Anti-human trafficking law revised to better match int’l treaties: minister

Presenting the Government’s proposal on the draft at the NA’s ongoing 7th session, Minister of Public Security Sen. Lt. Gen. Lương Tam Quang said after 12 years of enforcement, there’s now an urgent need to revise and supplement this law to institutionalise the Party’s viewpoint on the human trafficking combat, ensure the legal system’s consistency as well as the law’s conformity with international treaties, resolve current problems, difficulties, and bottlenecks during enforcement, and meet requirements in reality at present and in the future.

Minister of Public Security Sen. Lt. Gen. Lương Tam Quang submitted the draft revised Law on Human Trafficking Prevention and Control to the National Assembly (NA) on June 7, saying the amendments are to ensure the law matches the international treaties to which Việt Nam is a party.

Presenting the Government’s proposal on the draft at the NA’s ongoing 7th session, Quang said after 12 years of enforcement, there’s now an urgent need to revise and supplement this law to institutionalise the Party’s viewpoint on the human trafficking combat, ensure the legal system’s consistency as well as the law’s conformity with international treaties, resolve current problems, difficulties, and bottlenecks during enforcement, and meet requirements in reality at present and in the future.

The draft consists of eight chapters with 66 articles. Compared to the 2011 law, it has the same number of chapters, amends and supplements the content of 52 of the 58 existing articles, adds nine new articles, and removes one.

The revision and supplementation aim to ensure legal regulations are consistent, and the law is in conformity with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (also known as the Palermo Protocol), the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), along with other international ones to which Việt Nam is a party, as well as with the 2015 Penal Code (revised and supplemented in 2017).

The move is also meant to guarantee and protect human rights and victims’ rights in a manner appropriate to Việt Nam’s current and future socio-economic conditions, according to Quang.

Delivering the verification report, Chairwoman of the NA’s Committee for Judicial Affairs Lê Thị Nga said that basically, the draft law fully and comprehensively institutionalises the Party’s viewpoint and guidelines on human trafficking prevention and control, along with the 2013 Constitution. It basically matches the legal system and the relevant international treaties to which Việt Nam is a party.

However, she asked the drafting body to continue making review to integrate certain articles of the Palermo Protocol, the ACTIP, and some other international treaties into the law more fully. Further review is also necessary to ensure its better consistency with other laws, including the Penal Code.

The Committee for Judicial Affairs basically agrees with the draft, Nga went on, noting that the addition of the definition of “trafficking in persons” is one of the key points of this draft and serves as the basis for fundamentally reforming policies on human trafficking prevention and control.