English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
PROTECTION FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
Article 64 of the Constitution states: “The family is the cell of society. The State protects marriage
and the family.” This is reflected in the Marriage and Family Law, Decree on Marriage and Family
Law, and Decision on Families. One key recommendation in this regard is that further elucidation
be provided on the definition of the family. This should specifically refer to the fact that families
can be made up of divorced people, separated people, widowed people and single parents, and
headed by women. Therefore, policies and interventions should ensure that womens concerns
are considered and that women are not discriminated against.
ENTRY INTO MARRIAGE
Article 64 of the Constitution states: “Marriage shall conform to the principles of free consent, progressive
union, monogamy and equality between husband and wife.” There are several legal provisions
on entry into marriage, including the Civil Code, Marriage and Family Law, and Penal
Code and their subordinate legal documents, that emphasize these principles and prohibit acts
that violate them, including use of force or deception to secure consent to marriage, under-age
marriage, hindering voluntary and progressive marriage, feigned marriage, deceiving other persons
into marriage. Some recommendations on this topic include setting the same age of marriage
for men and women at not less than age 18 years, as well as a review of the list of acts in
Decree on Marriage and Family (Ethnic Minorities) that identifies explicitly the prohibited acts in
the marriage practices of ethnic minorities.
REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGE
Registration of marriages is required by law, particularly by Article 11 of the Marriage and Family
Law. It is recommended that education on the value of marriage registration must be increased,
with particular emphasis on the consequences of non-registration of marriage. This education
must be focused on ‘husband and wife relations’ that were established between 3 January 1987
and 1 January 2001 but that were not registered prior to 1 January 2003, as well as such relations
that were established after 1 January 2001 but that are still unregistered. Legal documents
must also urge the establishment of more proactive and institutionalized measures to ensure
marriage registration, including legal awareness campaigns, free legal assistance on marriage
registration, and mobile registration offices.
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ADULTERY
The crime of adultery is penalized in many jurisdictions and it usually covers either sexual relations
by a married person with someone other than his/her spouse or with a person knowing him/her to
be married. One of the criticisms of the crime is that it impacts disproportionately on women, in
particular because of societal tolerance of male sexual relations outside marriage, with cases most
often filed against women. In Viet Nam, there is no crime of adultery per se. However, the provisions
on bigamy or acts violating monogamy regime in Article 147 of the Penal Code criminalise
acts amounting to adultery. There is a need for further research on this area in Viet Nam.
PROPERTY RIGHTS
Most of the legal provisions relating to the property rights of husband and wife are in Chapter III of
the Marriage and Family Law. Recommendations are: (a) in transactions involving common real
property, the agreement of both spouses must be in writing, whether or not registered in both of
their names; and (b) legal documents should increase efforts to encourage joint registration of
common real properties, including mandating legal literacy and awareness–raising campaigns on
the value of registration of common real properties in the names of both spouses, and authorizing
subsidized legal aid to provide legal advice and to assist in registration.
Executive summary