English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
increased education and behavioral change communication on family planning for
men, including their use of contraceptive; and (c) specific guidelines on how
information on population is to be integrated into the national education system in a
systematic and consistent manner, which should include integration and regular review
of the curricula, revision of textbooks, teacher training, modification of teaching
manuals, guidelines as to what kind of information is to be provided per grade/year.
The following recommendations are made in relation to contraception: (a) access
to a wide range of contraception should also be one of the explicit rights relating to
population work and family planning and guaranteed in the list of rights in the Articles
4 and 10 of the Population Ordinance and Article 17 of the Decree on Population; (b)
specific guidelines should be given to health-care providers on providing information
and counselling to users to enable their informed consent, which will include
advantages, limitations, risks and contraindications of the various contraceptive
methods, as well as to ascertain with the user the best methods for their needs.
Procedures to ensure that the patient has given informed consent prior to undergoing
the sterilization procedures must be in place, including that the patient must sign a
document stating that: (i) she or he has consented to undergo the sterilization
procedure; (ii) she or he understands that the procedure irreversible; (iii) she or he
knows of his right to informed consent; and (iv) the doctor or health service provider
has fully explained the advantages, limitations, consequences and risks of the
procedure to her or him in a language understood by her or him; (c) review of moral and
material incentives in legal documents for the use of particular forms of contraception.
Monitoring needs to be in place on how these State incentives can discriminate against
women or couples who have not undergone specific contraceptive procedures; and (d)
guidelines on the use of emergency contraception or postcoital hormonal
contraception used by women within a few days following unprotected sex to prevent
a pregnancy, especially its immediate access by victims of rape or forced sexual
intercourse. In these cases, it is suggested that emergency contraception should be
available free-of-charge in government health-care institutions. State institutions where
women are likely to report the crime will be mandated to inform the woman of her right
to emergency contraception and to make the necessary referral to the appropriate
health-care institution. Adequate information and counselling will be provided by the
health-care provider and informed consent of the victim must be obtained prior to
providing emergency contraception. There is also a need for improved monitoring and
evaluation. In particular, quality of services must be monitored.
For recommendations on sex selection, see Part V.9.3, Indicator 90.
The policy of limiting family size to one or two children and providing incentives
or penalties for conforming or violating the policy must be repealed as they work to
penalize, directly or indirectly, the valid exercise of a right. In lieu of this policy, it is
suggested that further information and education, especially behavioral change
communication, be put in place to ensure a more sustainable population policy than
one that is government imposed.
In addition to the guarantee of gender equality, a guarantee of non-discrimination
in access to family planning services, especially access to contraceptives, on the basis
of other grounds must also be explicitly guaranteed to equal access by disadvantaged
group of women, such as ethnic minority women, poor women, rural women.
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Marriage and family (Article 16 of CEDAW)