English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
medical supervision can reduce the risk of complications and infections causing death or
serious illness of the mother and/or newborn baby, the region with the highest rate of births at
home without trained help, the North West also has the highest infant and maternal mortality
rates. 597 There are a substantial number of laws, policies, strategies and plans in place relating
to pregnancy and maternity:
Article 41 of the Constitution provides: “It is the responsibility of the State, society, the
family and the citizen to ensure care and protection for mothers and children, to carry
into effect the population programme and family planning.”;
Article 44 of the Law on Health provides that women have the right to gynecological
care, prenatal care and medical service at health-care units during delivery. It also
states that MOH is obligated to expand the network of gyno-obstetric and childcare
facilities to the grassroots level to ensure health care for women;
Article 17(3) of the Law on Gender Equality states that poor women residing in remote
and mountainous regions and being ethnic minorities, excluding those who pay
compulsory social insurance, when giving birth to a child must be supported by the
Government;
Objective 3 of the Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women is the improvement
of women’s health. Among the indicators for it are to: (a) increase the proportion of
pregnant women receiving three medical check-ups during their pregnancy to 60
percent. At least 90 percent of pregnant women will have check-ups before giving
birth; (b) reduce the maternal mortality rate to 60 deaths per 100,000 live births by
2010; (c) strive for 100 percent health-care centres with female midwives and 80
percent of health-care centres with doctors; and (d) ensure 95 percent of health-care
centres are able to provide medicines and equipment for safe motherhood and safe
pregnancy. Measures taken include increasing the implementation of necessary
obstetrical health care and safe motherhood, and ensuring clean and safe delivery;
The National Strategy on Reproductive Health Care states as a goal: “to achieve by
the year 2010 a marked improvement in the reproductive health status and narrow
the gap between the regions and target groups by better meeting the changing
reproductive health needs over the life cycle, and to do so in ways that are sensitive
to the diverse circumstances of local communities, with particular attention to
disadvantaged areas and target-groups.” One objective is: “To improve the health
status of women and mothers; to obtain a more even reduction in maternal mortality
and morbidity, perinatal deaths and infant mortality among different regions and
target-groups, with special attention to disadvantaged areas and to beneficiaries of
government policies.”;
The National Strategy on Nutrition has five objectives with corresponding targets,
including to: (a) reduce the malnutrition rate of children and mothers. Targets include
263
597
Ibid., p. 41
Health (Article 12 of CEDAW)