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The 2024 Law on Justice for Minors (the Law) aims to institutionalize the Party’s policy on building a child-friendly justice system, reinforce the protection of minors, and affirm Vietnam’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Law not only reflects humanitarian and humanistic values at its core but also marks a significant step forward in preventing and combating juvenile delinquency by remedying long-standing gaps in the penalty system, enforcement procedures, and reintegration mechanisms for minors.
The Law takes effect on January 1, 2026, except Article 179.2, which states that favorable provisions for juvenile offenders come into force on December 2, 2024—the date of promulgation of the Law. These include the provisions concerning reprimand, fine, and termed imprisonment; decision on penalties in case of preparation to commit crimes or uncompleted commission of crimes; reduction of pronounced penalties; suspended sentences; postponement of the serving of imprisonment sentences; conditional early release; and expungement of criminal records, and other provisions of Chapter VI of the Law that are beneficial to offenders.
Introducing diversionary measures, reforming deterrent and coercive measures
To raise the effectiveness of crime prevention while safeguarding the rights of minors, the Law prioritizes the application of diversionary measures to juvenile offenders in all stages of investigation, prosecution and adjudication.
The Law introduces 12 diversionary measures applied to juvenile offenders, including 11 community-based measures and one measure of education at a reformatory.
Community-based diversionary measures include reprimand, apology to the victim, compensation for damage, education in the commune, ward or township, house arrest, restrictions on travel hours, prohibition from contacting persons likely to cause the minor to reoffend, prohibition from visiting places likely to lead to reoffending, participation in educational or vocational training programs, participation in psychological treatment or counseling, and performance of community service.
For minors charged with crimes, the Law states that deterrent measures and coercive measures may be applied to minors only in cases of real necessity. Specifically, the 10 deterrent measures include: holding of persons in cases of emergency, arrest in the cases specified in the Criminal Procedure Code, holding in custody, holding in temporary detention, electronic monitoring, monitoring by representatives, bail, deposit of money as security, prohibition from leaving minors’ places of residence, and postponement of exit. The three coercive measures are police escort and accompanied escort, distraint of property, and freezing of account.
The measure of holding in custody or temporary detention may be applied to minors only when there are grounds to believe that the application of other preventive measures is ineffective. If such grounds no longer exist or when deeming that the holding in custody or temporary detention is no longer necessary, agencies and persons competent to conduct proceedings must promptly issue decisions to cancel such deterrent measures and replace them with other ones.
Such measures are intended to help juvenile offenders recognize their wrongdoings and facilitate their rehabilitation into responsible citizens with active contributions to society.
Proposing application of optional penalties to juvenile offenders
Article 115 stipulates that a minor who commits an offense is subject to only one penalty of warning, fine, non-custodial reform, or termed imprisonment. This facilitates a more appropriate approach to sanctioning juvenile offenders, thus limiting the application of imprisonment sentences, especially when it is possible to apply other penalties. It also ensures fairness and equality in juvenile justice policies.
The Law manifests humanitarian and progressive policies through reducing the maximum prison terms applicable to juvenile offenders. For those aged from full 14 years to under 16 years, the maximum sentence is shortened to nine years from 12 years; for those aged between full 16 years and under 18 years, the sentence is reduced from 18 years to 15 years. The reduction is not applicable to those committing one of the five crimes. i.e., murder; rape; raping a person aged under 16 years; having forcible sexual intercourse with a person aged between full 13 years and under 16 years; and illegally producing narcotics.
This provision aims to institutionalize the Party’s requirements to improve criminal policies and raise prevention efficiency and inclination toward goodness in handling offenders, while ensuring law observance and safeguarding public safety.
Shortening litigation duration for juveniles charged with crimes
To ensure timely settlement of criminal cases involving juvenile defendants, the Law shortens the time limit for litigation, saying that the time limit for investigation, decision on prosecution, first-instance trial preparation or appellate trial preparation for cases involving juvenile defendants must not exceed half of the time limit applied to adult defendants, except complicated cases to which the Criminal Procedure Code will prevail.
To minimize adverse impacts of criminal procedures on minors, Article 143.1 states that for a criminal case involving both a juvenile defendant and an adult defendant, the investigation body should divide the criminal case into separate components for independently settling the component for the juvenile defendant.
Providing friendly adjudication procedures
Under Article 151, hearings must be conducted in a friendly manner to guarantee the lawful rights and interests of minors. Judges presiding over hearings have to wear the official attires of the court while procurators wear appropriate attires other than the official uniforms of people’s procurators.
In the course of adjudication, handcuffs or other coercive measures may not be used, unless minors show signs of resistance, cause disorder in the courtroom or commit other negative acts.
Minors’ representatives may support minors at hearings. The inquiry of, and exchange of arguments with, minors at hearings must be conducted in a manner suitable to their age, gender, cognitive capacity, and maturity level. Questions should be concise, simple, easy to understand, and not cover multiple issues at a time.
Offering provisions on prisons exclusively reserved for juvenile inmates
The Law permits minors to serve their imprisonment sentences in prisons, sub-prisons or detention zones exclusively reserved for minors as prisoners.
These prisons, sub-prisons or zones must be arranged and designed to be appropriate to minors’ age and gender. Moreover, each of them must have detention areas based on characteristics of crimes, penalties and gender; prison cells; facilities serving learning, daily-life activities and health care; sports and entertainment areas; work and vocational training areas; inmate visitation areas; and other facilities as specified by the Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments.
In addition, the Law also guarantees comprehensive regimes for juvenile inmates, including healthcare, general education, career orientation, vocational training, and working; food, clothing and cultural, art and recreational activities, and communication with relatives.
These provisions not only help ensure enforcement of the best policies being education and rehabilitation for minor offenders but also affirm Vietnam’s commitment to international recommendations on assurance of the complete separation of juvenile inmates from adult inmates in serving of imprisonment sentences.
By VLLF
