English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
Postponement, temporary suspension or exemption of imprisonment penalty
Articles 61 and 62 of the Penal Code provide that women who are pregnant or nursing their children
aged under 36 months are entitled to a postponement or temporary suspension of their
imprisonment penalty until their children reach the age of 36 months. Further, Article 57(3) of the
Criminal Procedure Code states that, if, during the postponement or suspension, such women
have recorded great achievements, the court may decide to exempt them from serving their penalties
(or the remainder of their penalties). The provisions of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure
Code should be extended to persons rearing children aged less than 36 months because,
although nursing can be done only by women, child-rearing can be performed by both sexes.
Appropriate monitoring procedures should be put in place to ensure that child-rearing is performed
by the person who has been given a postponement or suspension.
Civil procedure
In relation to civil procedure, the following provisions are specific to women or affect women disproportionately.
Privacy and confidentiality
In Article 15 of the Civil Procedure Code, trials of public cases are carried out publicly, except in
special cases where it is necessary to preserve the fine customs and practices of Viet Nam or to
keep State, professional, business or personal secrets. In addition to this article, a clear provision
on confidentiality and privacy must be drafted for cases where the publication of a party’s identity
will lead to danger to life or health or to stigmatization or trauma. The provision must require
procedure-handling bodies to keep confidential not only names, addresses and autographs, but
also all information concerning the identity of the party concerned. In all cases, it should be
mandatory for procedure-handling persons to inform denouncers and victims of their right to
request for confidentiality and explain the consequences relating to it.
Confrontation
Article 88 of the Civil Procedure Code provides that judges may conduct confrontations between
the parties, among witnesses, and between parties and witnesses. Further, it states that in cases
of confrontation in civil cases, due regard must be given to the condition of the parties/witnesses.
Due diligence must be exercised to ascertain that no violence has been directed by one party
or witness to another, especially in cases of family members. Where there is a finding that one
party or witness has been subjected to violence or is experiencing trauma or fear, alternatives to
face-to-face confrontation must be considered.
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Provisional emergency measures
Articles 99 and 102 of the Civil Procedure Code provide for application of provisional emergency
measures to deal with the urgent requests of the parties, to protect evidence, and to ensure judgment
execution. It is suggested that the following emergency protection measures be expressly
included in the list of provisional emergency measures: (a) prohibiting any forms of harassment
or contact with a party and/or partys family members; (b) removal or exclusion of one party from
a particular vicinity, including residence, place of work or education; and (c) prohibiting one party
from threatening to use or using physical, emotional, psychological or sexual violence. It is also
recommended that, where a request is made for emergency protection measures and there is
extreme urgency so that delay in issuing the order will work to the extreme prejudice or harm of
the requesting party, decisions be issued on the same day after ex parte determination, subject
to the filing of a motion for its revocation by the other party if any.
Executive summary