GENDER EQUALITY – The highlight of Vietnamese human rights

It can be said that Vietnam is one of the country which has attained a high achievement in gender equality. For that, the UN has assessed Vietnam as the highlight in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. That result is a vivid demonstration that shows the Party and the State have deeply cared for women’s interests in particular and ensured human rights in general.

The gender equality issue in Vietnam is affected by the Vietnamese long history at each different stage of history, there are different manifestations. Notably, for centuries, Vietnamese people was under the feudal domination of the Chinese, especially when Confucianism was spread into Vietnam, the role of women in society became extremely inferior. Accordingly, the gender inequality was rampant, the fundamental rights of women were not guaranteed, even deprived unreasonably.

Recognizing the importance and the responsibility to show the people and the international community, in its political program in 1930, the Vietnamese Communist Party identified that gender equality is one of ten crucial tasks of the Vietnamese Revolution. It was also noted in the first 1946 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and was clearly affirmed in Article 63 of the Constitution (as amended in 1992) of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. So far, Vietnam has participated in several international conventions, including: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW in 1981), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC in 1990) and actively implemented the Beijing Platform for Action (in 1995) for equality, peace and development. In addition, many laws and policies have been issued, amended and supplemented to create favorable conditions for the implementation of gender equality and protect women's rights. The highlights were: the National Strategy for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam in order to improve the quality of life (both physical and mental) for women, as well as to create conditions necessary for women to enjoy their basic rights, participate completely in every aspect of political, economic, cultural and social life. Besides, the Labour Code (2002) was amended and supplemented the content related to policies for female workers, including social security, wages, labor protection and vocational trainings. In addition, Vietnam has signed agreements for legal assistance in many countries and participated international agreements and declaration on the prevention of human trafficking, and is an active member of the multilateral forums such as The process of Consulting Asia – Pacific, Bali process on the prevention of human trafficking and transnational crimes, ASEAN joint Declaration on the prevention of human trafficking... Along with the guidelines and policies in the areas of basic, our State is also interested in the particular fields, such as the promulgation of the Ordinance on the prevention of prostitution (2003), Programme of Action to prevent and combat trafficking in women and children, and also handle serious crime and take measures to help victims. The State has also enacted the Law on Gender Equality (2006), Law against Domestic Violence (2007). In particular, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (the 10th) gave Resolution No. 11-NQ/TW about the women in the period of accelerated industrialization and modernization of the country (2007); the Prime Minister approved the National Strategy on Gender Equality (2011-2020), the National Assembly often performs better monitoring of gender equality. Every year, the government has reported results of implementation of the law on gender equality in an efforts to ensure good equality between men and women, the rights to work, to elect and to express their opinions and hopes, the rights to choice of spouse for marriage or divorce,… and all are protected by law.

The results obtained in the above areas have an important contribution to improve the quality of life and quality of human resources, and the most convincing evidence that: Vietnam is a national pioneer in struggle for gender equality and human rights defenders. However, the hostile forces still find ways to deny these accomplishments, to serve their conspiracy against the Party and the State. However, these tricks can not fool anyone, because Doi Moi’s achievements in general, as well as the achievements on the field of gender equality in Vietnam in particular, are the undeniable facts that the peoples and many organizations worldwide have recognized./.