English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
(3) Abusing the propagation and dissemination of information on population,
reproductive health and/or family planning to distribute documents and/or articles, or
committing other acts contrary to fine customs, practices and social ethics.
Strategies and plans
It is also relevant to look into national strategies and plans as particular provisions cover the
right to decide the number and spacing of children. The National Strategy on Reproductive
Health Care has as one of its objectives to sustain the fertility reduction trend, to ensure the
rights of women and couples to have children and select contraceptive methods of good
quality, and to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortion related complications. It discusses
the right within a more comprehensive framework of reproductive health care. Objective 3 of
the Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women provides, as among the measures to be
taken by MOH: (a) collaboration with the Committee on the Protection of Family and Children
(CPFC) in regularly conducting inspection of the provisions of health care and family planning
services at grass-roots level in line with national standards; (b) involvement of men in family
planning and prevention of STIs; and (c) focusing on forms of counselling, dialogue, face-toface
communication with couples at reproductive age and adolescents on safe sex, family
panning and preventive hygiene. The Resolution on Work for Women also states: “Special
attention should be given to the areas of population, family planning, health care, prevention
and fight against diseases and HIV/AIDS…” For more concrete legal provisions and
discussions on sex-selection, see Part V.9.3, Indicator 90.
A look at the actual situation in Viet Nam shows that knowledge of family planning is
high. The percentage of married women aged 15-49 years using contraceptives was 75.6
percent in 2003. 765 Contraceptive use by age range in 2003 was 23.2 percent (for the age
range of 15-19 years), 51.1 percent (for the age range of 20-24 years), 71.3 percent (for the
age range of 25-29 years), 82.1 percent (for the age range of 30-34 years), 86.3 percent (for
the age range of 35-39 years), 84.1 percent (for the age range of 40-44 years) and 70.7
percent (for the age range of 45-49 years). It is noticeable that contraceptive use in the age
range of 15-19 years was the lowest. Choices of contraceptives are limited, and IUDs are the
most popular contraceptive for women. In 2002, married women aged 15-49 years used the
following contraceptives in the following proportions: the Pill/10.5 percent, IUDs/56.5 percent,
injection/0.9 percent, jelly or foam/0.3 percent, condoms/8.4 percent, female sterilization/7.2
percent, male sterilization/0.5 percent, withdrawal/15.4 percent, and others/0.4 percent. 766 No
national data is available for unmarried women.
It is not only that information on unmarried women is lacking. In 2000, a NCFAW study
pointed out that most family planning campaigns target married women. 767 Unmarried women
are not adequately prioritized. Also, although it is mostly men, whether married and single,
who are the decision makers on contraceptive use, they are also seldom the target of
campaigns and services. There is a need for more information to young people on these
issues, including pre-marital sexuality. 768
317
765
GSO Statistics, p. 66
766
GSO and UNICEF, ‘Data on Social Statistics in Viet Nam’, Statistical Publishing House, Ha Noi, 2004 (GSO Data), p. 17
767
Wells, op. cit., p. 38 citing the NCFAW study
768
Long, op. cit., p. 25
Marriage and family (Article 16 of CEDAW)