, being scolded, insulted, ridiculed, being punished by abandonment, being told that no one loved them, using language that hurt their self-esteem, being kicked out of the house, not caring about their studies, not creating conditions for them to go to school, being called degrading names, not caring about what they wanted, being talked about obscenely or making obscene comments about their body parts in front of them, being kissed or held hands too affectionately causing discomfort, being touched in private areas or sensitive parts.
such as: lips, breasts, buttocks, genitals... Among the children who said they had received support when they were victims of violence and abuse; most of them received support from their families, neighbors, village chiefs, women's cadres, and teachers; through channels including the police, counseling centers, counseling hotlines, and shelters, only 1/5 of the children used them.
          Over 2/3 of the children surveyed said that violence and abuse affect their health, study, psychology, and life; can lead to children not wanting to communicate with anyone, making them pessimistic and turning to stimulants such as alcohol, beer, and drugs; making children bored, worried, scared, angry, destructive, hitting others, running away from home, having pain in sensitive areas, and getting pregnant. Of these, 83% of children said that violence and abuse have consequences, 79.3% of children said "violence and abuse affect children's health and study". 52.2% of children do not tell the person that they do not like it, if the behavior does not stop, they will tell their parents; 32.8% do not shout loudly to ask for help from others. This rate proves that children lack the necessary skills to react to violence and abuse.
          Through surveys and research reports of the State Legal Aid Centers of the provinces, violence and child abuse occur more commonly in big cities (Hanoi) [4]. The remaining two localities have lower numbers of cases of child violence and abuse. The survey also discovered a number of cases of violence and child abuse in three localities, for example, in Hanoi, cases occurred in Chuong My (2 cases), Quoc Oai (1 case), Soc Son (1 case), Ba Vi (1 case); in Nghe An, cases occurred in Tan Ky, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau; in Hoa Binh, cases occurred in Hoa Binh City. After consideration, the project selected 4-6 cases to provide legal support and representation in litigation.
          * Local legal aid needs
According to the Law on Legal Aid 2017, there are 3 forms of legal aid for people: Legal advice, participation in litigation and out-of-court representation; in which legal advice is the most popular and flexible form of assistance, which can be performed at the agency's headquarters. or at another location outside the headquarters to ensure the most convenience and effectiveness for the person receiving legal aid . Legal advice is the act of guiding, giving opinions, helping to draft documents related to disputes, complaints, legal problems, guiding the parties to reconcile, negotiate, and agree on a direction to resolve the case.
The person requesting legal aid must submit a dossier to the legal aid organization, including a request for legal aid, documents related to the case, and papers proving that he/she is a person eligible for legal aid. The dossier can be submitted directly at the headquarters, via postal service or via fax or other electronic forms. After receiving the request for legal aid, the legal aid provider receives and checks whether the subject is eligible for legal aid or not, whether it is directly related to the subject's rights or not, checks the contents related to the subject's request and what documents need to be supplemented or what is missing to proceed with the case . Within 10 days from the date of accepting the case or receiving all the necessary documents, the legal aid provider is responsible for studying and responding in writing to the person receiving legal aid; For complicated cases or cases requiring time for verification, the time limit may be extended but not more than 30 days, unless otherwise agreed with the person receiving legal aid.
- Some sources of information receiving requests for legal aid from people:
* From the prosecuting agencies:
          Most child sexual abuse cases are requested by the prosecuting agencies such as the Investigation Agency, the People's Procuracy or the Court by official dispatch or by telephone notification to the branch or individual Assistant. Usually, the form of notification by telephone is used more to ensure urgency, urgency and timeliness as Joint Circular No. 06 /2018/TTLT-BTP-BCA-BQP-BTC-TANDTC-VKSNDTC dated December 21 , 2018 has guided the Branch to receive information quickly, promptly assigning Legal Aid Officers (TGV) to carry out the case. Usually, right from the investigation stage, the Police Agency has requested the Branch to send people to participate to protect the rights of the children , ensuring proper procedural procedures . Most of the time, upon discovering the child sexual abuse, family members immediately reported it to the Commune or District Police to protect the children's rights.
* From people's request:
          In some cases, people come to the TGPL branch to report the incident and ask for help. Immediately, depending on the specific situation, the branch will send someone to receive the incident, determine the basic facts through the presentation of relatives : the incident's developments, time, location, witnesses... to ensure that the denunciation and crime report are true; quickly draft a complaint to the police agency where the incident occurred or go with relatives and children to the police agency to report the crime; depending on the specific situation, quickly contact the Investigation Agency to report the incident so that they can quickly send someone to receive the incident.
- Legal aid during the investigation and handling of cases:
          Normally, when the investigation agency receives a crime report from a citizen or from the commune police, it immediately conducts activities to take statements, verify, collect evidence... and request a forensic examination of sex in the fastest time (within 3 days). If there is sufficient basis to initiate a case, it will be initiated according to procedural law. If there is not sufficient basis to initiate a case or the case falls into a case of temporary suspension, the assistant needs to grasp information about the settlement process to advise the person receiving legal aid to take appropriate steps. If the case has a decision to initiate a case, the Tgv will participate in protecting the legal rights and interests according to Article 84 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
When participating in protecting the rights of children, in addition to participating in specific activities, the assistant also provides legal advice to the person receiving legal assistance through meetings at the branch office, at the Investigation Agency or at any location most convenient for the child: explaining the rights and obligations of children and guardians of children according to Article 62 of the Criminal Procedure Code: guiding the provision of documentary evidence related to the case, guiding or writing a request for compensation, advising on the request for compensation according to the provisions of civil law, advising on the right to request a change of investigator if there are signs of objectivity...
- Legal aid during the prosecution and trial stages of the case:
          During the prosecution process, the Procuracy will continue to address unresolved issues during the investigation process because in some cases, the victim and the victim's family, such as compensation for damages, in some cases, due to the rural environment, there is still a lot of bad reputation in the place of residence, fear of being cursed and retaliated, so the victim's family is very hesitant, even not daring to request compensation. The assistant will advise more specifically on this issue, combining discussions and work with the Procuracy to reach an agreement on the issue of compensation for the victim. In some cases, due to many factors, at the stage of preparing for trial, the assistant still has to discuss with the victim's family about the issue of compensation, and may only request compensation according to the provisions of the law or the compensation agreement between the two parties. Consulting and discussing the indictment of the Procuracy, the details of the case to prepare for the trial; advise on the rights and obligations of the victim when the court hears the case. The cases are tried in private, however, to avoid repeating the incident that affects the psychology of the child, depending on each case, the assistant will advise the family to make a request for absence, avoiding negative psychological trauma when the child faces the defendant in court. After the end of the first instance trial, the assistant will meet and discuss with the victim and the guardian of the child if appealing the first instance judgment about the time limit, the reason for the appeal, and drafting the appeal....
Thus, counseling for sexually abused children in cases is not an independent stage or form but is interwoven throughout the process of participating in the proceedings to protect the rights of children. Assistants need to understand the psychological characteristics of each age group in order to have effective contact and interaction. In addition, there needs to be an exchange of information from the children's families to grasp their thoughts, aspirations as well as the impact of society, the school environment, and how friends interact with them, avoiding negative impacts that harm them, especially those at the age of renunciation who have complex psychological developments.
* Issues arising when providing legal aid at localities:
          + Most child victims of sexual abuse cases are abused when they lack adult supervision, possibly due to the circumstances of the children living with their grandparents, away from their parents, or because the family is subjective, so bad people have clearly understood their activities or taken advantage of the time when the family cannot control them to commit acts of abuse.
          + The subjects who commit crimes against the children are acquaintances, relatives or people who come into contact with the children such as: people in the same neighborhood or visiting their house, family workers, buffalo herders, workers... are all subjects with life experience, with calculations to cover up their actions. Therefore, these subjects often use money or material benefits to lure the children, threaten to harm the lives of the children and their relatives to avoid detection, and tend to blame the children during the process of confession and interrogation.
          + Because the children are young or have mental or physical disabilities, the process of getting to know the helpers requires gentleness, familiarity, and intimacy to create trust. Most of the time, the children quickly forget specific details, and the date and time are also not accurate. It is necessary to remind them of the time so that they can remember the events. In addition, because some children are too young, not fully equipped with gender knowledge, and are not aware of the meaning and seriousness of the abuse by the subjects. Moreover, because the subjects always create a close and familiar atmosphere, the children mistake it for the pampering actions of grandparents and adults in their daily lives.
          + In some cases of "sexual intercourse with people from 13 to under 16 years old", children have awareness and development of psychology, gender awareness, love, and are influenced by distorted information while knowledge and awareness of sex education are still very limited. The characteristics of adolescent psychology are very easy to be attracted and fall into distorted trends of playing around if there is no supervision and education from family and school, or if they are considered to be easy to become the subject of sexual exploitation.
          + Psychological impact on children is inevitable, after each case, children and their families have to face many difficulties from friends at school, in the village... cannot avoid teasing, even discrimination, so they really need sympathy, protection in a determined and skillful way from family, school and the whole society. Currently, most children have not received psychological help from doctors and experts to overcome psychological barriers, boldly integrate with friends and quickly forget bad memories to have a healthy, happy soul when entering life.
4. General comments
          Through surveys in 3 localities, the following points can be drawn:
          Both children and parents (child caretakers) have certain knowledge about violence, child abuse and some ways to prevent violence and child abuse. If compared, it can be seen that the awareness of parents and children in the two localities (Hanoi and Hoa Binh) is higher than in Nghe An. The reason for this difference is that the survey area in Nghe An is a mountainous area far from the provincial center (Vinh), the educational level of the people is not as high as the other two localities, drug-related crimes and social evils are common, the number of children who are orphaned by one parent or both is quite high (because the parents go to work far away and do not return).
          However, people's understanding of this issue is only at a simple, rudimentary level, not grasping the specific and systematic problem. Because through the questions about the need to raise awareness, all answered that: hope to be trained to improve knowledge and skills about violence and child abuse. Some questions were answered based on the available suggestions of the questionnaire, so the project expert team sat down, cross-checked the information in the same answer sheet and drew conclusions for this issue.
          The number of parents who participate in awareness-raising programs is very small, usually parents who work in the community (Commune Women's Union, village work, etc.). As for students, receiving knowledge about preventing violence and child abuse is often provided by schools, but due to many reasons, schools have not yet developed in-depth programs on this issue. All schools in Hanoi and Nghe An have expressed their desire to be supported with materials to raise awareness for students about violence and child abuse. A few schools in Hoa Binh have not fully recognized the importance of the issue, so they still show many concerns and avoidance.
5. Recommendations
          Through the survey program in 3 localities, the project implementation team made the following recommendations:
          Firstly, the development of a set of documents on “Prevention of violence and child abuse” for schools has become urgent in the context of child abuse cases of all ages, all forms, and diverse groups of perpetrators (both relatives and strangers). Schools have become an effective channel, with good premises to successfully carry out the work of raising awareness regularly and continuously for generations of students about violence and child abuse [5].
          Second, the state and society need to communicate more through community-based forms so that people know about the hotline for child-related issues of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs - Hotline 111. Very few people know about this important information, leading to a waste of resources involved in child protection.
          Third, further research on the model of “Commune-level Child Protection Board” to find a way to strengthen and perfect this model. When conducting the survey, the group of officials asked the commune officials participating in the commune-level child protection board, but very few answered “yes” about their responsibilities towards local children. Cases of violence and child abuse are often reported directly by families to the investigation agency.
          Fourth, consider issuing regulations and policies on commune-level officials specializing in child protection. Cases of violence and child abuse do not tend to decrease, so one of the factors promoting the quality of child protection activities is to stipulate a commune-level official in charge of this content.
          Fifth, increase people's access to justice and legal support when their children are subjected to violence and abuse. By communicating more about the State Legal Aid Center under the Department of Justice of provinces/cities under the central government - the unit with the function of providing free legal support to target groups according to the provisions of the Law. Communicate about grassroots units with the function of receiving information about children who are subjected to violence and abuse and participating in child protection. Communicate about the legal rights and interests of children to all individuals and organizations in society.
          Sixth, the state has an annual plan for training and fostering legal aid workers to improve their knowledge and experience in child protection in particular and in providing legal aid in general. The team of legal aid workers has been actively participating in the work of protecting children. If this team is trained and regularly improved, it will have a very positive impact on the prevention of violence against children./.