Viet Nam Human Rights
»
home
»
Vietnam lawmakers boggled over draft regulation restricting length of citizens’ full names
Vietnam lawmakers boggled over draft regulation restricting length of citizens’ full names
14/5/15
Local lawmakers are mulling a draft amendment suggesting
restrictions on the length of Vietnamese full names, which seems to be a
personal matter and has nothing to do with social order.
Minister of Justice Ha Hung Cuong presented a
set of draft amendments at a Standing Committee meeting of the National
Assembly (NA) on Tuesday.
The draft amendments are based on feedback from
over 7.5 million people, according to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
One of the suggestions stated that a Vietnamese
citizen’s full name should not have more than 25 letters, or feature numbers or
symbols.
The suggestion indicated that while citizens
have the right to choose their full name at their own will, the government
should set specific rules to guide them in doing so.
Many full names are not culturally appropriate,
the VNA said.
Transgender people have also encountered
immense difficulty changing their full names from those typical of one gender
to the other, delegates heard.
The draft amendment also urged that a provision
be added to the Law on Vietnamese Nationality to issue a regulation that anyone
who applies for Vietnamese citizenship must have a Vietnamese name.
Delegate Phung Quoc Hien expressed his support
for the regulation that restricts the length of Vietnamese full names, adding
that a number of parents have given their children overly lengthy names, which
causes great difficulty in administrative paperwork and transactions later, Tuoi Tre (Youth)
newspaper reported.
However, Truong Thi Mai, chairperson of the NA
Committee on Social Affairs, noted that the restriction may not go along with
the Vietnamese Constitution.
“A long full name does not interfere with
social order or national security and defense. We should only encourage
citizens to avoid lengthy names, but it’s up to them to decide,” Tuoi Tre cited
Mai as saying.
Cuong, Minister of Justice, told the Tuesday
session that the government has discussed the issue thoroughly.
“Names belong to citizens, but are recorded in
state documents, such as identity cards, and driver's licenses. Abbreviations
must be used for long names, which may bring troubles to the name holders
themselves later,” he explained.
“We pay due respect to citizens’ identity
rights but our job is to provide guidance to avoid complications in social order
and management,” Cuong stressed.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Giau, chairman of the NA
Committee on Economic Affairs, called for a clearer definition of truly
Vietnamese names as stated in the draft amendment, as expat Vietnamese tend to
use their full names with their first names placed before their last in the
order adopted by most Western countries.
The NA Committee on Legal Affairs also said
that the draft regulation that anyone who applies for Vietnamese citizenship
must have a Vietnamese name should be given more consideration.
Since January, the Ministry of Justice has been
soliciting suggestions and feedback on the draft amendments to the Civil Code
on its website http://www.moj.gov.vn, according to the VNA.
The current draft comprises 672 articles, shorter
than the 2009 Civil Code, which has 777 articles.
Popular Posts
-
Religion is a part of the spiritual life in society, this phenomenon of the superstructure has been strongly changed with economic - social... -
Vietnam has just done well for the second cycle of Universal Periodical Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland. So, what’s the UPR? an... -
Thai people in Shutdown Bangkok protests Not until this crisis, we have realized the ne... -
Representatives from foreign countries congratulate Viet Nam on its election to the Human Rights Council for the first time on November ... -
A street flowers vendor in Hanoi Another new spring has come to Vietnam, bring... -
If nothing changes, there will be a preferential credit program with hundreds of thousands billion of capital for agriculture and r... -
Recently, several anti-governmental individuals have established series of illegal groups and organizations in the name of civil soci... -
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit international broadcasting agency of the United States government that broadcasts and...
All comments [ 10 ]
A person's full nomenclature, also known as a personal name or full name, refers to a set of names by which an individual may be known, that are or can be recited as a group, with the understanding that they all relate to one person.
In some cultures, individuals are known by a single name; in others they may possess a variety of names
some of which are specific to the individual and distinguish that person from other relatives, while others indicate the person's relationship to others, or membership in a family, clan, or other social structure.
In Western culture, nearly all individuals possess at least one given name (also known as a personal name, first name, forename, or Christian name),
together with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), indicating that the person belongs to a family, a tribe, or a clan.
Some Western cultures also use (or once did use) patronymics or matronymics. Similar concepts are present in Eastern cultures.
However, in less urbanized areas of the world, many people are known by a single name, and are said to be mononymous.
Still other cultures lack the concept of specific, fixed names designating people, either individually or collectively.
Certain isolated tribes, such as the Machiguenga of the Amazon, do not use personal names.
A person's full name usually identifies that person for legal and administrative purposes, although it may not be the name by which the person is commonly known; some people use only a portion of their full name, or are known by titles, nicknames, or other formal or informal designations. The academic study of names is called anthroponymy. It is nearly universal for people to have names; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child declares that a child has the right to a name from birth.
Your comments