English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
With the passage of the Law on Gender Equality and the assignment of MOLISA as the
state management agency, the status and role of National Committee for the Advancement of
Women (NCFAW) must be clarified. The Prime Minister’s Decision 92/2001/QD-TTG of June
11, 2001 on Consolidating the National Committee for the Advancement of Vietnamese
Women (Decision on NCFAW) sets out four tasks for NCFAW: (a) assisting the Prime Minister
in making laws and policies on women, cooperating with relevant agencies in supervising and
promoting the implementation of legislation and policies on women; (b) working with relevant
agencies to carry out communication and educational activities regarding the implementation
of legislation and policies on women and CEDAW; (c) preparing national reports on the implementation
of CEDAW; and (d) coordinating international cooperation activities on gender
equality and women’s advancement. NCFAW is an inter-ministerial committee composed of 18
leaders from different ministries and mass organizations that function through a secretariat. It
has established a network of Committees for the Advancement of Women (CFAW) in all ministries/agencies
and in all 63 provinces of Viet Nam, which theoretically function as gender
focal points in their ministries/agencies and/or provinces but in practice, although there are
some successes - such as gender mainstreaming in Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MARD) - there is lack of consistency in achieving good results. 206
The tasks allocated to NCFAW are more appropriate in a state management agency.
However, the inter-ministerial nature of the committee is one of its strengths as it provides a
mechanism for inter-ministerial coordination. After the finalization of this review, Decision No.
114/2008/QD-TTG of August 22, 2008 on Strengthening the NCFAW (Decision on NCFAW)
was adopted.
Recommendation: It is recommended that an inter-ministerial mechanism on gender
equality or a revised NCFAW be retained for the purpose of coordinating work on
gender equality among ministries/agencies. This mechanism must be under the leadership
of the state management agency on gender equality.
Indicator 15
Are there legal documents that clearly establish responsibilities of
various State agencies (whether legislative, executive, judicial or
administrative) to incorporate gender equality in their operations
The Law on Gender Equality provides for the responsibilities of ministries, State agencies
and organizations in the following articles:
Article 25: Responsibility of the Government
(1) To promulgate national strategies, policies and targets on gender equality and to annually
report to the National Assembly on the implementation of national targets on gender
equality.
103
(2) To submit to the National Assembly, the Standing Committee for the promulgation or
to promulgate legal normative documents on gender equality within the extent of its competence.
206
Wells, op. cit., p. 60: Reasons for this inconsistency include: (a) strategic coordination between NCFAW and CFAWs is
generally weak; (b) members of CFAWs are also responsible for other activities and do not always prioritize CFAW
activities; (c) there is no clear objective, work plan and allowances for this extra-duty; and (d) there is need to build gender
expertise to enable technical advice to be provided to other ministries.
General undertakings to eliminate discrimination and ensure equality (Articles 1-3 of CEDAW)