English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
Law on Gender Equality, National Strategy for the Advancement of Women and Plan of Action for
the Advancement of Women, and the the Socio-Economic Development Plan for 2006-2010 and
National Target Programme on Poverty Alleviation. Preferential credit for the poor and farmers is
also available, which women can utilize as well. However, in reality, women have less access to
credit, loans and funds. One of the major impediments for women in accessing credit is the lack
of any capital or property, especially land, to offer as collateral. For further discussions and recommendations,
see Article 15 and 16 of CEDAW.
RURAL WOMEN
(Article 14 of CEDAW)
Article 14 of CEDAW ensures that rural women are not discriminated against in the exercise and
enjoyment of rights in all fields, especially in the areas of development, health, education,
employment and economic benefits, including access to credit and property, protection from violence
and living conditions. The term rural women is actually a broad term that covers not only
women from the rural areas. The CEDAW Committee uses the term to look into situations of
indigenous women, minority women, women farmers or women in agriculture, and women in
remote and mountainous regions. Concluding Comments on Viet Nam 2007 called on Viet Nam
to pay special attention to women in rural areas, women in remote and mountainous regions and
ethnic minority women by ensuring that they have equal access to health care, education, social
security, income generation opportunities and participation in decision-making. It also urged that
the draft law on ethnic minorities be passed soon and that it integrates the Law on Gender
Equality. The selected indicators relating to Article 14 focus on the rights of ethnic minority
women and rural women to education, health, land policies and political participation. The rights
of ethnic minority women to education and health have been previously discussed in relation to
Articles 10 and 12. Land policies are discussed in relation to Article 15.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
In addition to guarantees of the equal right to political participation in Articles 7 and 8 of CEDAW,
Article 10 the Law on Election to National Assembly 2001 and Article 14 of the Law on Election to
People’s Councils provide that a proportion of deputies must be from ethnic minorities. In addition
to the recommendations for these articles, it is suggested that, to ensure clarity, the Law on
Election to National Assembly and Law on Election to People’s Councils must explicitly stipulate
that the proportion of ethnic minority deputies should include no less than 30 percent female ethnic
minority deputies with the aim of increasing progressively to a higher proportion.
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EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
(Article 15 of CEDAW)
Article 15 of CEDAW requires equality before the law. It states explicitly that women should be
granted equal rights in all civil matters including the same legal capacity to men, and the equal
right to enter into contracts and administer property. This article also provides for equal rights to
movement, residence and domicile. As a result, the selected indicators are heavily based on
these.
Article 52 of the Constitution - and provisions in others laws such as Article 8 of the Civil
Procedure Code and Article 5 of the Criminal Procedure Code - guarantee equality before the
Executive summary