English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
will also equip women’s rights advocates with frameworks to demand institutional accountability
for their implementation.
Equally important is the need to strengthen capacities of women’s groups and governments
to undertake rights-based analyses of existing national laws, so that they can develop
legislative change agendas that will truly advance women’s rights. The judiciary needs greater
support, not only to understand new gender equality laws, but also to develop a consciousness
on gender issues that will allow them to effectively interpret the laws.
Viet Nam is no exception. Much remains to be done though the country has been making
efforts for the past 27 years as pointed out by the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (the CEDAW Committee) on Viet Nam’s 5th and 6th country
report on its compliance with CEDAW in its Concluding Observations issued in February 2007.
The CEDAW Committee has also provided suggestions to Viet Nam on how to improve the
implementation of the Convention, including ensuring the alignment of existing laws with
CEDAW provisions and the Law on Gender Equality.
This gender-sensitive and rights-based review of Vietnamese legal documents through
the CEDAW lens conducted by Rea Abada Chiongson for UNIFEM 2007-2008, assesses the
compliance of Vietnamese legal documents with CEDAW standards and points to the necessity
for amendments, revisions, repeal or the issuance of new ones. We hope that this report
will inform future reviews of Vietnamese legal documents, especially by the National
Assembly, government ministries, mass organisations and local NGOs.
UNIFEM stands committed to supporting legal reforms for promoting and protecting the
human rights of women. We encourage you to use this report towards this end.
Dr. Jean D’ Cunha
Regional Programme Director
UNIFEM East and Southeast Asia Regional Office, Bangkok
Preface
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