50 years of Viet Nam - UNICEF partnership in advancing children’s rights

On November 26, UNICEF Viet Nam held a ceremony to mark 50 years of Partnership between Viet Nam and UNICEF (1975 - 2025) and 35 years since Viet Nam's ratification the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

From as early as 1975, UNICEF was among the first United Nations agencies to establish a presence in Viet Nam. Its initial humanitarian programmes played a vital role in helping the country overcome the aftermath of war, ensuring that children had access to essential needs such as nutrition, healthcare, clean water, and education. In 1990, Viet Nam became the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, just one year after the Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly.

In his opening remarks at the celebration, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long emphasized that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified international treaty in history, with 196 States Parties, showing Viet Nam’s strong commitment to protecting, caring for, and educating children.

To date, Viet Nam’s policy and legal frameworks have been continuously updated and strengthened toward greater comprehensiveness and inclusiveness. Key milestones include universal preschool education for children aged 3 to 5, tuition exemptions for kindergarten level, the development of STEM education programmes, implementation of the National Nutrition Strategy for 2021 - 2030 with a vision to 2045, expansion of the national immunization programme, and enhancements in social protection and disaster response capacity.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long, Viet Nam hopes to continue receiving UNICEF’s support in several key areas: strengthening policy development and planning for national target programmes related to children; enhancing capacities for comprehensive child care, protection, and education; modernizing the social services system; promoting innovative models and projects in child protection; and mobilizing sustainable financial and technical resources for child-focused programmes.

June Kunugi, UNICEF Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific, praised Viet Nam’s remarkable progress over the past 35 years in placing children and young people at the centre of its policies. UNICEF has identified three priority areas for supporting Viet Nam in the coming period: increasing investment in children and human capital; ensuring safety and empowerment for children within their communities; and building more climate-resilient families and communities capable of withstanding natural disasters and social shocks.

After 50 years of cooperation, the partnership between Viet Nam and UNICEF is entering a new phase marked by innovation, digital transformation, and emerging challenges from climate change to digital inequality. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to working together to ensure that every child enjoys their full rights and that no child is left behind.

As the body overseeing the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recognized Viet Nam as one of the countries making significant progress in developing its legal framework and strengthening social investment for children.

Since ratifying the Convention 35 years ago, Viet Nam has not only fulfilled its commitments on paper but has also achieved tangible improvements for children. The legal and policy framework has become increasingly comprehensive, reflected in the specific provisions on children’s rights in the 2016 Law on Children, alongside amendments to the Education Law, laying a solid legal foundation to protect children and ensure their participation nationwide. Children’s well-being has also improved, including reductions in poverty and child mortality, expanded access to quality education, and better control of child labor and early marriage.

The deep spirit of solidarity between Viet Nam and UNICEF is further demonstrated through numerous programmes aimed at poverty reduction, enhancing child welfare, and supporting vulnerable groups of children.

Looking back over the past 50 years, it is clear that the achievements reflect not only the efforts of the Vietnamese government and UNICEF but also the commitment of society as a whole to the future of children. In this new phase, cooperation between the state, international organizations, and agencies responsible for children will continue to expand, innovate, and strengthen, with the aim of building a fair, inclusive, and sustainable environment for the development of all children in Viet Nam.