Delegate Thai Thi An Chung contributed 4 contents to the draft Law on Prevention and Combat of Human Trafficking (amended)

Speaking at the discussion on the draft Law on Prevention and Combat of Human Trafficking (amended), delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Delegation of National Assembly Deputies of Nghe An province expressed basic agreement with the report on receiving explanations of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the draft Law on Prevention and Combat of Human Trafficking (amended).

“The draft law has absorbed many opinions from National Assembly deputies, delegations of National Assembly deputies and other agencies and organizations; at the same time, the contents of comments that have not been absorbed have also been explained thoroughly and carefully,” said the National Assembly deputy from Nghe An delegation.

To complete the draft law, delegate Thai Thi An Chung added 4 additional contents.

First of all, regarding the prohibition of buying and selling fetuses, the delegate of Nghe An delegation said that this is a new method of human trafficking, however, in the past, we have encountered many difficulties in handling the issue. Criminals often seek out pregnant women from ethnic minorities in remote areas to lure them to go abroad to give birth and then sell them for money or exchange them for other objects.

This agreement is essentially a premise for child trafficking, however, the handling of the subject is difficult because the Penal Code has no regulations. Therefore, in order to create a legal basis for the fight against crime and protect the rights of children, the addition of a provision in Clause 2, Article 3 prohibiting the act of "agreeing to buy and sell people from the fetus" in the draft Law submitted to the 8th Session is extremely necessary, meeting the requirements of practice.

“This regulation will contribute significantly to the fight against the crime of buying and selling children from the time they are still fetuses in the womb and is consistent with the provisions of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is to protect children from the time they are still in the womb,” said delegate Thai Thi An Chung.

However, according to the delegate, in practice, the buying and selling of fetuses can be for the purpose of buying and selling children after they are born, but can also be for other purposes. The provisions in this draft Law have dealt with the act of buying and selling fetuses for the purpose of buying and selling children, but have not dealt with the act of buying and selling fetuses not for the purpose of buying and selling children.

The Penal Code stipulates the crime of buying, selling, or appropriating human tissues or body parts in Article 154, but a fetus is not a human body part. Therefore, the delegate suggested adding a provision “strictly prohibiting the buying and selling of human fetuses” in Clause 2, Article 3 as in the draft Law at the 8th session of the National Assembly; that is, “strictly prohibiting the buying and selling of human fetuses; agreements to buy and sell people when they are still fetuses”.

At the same time, delegate Thai Thi An Chung also suggested adding to Article 2 of the draft Law on the interpretation of the term "fetus" so that the implementation and application of the law in practice is unified and convenient.

Regarding the procedure for receiving and verifying the person reporting as a victim, Clause 1, Article 27 of the draft Law stipulates: “Anyone who has grounds to believe that he/she is a victim or a legal representative has grounds to believe that the person they represent is a victim shall report the trafficking to the People's Committee at the commune level, the Police, Border Guard, Coast Guard or the nearest agency or organization. The Police, Border Guard, Coast Guard, agency or organization receiving the report shall be responsible for immediately transferring that person to the People's Committee at the commune level where the agency or organization is headquartered.”

According to the Deputy Head of the Nghe An National Assembly Delegation: Combining the regulations on procedures for receiving victims and procedures for receiving victims as legal representatives is not appropriate; therefore, it is recommended to amend this regulation to ensure more accuracy and strictness.

Clause 1, Article 54 of the draft Law stipulates that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the duty to: “Direct and guide functional units and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad to deploy the work of preventing and combating human trafficking and to carry out the work of protecting victims and people in the process of being identified as victims of trafficking abroad who are Vietnamese citizens;…”.

According to delegate Thai Thi An Chung: Such a regulation only demonstrates the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in protecting victims, people in the process of being identified as victims of Vietnamese citizens being sold abroad.

However, in reality, there are many cases where victims of trafficking abroad are essentially Vietnamese but do not have Vietnamese nationality because their birth certificates have not been registered and their nationality has not been determined (the reason may be because they have lost all their documents or do not have documents identifying them as Vietnamese citizens; because they were trafficked as children or as fetuses...) and are not protected. Therefore, the delegate suggested that the Drafting Committee consider adding this provision.

In addition, according to the delegate, in reality, victims of human trafficking are Vietnamese citizens (people with Vietnamese nationality), foreigners (people with nationality of other countries or Vietnamese people with foreign nationality) and even stateless people.

However, currently, the provisions of the draft Law only have provisions on handling victims of Vietnamese and foreign nationality, but there is no mechanism for handling and resolving victims who are stateless.

Therefore, the delegate proposed to study and supplement regulations on handling stateless people who are victims of human trafficking, and supplement support regimes for people in the process of being identified as stateless victims.