English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
cedures be established or strengthened. These national machineries or procedures should be
placed at a high Governmental level and with adequate resources, commitment and authority
to: (a) advise on the impact of government policies on women; (b) help formulate government
policies; (c) monitor women’s situation; and (d) help carry out strategies and measures to eliminate
discrimination. 138 In Concluding Comments of Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women: Viet Nam. 2001. CEDAW A/56/38 (Concluding Comments on
Viet Nam 2001), the CEDAW Committee commended Viet Nam on the development and
strengthening of national mechanisms for advancement of women, inter alia, at the local level,
and the linkage of these mechanisms with the Vietnamese Women's Union. It recommended
that Viet Nam strengthen the existing national machinery to give it more visibility and the
capacity to mainstream a gender perspective into all policies and programmes to promote the
advancement of women. It also stated that the capacity of the national machinery should be
assessed on a continuous basis and provided with the necessary human and financial
resources.
In addition to national machineries, Concluding Comments on Viet Nam 2007 pointed
out that the Combined Fifth and Sixth Period Report did not provide sufficient information or
data on the actual impact of these laws and measures and the extent to which they have
resulted in accelerating the advancement of women and girls and their enjoyment of their
human rights. 139 As a result, the CEDAW Committee recommended that Viet Nam focus on
“implementation of existing laws and policies by: setting clearly defined and time-bound targets;
systematically collecting and analysing data; monitoring impact, trends over time and
progress towards realizing goals and objectives, and results achieved; and allocating sufficient
human and financial resources for the effective enforcement of existing laws”. 140 In particular
reference to the Law on Gender Equality, it urged the speedy harmonization of existing legislation
with the objectives of CEDAW and the Law on Gender Equality; and, hence, procedures
for this must be clearly stipulated. 141
The selected indicators for the institutions and mechanisms for implementation and
monitoring are:
68
138
Supplementing CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action states that national machinery for the advancement of women
is the central policy-coordinating unit inside government The main task of national machinery is to support governmentwide
mainstreaming of a gender-equality perspective in all policy areas. The necessary conditions for an effective functioning
of national machinery include: (a) the location at the highest possible level in the Government, falling under the
responsibility of a Cabinet minister; (b) the institutional mechanisms or processes that facilitate, as appropriate, decentralized
planning, implementation and monitoring with a view to involving NGOs and community organizations from the
grass-roots upwards; (c) sufficient resources in terms of budget and professional capacity; and (d) opportunity to influence
development of all government policies. (Beijing Platform for Action, Paragraph 201).
Concluding Comments on other countries have mentioned some recommendations relating to national machinery
on women and/or gender equality as follows: (a) strengthening national machinery by providing clearly defined
mandates and responsibilities, including of its various components and their enhanced coordination; (b) providing
national machinery with adequate authority and/or decision-making power to carry out mandates and promote the
advancement of women and gender equality effectively. This means sufficient power or location within the executive
branch; (c) creating governmental supervisory bodies at all levels to monitor the implementation; and (d) ensuring that
all current gender inequalities and problems faced by different categories of women, including women of the most vulnerable
groups, may be considered and addressed effectively. See Chiongson, Rea Abada, ‘Notes on Overview of
International Standards under CEDAW, Beijing and other processes’, Presented during the International Workshop on
Implementation and Enforcement Mechanisms for Gender Equality Legislation, Organised by the National Committee
for the Advancement of Women in Viet Nam (NCFAW) and The Embassy of Switzerland, Ha Noi, 12-13 December 2005
139
Concluding Comments on Viet Nam 2007, Paragraph 8
140
Ibid., Paragraph 9
141
Ibid.
Review of key legal documents and compliance with CEDAW