English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
as ethnic minority women, and poor or rural women. In particular, an explicit provision on the
equal access by unmarried women to all family planning services must be stipulated. There
should be a clear prohibition on discriminating against them on account of their unmarried status.
In relation to measures on education and information dissemination, the following are recommended:
(a) a more detailed guideline on the contents of an appropriate education on the
issues of population, family planning and reproductive rights; (b) increased education and behavioral
change communication on family planning for men, including their use of contraceptives;
and (c) specific guidelines on integrating information on population into the national education
system in a systematic and consistent manner.
DE FACTO UNIONS
There is no special provision in Vietnamese legal documents governing property relations of
‘unions without marriage’ where there exists no legal impediment for a valid marriage. However,
there are some provisions, such as Article 11 of the Marriage and Family Law on consequences
of failure to register, that may apply to some instances of unions without marriage registration or
without a legal marriage. It is suggested that explicit provisions be provided for de facto marriages,
in particular in relation to property and custodial rights.
INHERITANCE RIGHTS
Vietnamese law guarantees equal inheritance rights in Article 676 of the Civil Code and Article
31 of the Marriage and Family Law. In practice, however, contravention of the law exists due to
discriminatory customs and practices. Further study is recommended on incidences of indirect
discrimination against women relating to inheritance rights. It is suggested that a system of
reserved inheritance be put in place for a specific portion of the testators estate, which would be
allotted for compulsory heirs that cannot be easily disregarded by the testator without justifiable
reasons or by written agreement of heirs without appropriate safeguards, such as legal counselling
on women’s rights and the consequences of disclaiming their portion of the estate. This
system must include provisions on collation of property back to the estate in cases of donations
and alleged sales of property to male heirs that operate to take away property from, and to
deprive women and girls of their share in, the estate.
CONCLUSION
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As gender is a cross-cutting issue relevant in all sectors and arenas, legal reform to incorporate
gender equality is a challenging process. This legal review seeks to contribute to this process as
one of its building blocks. It is hoped that the recommendations in the review will assist not only
in the immediate reform of legal documents, but also in the continuous process of analysing,
monitoring, evaluating, revising, supplementing and drafting legal documents to ensure their
compliance with the international standards on gender equality.
Executive summary