Committee on the Elimination against Women reviews the situation of Women in Viet Nam

Committee on Elimination of Discrimination
against Women

10 July 2015

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today considered the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports of Viet Nam on its implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Doan Mau Diep, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Viet Nam, introducing the report, stressed Viet Nam’s strong political commitment towards the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, adding that the 2013 Constitution guaranteed equality between women and men in all aspects and strictly prohibited gender-based discrimination.  Viet Nam aimed to ensure by 2020 substantive equality between men and women in opportunity, participation and enjoyment in the fields of politics, economy, culture and society and had allocated $50 million to the National Programme on Gender Equality 2011-2015.  Progress had been made in reducing inequality and Viet Nam had ranked forty-seventh on the gender inequality index in 2012, up from fifty-eighth in 2010.  Viet Nam had achieved the Millennium Development Goal 5, successfully reducing maternal mortality rates from 80 per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 60 in 2014.  The child mortality rate had decreased rapidly to 14.9 per 1,000 for children under the age of one and 22.4 per 1,000 for under-fives.  Viet Nam recognized the many gaps and challenges in achieving de facto elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, and was planning to address them through the National Programme on Gender Equality 2016-2020, the National Plan to Prevent and Suppress Gender-based Violence 2016-2020, and the National Plan for Comprehensive Education Reforms.

Committee Experts said that Viet Nam had made substantial progress in the advancement of women, including through the setting up of a national legal framework for gender equality, and commended the progress in education and access to school for girls.  They welcomed the strong legal framework for the participation of women in political and public life, noting that 24 per cent of deputies in the National Assembly were women, the lowest for the past four years, but still above the Asian average.  Experts welcomed the progress in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates and asked whether the progress in this regard was uniform throughout the country.  A number of issues were raised with the delegation of Viet Nam, including equal access to quality school, particularly for girls, ethnic children and children from remote areas; the persistent practice of trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation and the low rate of prosecution of perpetrators; and the continued existence of gender stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes, including preference for boys, causing sex-selective abortions, early and child marriages, and disproportionate mortality rates of the girl child.  Experts also expressed concern about persistent discrimination, particularly against vulnerable women such as ethnic minorities and rural women. 

The delegation said that Viet Nam had ratified in June 2015 the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and had developed a national strategy for persons with disabilities.  Vulnerable elderly persons without any income received weekly subsistence allowances, while people from rural and remote areas, including ethnic minorities such as Khmer and Hmong, enjoyed dedicated attention and support, including through allowances and subsidies for students and cash transfers to the poor as a measure to prevent child labour and ensure that children attended school; ethnic minorities were also represented in all levels of the Government.  Maternal mortality rates in rural areas were three times higher than in the rest of the country, and Viet Nam was establishing satellite hospitals in more than 30 provinces to support clinics in rural areas, and trained and provided incentives and support to nurses, obstetricians and community-based midwives.

In concluding remarks, Mr. Diep said that encouraging achievements in terms of gender equality and elimination of discrimination against women had been made and stressed that Viet Nam was aware of the challenges ahead, particularly in addressing persistent gender stereotypes. 

The delegation of Viet Nam included representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the Permanent Mission of Viet Nam to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be at 4 p.m. on Monday, 13 July when it will hear from non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions on the situation of women in Bolivia, Croatia, Namibia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, whose reports will be considered during the rest of the sixty-first session.

Reports

The combined seventh and eighth periodic reports of Viet Nam can be read here: CEDAW/C/VNM/7-8.

Presentation of the Reports

DOAN MAU DIEP, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Viet Nam, said that since the last dialogue with the Committee in 2007, Viet Nam had shown strong political commitment towards the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, as evidenced by the development of laws and policies.  The 2013 Constitution guaranteed equality between women and men in all aspects, obliged the State to promote policies to ensure gender equality, and strictly prohibited gender-based discrimination.  The revised Labour Code 2012 increased the length of maternity leave from four to six months, while the revised Social Insurance Law 2014 introduced paternity leave.  The revised Law on Marriage and Family 2014 for the first time recognized the chore work and other tasks related to maintaining of family life as paid labour and reaffirmed equality between spouses in rights and obligations related to the creation, possession, use and decision-making on the common property.  The National Strategy on Gender Equality 2011-2020 aimed to ensure by 2020 substantive equality between men and women in opportunity, participation and enjoyment in the fields of politics, economy, culture and society.  Viet Nam had allocated $ 50 million to the National Programme on Gender Equality 2011-2015 which focused on raising awareness and changing behaviours on gender equality, improving capacity and efficiency of State management on gender equality, and piloting supporting services for the implementation of gender equality and reducing gender gaps in regions with high levels of gender inequality. 

Many other national strategies and programmes had made positive impacts on further strengthening access to social services for women and protecting them from discrimination, including the national strategy on health, which aimed to reduce maternal mortality rates; the strategy on ethnic affairs which set out specific goals on policies for ethnic minority women; the National Action Programme on Prevention against Domestic Violence 2020; and the programmes on child protection and on prevention and reduction of child labour which aimed to reduce the number of children, particularly girls, from school drop outs.  Progress had been made in reducing inequality and Viet Nam had ranked forty-seventh on the gender inequality index in 2012, up from fifty-eighth in 2010.  Viet Nam had achieved the Millennium Development Goal 5, successfully reducing maternal mortality rates from 80 per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 60 in 2014.  The child mortality rate had decreased rapidly to 14.9 per 1,000 for children under the age of one and 22.4 per 1,000 for under-fives.  Viet Nam recognized the many gaps and challenges in achieving de facto elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, including attitudes and behaviour of the society and certain groups including among policy makers on substantive gender equality; persistent gender gaps in key areas including in politics, economy, education and health care, especially in remote and ethnic minority regions; and the financial and human resources, and the national machinery necessary for the implementation of the Convention.  In order to address those challenges, Viet Nam had put in place the National Programme on Gender Equality 2016-2020, the National Plan to Prevent and Suppress Gender-based Violence 2016-2020, and the National Plan for Comprehensive Education Reforms.

Articles 1 and 2: Defining Discrimination and Obligations of States Parties

Questions from the Experts
 
A Committee Expert asked whether Viet Nam planned to develop an action plan for the implementation of the Committee’s concluding recommendations and whether it would accede to the Optional Protocol.  The Expert urged Viet Nam to adopt a broad definition of discrimination and asked about the action and the timetable for the removal of discriminatory provisions from existing laws.  Viet Nam was commended for the consolidation of the legal framework for gender equality and the Expert asked about resources allocated for the implementation of gender policies and training of the judiciary, police and lawyers on the existing legal provisions.

Responses by the Delegation

Viet Nam intended to develop an action plan for the implementation of the Committee’s concluding observations and was studying the possibility of ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention; the position would be transmitted to the Government, which would pass it on for adoption to Parliament.  The Supreme Court had developed in 2011 a strategy to implement gender equality and non-discrimination within the courts; a key activity in this strategy was training of judges in the interpretation and application of gender and non-discrimination laws.  The Office of the Prosecutor was also delivering training for prosecutors in which the concept of gender equality and discrimination, and the action against discrimination, would be discussed. 

The concept of discrimination was broadly interpreted in the 2013 Constitution, which prohibited it in all fields of life, and in private and public spheres; the Constitution also reaffirmed the primary responsibility of the State to protect women from discrimination.  This understanding was evident in all national laws.  In terms of discriminatory legal provisions, a delegate stressed that Viet Nam would like to revise the retirement age so that it was same for women and man, but 70 per cent of employers were overwhelmingly in favour of maintaining the five-year gap between women and men; those differences were obvious in the discussions on the amendments to the Social Insurance Law.  The list of professions prohibited to women had been reduced from 70 to 30.  Laws, bylaws and regulations would be revised to ensure their full compliance with the 2013 Constitution.

Following up to the replies by the delegation, Committee Experts asked for an explanation about differences that existed in laws and decrees on legal aid, information about specific measures to eliminate discrimination against vulnerable women, and the action to protect women human rights defenders, including those reportedly arrested for their activities and held in detention.

In response, a delegation said that Viet Nam had ratified in June 2015 the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and had developed a national strategy for persons with disabilities.  Several programmes were in place to ensure vocational training of persons with disabilities, who could also access loans and credits under favourable conditions.  Vulnerable elderly persons without any income received a weekly subsistence allowance, and Viet Nam wished to do more for this group depending on the level of its socio-economic development and availability of resources.  Viet Nam was a country of 53 nations and people living in remote areas enjoyed particular attention by the Government, for example rice distribution for students, building campuses to enable children who lived far away from school to attend school, and other programmes to curb child labour and ensure that children were in school and not at work.  Because of lack of resources, the limitations to the content of legal aid and target beneficiaries had been reduced, but the Law on Legal Aid would remove those differences. 

Articles 3 and 4: Appropriate Measures and Temporary Special Measures to Combat Discrimination

Questions from the Experts
 
Substantial progress had been achieved in ensuring the advancement of women since 2004, including setting up a national legal framework for gender equality and strategy for its implementation, and a special agency – the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs - had been appointed for the purpose.  The National Committee for the Advancement of Women was responsible for the coordination of issues related to the advancement of women and there was a role of the Vietnamese Women’s Union in the implementation at all levels.  The Expert asked how those three important institutions were coordinated, how they contributed to the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality and the Strategy, and what concrete resources were allocated. 

Another Expert noted that measures taken by Viet Nam to ensure the advancement of women did not really qualify as temporary special measures, because they looked more like general policy and regulatory instruments, rather than measures taken on a temporary basis to accelerate the progress in the elimination of discrimination against women and achieve gender equality.  Discrimination against some groups of women was persistent, and some women continued to suffer multiple forms of discrimination; it was time to apply temporary special measures in education and employment, and in particularly for ethnic, minority and rural women.

Responses by the Delegation

Promoting gender equality and anti-discrimination against women was related to many ministries, and the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs was the key governmental institution in charge of coordination.  The National Committee for the Advancement of Women had been established by the Prime Minister as the principal coordination body, while the Women’s Union had the role of adviser.

The revised Labour Code had introduced temporary special measures to advance gender equality in employment and protect female workers, concerning protection from termination of work during pregnancy, and to guarantee time for breastfeeding.  The Government had the responsibility to build day care centres in industrial areas with low representation of women, and to provide incentives for enterprises to hire women and in particular women with small children.  The Labour Code defined equal rights in recruitment, and temporary special measure required that a priority be given to a qualified female candidate.  There was no discrimination against any of the 54 brotherly groups in Viet Nam who were all equal; resources and budgets were priorities for ethnic groups, including Khmer and Hmong whose students received allowances, subsidies, and tuition at universities, while ethnic minorities were represented at all levels of the Government. 

Articles 5 and 6: Modifying Social and Cultural Patterns and Suppressing Exploitation of Women

Questions from the Experts
 
A Committee Expert said that patriarchy was the main reason for unconditional male supremacy which had prevailed worldwide, including in Viet Nam, and it excluded women and girls because of their perceived biological weaknesses.  The Vietnamese post-war society did not take advantage to correct this and there remained strong preference for sons resulting in sex-selective abortions; what efforts had been made to change patriarchal attitudes that threatened daily living conditions of women and girls, such as sex-selective abortions, early and child marriages, and disproportionate mortality of the girl child because of undernourishment. 

Fifty-eight per cent of women experienced some form of violence during their lifetimes; such violence was often considered normal and not serious in legal terms and many perpetrators of violence against women enjoyed impunity.

Noting the persistent practice of trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation, a Committee Expert commended Viet Nam for developing anti-trafficking legislation and the ratification of the Palermo Protocol in 2012 and noted the lack of progress in victim identification and support, and in the prosecution of offenders.  Regulations needed to be expanded to allow for victim self-identification, and budgets needed to be made available to ensure gender sensitive training for law enforcement officers.  Was there a plan to establish a coordinating mechanism for victims of human trafficking?  Areas of concern included trafficking of new born babies internally and externally, trafficking of women in the guise of international marriages, and that sex workers continued to be victims of abuse.

Responses by the Delegation

In response to these questions and others, the delegation said that a certain proportion of the society was patriarchal, but not the society as a whole.  Prenatal sex selection was prohibited and other measures needed to be taken to stop this practice.  Children were welcomed in Viet Nam also because many people did not have pensions and children were insurance for old age; the Government was providing cash assistance to certain groups to enable them to participate in social insurance schemes and receive pensions, and was working on altering mindsets that only boys were old age insurance. 

Viet Nam was revising its Criminal Code in which crimes against children and human trafficking received particular attention.  Concrete measures to protect victims of trafficking and their families were contained in the Criminal Code, the 2011 Law on Human Trafficking, and a circular was being drafted which would provide victims with assistance and support.  Viet Nam was enlarging regional cooperation to increase the capacity to fight the crime of human trafficking, particularly of women and children, while two hot lines had been put in place in two border regions; in 2014 more than 14,000 calls had been received on issues of human trafficking and child abuse.  Cash transfer programmes were in place on a pilot basis in six provinces, in favour of poor ethnic women with newborns and poor families to ensure that their children were sent to school and that newborns were properly cared for.

The Criminal Code contained a list of crimes and criminal sanctions for acts which directly or indirectly harmed women in prostitution, and for holding women in prostitution.  There were strict sanctions for clients of very young sex workers.  In 2014, a new approach to prostitution had been adopted, and instead of compulsory health care for sex workers, a number of measures had been put in place to enable and facilitate sex workers to leave prostitution and support their reintegration in the community.  More than 1,000 initiatives across the country were in place to assist female sex workers to leave prostitution and to establish a community-based approach to preventing prostitution.  Surrogacy for commercial purposes was prohibited; commercial surrogacy happened outside of the country, and Viet Nam applied a humanitarian approach to the return of women to Viet Nam and if they returned with children, birth certificates were provided.

Articles 7 to 9: Equality in Political and Public Life at the National and International Levels and Equality in Nationality Laws

Questions from the Experts

A Committee Expert commended the strong legal framework for the participation of women in political and public life, including in the diplomatic service.  After the last elections, 24 per cent of deputies in the National Assembly were women; regrettably, this was the lowest for the past four years, but was still above the Asian average.  It was commendable that 50 per cent of posts in ministries and national agencies were held by women, but very few women were Ministers, Vice Ministers or Director Generals, while only three per cent of ambassadors were women.  It was the culture and not biology that made women submissive, and changing patriarchal attitudes at all levels of society needed to happen to ensure the equal participation of women in public and political life.  What conditions existed for the functioning of civil society and what action would be taken to address violence against women activists?

Another Expert recognized the efforts to implement the 2008 law through which more than 2,000 stateless women had acquired nationality by 2013, but there were still 800 stateless women waiting for nationality.  It was important to understand that statelessness increased risk of trafficking, abuse, and arbitrary detention.  Would Viet Nam accede to the 1954 Convention on Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on Reduction of Statelessness?  Could the delegation inform about the situation of refugee and asylum seeking women, including their access to State services?

Replies by the Delegation

The Law on National Assembly, which would enter into force in 2016, contained a temporary special measure of 35 per cent representation of women.  Communication campaigns were conducted to show the value of participation of women in politics and in decision-making in public life, while specific training was being provided to women candidates.  At the moment, Viet Nam was researching the possibility to join the 1954 and 1961 Conventions on statelessness.

Articles 10 to 14: Equality in Education, in Employment and Labour Rights, and in Access to Health Facilities, Finance and Social Security, and Rural Women

Questions from the Experts
 
A Committee Expert commended Viet Nam on its many efforts in the area of education and access to school for girls, but concerns remained about equal access to quality school, particularly for girls, ethnic children, and children from remote areas.  There was very little information available about the implementation of the national action plan in education, and it might be advisable to ensure that the new phase 2016-2020 received an adequate budget and that monitoring plans were established.  Gender stereotypes and biases still existed in textbooks and teaching methods and the delegation was asked how this issue of concern was being addressed.

Another Expert expressed concern that the legislation on the extension of maternity leave was not being implemented in practice because of lack of monitoring, about the persistent pay gap between women and men, the continued vulnerability of women because of their exclusion from the Labour Code, and discrimination, including the non-pregnancy commitment for as long as three years, and different retirement ages for women which affected their pensions.  Female domestic workers, often migrants, were in a difficult situation: what was being done to protect them, including from sexual harassment and abuse, and would Viet Nam ratify the International Labour Organization Convention 189 on Domestic Workers.

Viet Nam had achieved significant progress in reducing maternal and infant mortality; what was the situation in this regard in remote rural areas and among the most vulnerable population, including in women’s health, and what was being done to turn temporary special measures into standard approach?

Replies by the Delegation

The Government had undertaken gender assessment of its textbooks which showed that they contained gender stereotypes and sex imbalances.  Manuals had been developed to guide the revision of the textbooks for the next phase of the national education programme, to which a sufficient monitoring and evaluation budget had been assigned.   Textbooks had been published in the ethnic languages of those groups which had script and sex education was part of the curriculum in the effort to empower girls to stay in school; drop outs because of pregnancy were not compulsory.

Maternal mortality rates in rural areas were three times higher than in the rest of the country, because of the lack of qualified nurses and doctors, while midwives operated in only about 30 per cent of rural communities, and half of them were not supported.  A significant proportion of health facilities serving rural areas were not equipped to perform C-sections.  To address this situation, Viet Nam was establishing satellite hospitals in more than 30 provinces to support clinics in rural areas; it was providing training to nurses, and would also ensure capacity building of obstetricians and would provide incentives for them to undertake work in the mountain areas.  Most mothers in rural areas delivered at home, which was why midwives were trained and provided with clean delivery kits, and they were also supported with subsidies. 

In its action to address abortion, the Government promoted behaviour change for greater use of contraceptives and family planning, particularly for single adults; distributed contraceptives in communities; ensured safe abortion services; and focused on safe sex education in schools and reproductive health services in communities.  Over the past seven years, Viet Nam had seen a drop in new HIV/AIDS infections, although the rate of new infections remained quite high, at 14,000 new cases annually; those most at risk were drug users and sex workers.  In order to control the disease, Viet Nam put focus on behaviour change communication, and on cutting routes of transmission, including anti-retroviral treatment of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. 

All women with newborns were entitled to social insurance for a period of six months and they were encouraged to take their maternity leave in order to be with their babies and ensure breastfeeding.  Gender pay gap was a fact, not only in Viet Nam but throughout the world; the gap in the country was closing, even though much remained to be done to close it completely, including to ensure that employers paid fair wages.  Labour unions and labour inspectors played a crucial role here.  There was recognition of the important contribution of migrant workers to the economy, so the authorities made an investment in building day care centres and accommodation for migrant workers; and revisions to the social insurance law made national insurance cards valid throughout the country, and not in the commune of origin only, as had been the case.  Domestic workers would be the new target groups in the Government’s decrees and laws which would aim to improve their human rights.

Today, 98 per cent of children were in primary school, and 46.3 per cent of them were girls.  According to the Child Labour Survey 2013, nine per cent of the children aged 5-17 were in work; this was similar to the situation of other countries, but Viet Nam was worried about the phenomenon and had put in place several programmes to combat child labour, including pilot cash transfers to families to ensure that their children were in school.

Further Questions from the Experts
 
Viet Nam had witnessed dramatic socio-economic changes over the past two decades, but despite the progress, especially in reducing poverty rates, women still faced challenges, obstacles and inequality in the employment sector.  Currently, around 78 per cent of women worked in the informal sector, where they did not enjoy the full protection of the law.  What specific interventions were being planned for the economic empowerment of women, access to loans and to social protection?  Ethnic women suffered cycles of impoverishment, particularly the Hmong who because of their levels of debts could be used in modern forms of slavery.

Another Expert recognized the action to eliminate poverty which disproportionately affected the rural population, and asked about women’s participation in training initiatives in the agriculture sector, their participation in decision-making in the agricultural sector, and whether women were inscribed in the certificate of land ownership.

Responses by the Delegation

Credit facilities were available to rural and poor households, including through the National Employment Fund, and it had in place a number of pilot credit programmes for women, implemented through the Women’s Union.  A woman’s name was inscribed on the land certificate in principle, and even if not, if the husband wished to transfer the use of land to someone else, a notary required the approval of the woman.  There was no legislation on climate change, but a national programme for climate change was in place. 

Articles 15 and 16: Equality in Legal and Civil Matters and in Family Law

Questions from the Experts
 
A Committee Expert said that the revised Marriage and Family Law emphasized gender equality, but it also perpetuated gender stereotypes by promoting traditional roles within the family.  Women and men should share the responsibility of parenting.  The Civil Code provided for equal inheritance rights, but the inheritance of women was negatively affected by traditions and cultural practices.  The draft Law on Population, scheduled to be introduced in 2016, maintained the limit of two children per family, which, given the preference for boys, encouraged sex-selective abortions.  The rate of child marriages was on the increase, particularly among ethnic minorities.     

Responses by the Delegation

The Civil Code had been amended to ensure equality in inheritance between men and women and there was a need to sensitize people and raise awareness about this law, including in matters of last wills.  The Penal Code was being revised to criminalize forced early marriage and the delegation stressed the importance of communication for behaviour change in addressing this harmful practice.  There was no customary law in Viet Nam. 

There was an ongoing discussion on whether a couple should decide on the number of children they wanted in the framework of drafting of the Population Law.  This draft would be opened for consultation with the public and citizens would have an opportunity to contribute, including on the number of children a couple wished to have.

Concluding Remarks

DOAN MAU DIEP, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that Viet Nam had made encouraging achievements in terms of gender equality and the elimination of discrimination against women, and was aware of the challenges ahead, particularly in addressing persistent gender stereotypes. 

YOKO HAYASHI, Committee Chairperson, thanked the delegation for the constructive dialogue and encouraged Viet Nam to take all necessary measures to address the various recommendations made by the Committee.

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