English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism are outside the scope of this review. The review,
although based on the context prior to the passage of the law, is still useful to check whether
recommendations provided were addressed in the new legal document.
Recommendation: Legislation must provide for clear responsibility on the part of
the relevant state management agency/agencies to perform a range of measures to
modify discriminatory practices or stereotypes. This would include awareness-raising,
public education campaigns, attention to role media, and dissemination of information
to ethnic minorities. Guidelines that identify which practices are backward and/or discriminatory
in addition to the Decree on Marriage and Family Law (Ethnic Minorities) -
and which, therefore, need to be prohibited or eradicated through active mobilization -
must be named in all fields, such as economic, education and health. In this case, the
identification of backward or discriminatory customs and practices should not be limited
to those from ethnic minorities, but must include customs and practices of the general
population as well. It is also suggested that the term ‘backward’ be replaced by ‘discriminatory’,
when appropriate, to ensure conceptual clarity on the reason for the need
for revision or eradication.
In relation to dissemination and information measures, responsibility of information
dissemination agencies to integrate gender within the scope of their own competence
must be clearly stipulated. This will enable a wider outreach of gender issues. See
also Part V.7.3, Indicators 67 and 68.
Indicator 33
Is there legislation addressing the role and responsibility of media
to refrain from discriminatory conduct and to contribute to
achievement of equality
It is evident that the media has a huge role to play in modifying discriminatory practices
and stereotypes. There are particular legal documents that may cover discriminatory media
activities. Article 5 of Decree No. 51/2002/ND-CP of 26 April 2002 Detailing the Implementation
of the Press Law and the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Press
Law (Decree on Press Law) identifies matters that must not be informed in the press, including
work that opposes the State or undermines the people’s unity bloc, obscene acts, acts of
slaughter, pornographic pictures, articles that badly affect people’s lives, and reports or articles
that disseminate bad practices or superstition. Violations are subject to administrative or penal
liabilities, whichever is applicable. 266 Prohibited acts in publication activities are in Article 10 of
the Law on Publication (No. 30/2004/QH11 of 3 December 2004) (Law on Publication), which
include propagating obscene and depraved lifestyles, social evils, superstition, undermining
fine traditions and customs. In relation to advertisements, there are several prohibited acts in
advertising activities under Article 3 of the Decree No. 24/2003/ND-CP of 13 March 2003
detailing the Implementation of the Ordinance on Advertisement (Decree on Advertisement
Ordinance). However, gender discrimination is not one of them.
141
Recommendation: It may also be useful to provide guidelines to the media on how
to address gender equality issues, in particular GBV. Clear rules must prohibit, in cases
266
For administrative penalties, see Decree No. 31/2001/ND-CP of 26 June 2001 on Sanctioning Administrative
Violations in the Culture-Information Field, Article 9
Social and cultural patterns of conduct (Article 5 of CEDAW)