The Relationship Between Child Legal Age, Children’s Rights, Educationfor Children, and Child Labor: Reflection from the Vietnamese Context

Abstract

The paper analyzes the relationship between the regulation of the legal age of children and the
protection of children's rights, especially the right to education and the right not to be exploited
for labor through the case of Vietnam –one of the few countries where the legal age of children is
still lower than that of the CRC (Article 1). The authors demonstrate that the Vietnamese
regulation on the legal child age of under 16 years oldconflicts with the CRC provision of child
legal age of under 18 years old.That causes negative impacts on the enjoyment of children's
rights in general and the right to educationofchildren aged 16-17in Vietnam. Further, the authors
reveal the connection between the low child legal age andthe high rate of child labor in the
Vietnamese children group aged 16-17, who are no longer benefiting from the state's social
policies for children.In addition, the authors prove that raising the legal age of children to be in
line with the CRC's regulation is appropriate and very necessary for Vietnam today.