English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
Marriage and Family Law (Ethnic Minorities) be reviewed and modified. Many acts in
Appendix A should be strictly prohibited, such as underage and forced marriage. Also,
it is recommended that acts listed in Appendix B should not only be strictly prohibited,
but there should be mobilization efforts, including education and communication on
gender equality, to bring about change and fully eradicate these discriminatory
practices.
Indicator 112 Does legislation require registration of marriage in an official
registry
The Marriage and Family Law provides: “Marriage must be registered with the
competent State bodies (called marriage registration offices) according to the proceedings
prescribed in Article 14 of this Law.” 717 Divorced husband and wife wishing to remarry each
other must also register their remarriage. Marriage proceedings at variance with the provisions
in Article 14 of the law will not be legally valid. Article 14 stipulates that marriage registration
must be organized in the presence of man and woman who wish to be married. It further states
that the representative of the marriage registration office will ask if they wish to marry
voluntarily each other. If they agree, the representative will hand the certificate to them. The
Marriage and Family Law also provides that a man and a woman who fail to register their
marriage, but who live together as husband and wife, will not be recognized by law as husband
and wife. 718
306
To encourage marriage registration several legal documents were issued. The
Resolution 35/2000/QH10 on 9 June 2000 on the Implementation of the Marriage and Family
Law: (a) encourages marriage registration for husband/wife relations established before 3
January 1987 (that is, the date the Marriage and Family Law came into force); (b) requires
registration for husband/wife relations established from 3 January 1987 to 1 January 2001. A
period of until 1 January 2003 is provided for registration. Where a marriage is not registered
by 1 January 2003, it will not be recognized by law as husband and wife. Paragraph II.1 of the
Resolution No. 01/2003/NQ-HDTP of April 16, 2003 Guiding the Application of Law to the
Settlement of Some Types of Civil as well as Marriage and Family Disputes explicitly provides
for the impact on inheritance rights of failing to register a marriage: where a man and a woman
lived together as husband and wife sometime between 3 January 1987 and 1 January 2001,
meet all conditions for marriage registration, and one spouse died prior to 1 January 2003, the
other spouse is allowed to enjoy the deceased spouse’s heritage under the law provisions on
inheritance. However, if after 1 January 2003, the man and women had not yet registered their
marriage and one spouse died, any inheritance dispute, pending new regulations of competent
State bodies will be handled by the courts as follows: (i) if the case has not yet been accepted
for handling, it will not be accepted; or (b) if the case has been accepted and its handling is
underway, the courts will issue a decision to temporarily suspend the handling; and (c)
provides that relations established after 1 January 2001 without registration are not recognized
by law as husband and wife relations. These provisions are also reiterated in Article 2 of the
Decree No. 77/2001/ND-CP of October 22, 2001 detailing the Marriage Registration According
to the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 35/2000/QH10 on the Implementation of the
Marriage and Family Law (Decree on Marriage Registration).
717
Marriage and Family Law, Article 11(1)
718
Ibid., Article 11
Review of key legal documents and compliance with CEDAW