Access to justice and legal empowerment for women: the case of Vietnam

Specifically, it is necessary to carry out the review of relevant documents (Law on Gender Equality, Guiding Documents on Gender Equality Law, Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 20[r]

Hoang Thi Bich Ngoc 1 ,

PhD Candidate, School of Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Associate Prof Vu Cong Giao

School of Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Abstract

This paper has attempted to contextualise the access of Vietnamese women to justice by examining substantive and procedural justice, sociocultural barriers, and legal empowerment It reviews gender-specific barriers to access to justice and also illustrates the limits of formal law,

as a mechanism for providing equal access for women to justice in the presence of discriminatory institutional practices and social norms The paper presents similar interrelated components of empowerment, women’s empowerment, and legal empowerment, and suggests that access to justice can provide better legal empowerment for women in Vietnam One important conclusion drawn is that women’s empowerment and, in particular, women’s legal empowerment are a multidimensional process and is difficult to measure Legal empowerment also has different meanings in different contexts; a variable that indicates empowerment in one sociologic setting is likely to be different in another setting

Keywords: Access to Justice, Legal Empowerment, Women, Vietnam

Acknowledgement: This research is funded by the National Foundation for Science and

Technology of Vietnam (NAFOSTED) through the Research Project on “Justice and the Right to Access to Justice in Vietnam” (Code Number 505.01-2017.01 in 2017)

1 Concepts of Access to Justice and Women Empowerment

1.1 Justice and Access to Justice

Justice is a broad and dynamic term In this paper, the authors used the definition of the United

Nations (UN) in which justice is viewed as “an ideal of accountability and fairness in the protection and vindication of rights and the prevention and punishment of wrongs”.2 Justice is rooted in all national cultures and traditions, and its administration extends to both formal judicial mechanisms

1 This paper is a part of the doctoral thesis titled “The Right of Access to Justice in Viet Nam Law/Quyền tiếp cận công

lý trong pháp luật Việt Nam” that PhD Candidate HOANG THI BICH NGOC is working on at the School of Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

2 United Nations, The rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post conflict societies, UN Security Council,

S/2004/616 (2004), para 7

and informal dispute resolution mechanisms According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights2 It means that all human beings should have equal access to justice when their dignity or their rights are infringed upon

There are also different approaches to understanding the meaning of ‘access to justice’ According

to the traditional view, access to justice is the right to a fair trial, which is the courts are the central

‘suppliers’ of justice This traditional understanding of access to justice is closely tied to the judicial

activity of the court and the aim of access to justice is to ensure equality between subjects of the case, such as the right to counsel, the right to assistance and the right to appeal It can be seen that the emphasis on legal provisions on the subjects involved in the proceedings and their implementation, rather than the substantive equality when applying those provisions to the resolution of the case This interpretation seems to be directed towards legislative action in the judicial field

The traditional approach to access to justice is criticized by many scholars to be incomplete, therefore a modern approach to justice has emerged According to the modern view, an access to

justice is understood as “The ability of people to seek and obtain a remedy through formal or informal institutions of justice, and in conformity with human rights standards’3 These injustices or losses can be caused by individuals or legal entities, and it also can occur in all areas of social life, not only being limited to criminal proceedings Seeking compensation or remedy is performed through access to formal justice systems, which are generally understood as the system of judicial bodies of the state (such as, the court, the prosecution, the investigative agencies) and informal justice system (commonly known as a system of customary laws, the community-based mediation mechanisms…) According to UNDP, the foundation of access to justice (in the modern approach) is the framework

of people’s rights and obligations, UNDP calls it legal/normative protection 4; and the institutional framework that allows everyone to apply or be assisted to obtain compensation for the injustice or

damaged suffered, UNDP calls it is the ability to provide compensation or capacity to provide justice remedies 5 However, these systems are not sufficient because in order to achieve a fair solution to the

injustice or harm, people need to have the knowledge and ability to pursue the resolution process

UNDP calls this dimension is the capacity to demand justice remedies 6 of the masses7

Anderson (2003) suggests different stages of access to justice, as show in the table below8

1 United Nations (2004), The rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post conflict societies, UN Security

Council, S/2004/616, para 7

2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Article 1.

3 UNDP (2005), Programming for Justice: Access for All A Practitioner’s Guide to a Human Rights-Based Approach

to Access to Justice, p 5

4 UNDP (2005), ibid, p 39

5 UNDP (2005), ibid, p 59.

6 UNDP (2005), ibid, p 135

7 In this paper, the authors apply the modern view of access to justice which is promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

8 Anderson, M.R (2003) Access to justice and legal process: making legal institutions responsive to poor people in LDCs Working paper series, 178 Brighton: IDS.

Stages of Access to Justice

As mentioned, all human beings should have equal access to justice when their dignity or their rights are infringed upon However, there are various barriers to accessing justice, which are closely associated with the capacity of law enforcement agencies to provide effective legal remedies for people The barriers affect the access of both men and women to justice, it seems, however, that men have easier access to justice than women The institutionalized gender biases and discriminatory norms appear to permeate the administration of justice in particular and therefore create more multilayered barriers that women must overcome in order to access justice

One more important barrier is the lack of gender sensitivity and social and cultural settings (cultural barriers) In the context of access to justice, gender sensitivity within the justice system is of special significance in a sociologic setting in which women may have nowhere else to seek protection

of their rights Gender sensitivity generally refers to the ability to recognize women’s equal rights and also to understand the diverse perceptions of gender roles Most policies concerned with gender sensitivity and access to justice are related to improving women’s capacity to access resources and opportunities in order to overcome barriers to accessing justice Some policies are also linked to the proportion of female staff within the justice system1

Cultural barriers are social and cultural settings and its significance for the access of women to justice It discusses how culture imposes on women’s equality beyond substantive and institutional justice Even when the laws are just and inclusive and operate adequately, women may face enormous difficulties in accessing justice because of discriminatory cultural norms Any related analysis thus should be able to address cultural paradigms to understand how justice and access have been defined beyond law and order in the social context2

1.2 Women Empowerment

Since the mid-1980s, the term “empowerment” has been used in various fields, such as education (Freire, 2000), women’s studies (Morgan and Bookman, 1988), and development (Friedmann, 1992; Oxaal and Baden, 1997; Narayan, 2002), etc Numerous academic studies have been conducted to define empowerment, but so far little agreement has been reached (e.g., Friedmann, 1992) Definition of empowerment has also mentioned in some international documents, but mostly uses empowerment to promote various social inclusion policies rather than providing a comprehensive conceptual analysis3

1 UNDP (2007), “Gender Equality and Justice Programming: Equitable Access to Justice for Women,” accessed 25 March

2010, available online at http://www.undp.org.ir/gender/Equitable%20Access%20to%20Justice_EN-EBOOK.pdf.

2 Sahar Maranlou (2014), Access to Justice in Iran, Online publication date: December 2014, pp 123-154 Cambridge University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680493.006.

3 See some of the United Nations documents, particularly about women’s empowerment such as the Association for Women in Development (Everett, 1991), the Declaration made at the Micro-credit Summit (RESULTS 1997), (UNICEF 1999), and DFID (2000).

Literature regarding empowerment, most often uses common concepts such as power, control, participation, and making choices to define empowerment1 The notion of empowerment is defined

as the process through which women acquire the ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them (Kabeer, 1999) In this context, empowerment is a process of change in the power relationships whereby marginalized and disadvantaged populations make their own life decisions

A number of psychological research suggests that empowerment is a process that enables women

to act on and improve issues that are important to their individual lives, their communities, and their society (e.g., Bandura, 1986; Page and Czuba, 1999; Maton, 2008; Cattaneo and Chapman, 2010) These definitions stress the expansion of women’s individual capacities and a free exercise of personal choice (e.g., Budgeon, 2015; Kurtiş et al., 2016) The focus on women’s individual liberties and growth is grounded in Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic (Henrich et al., 2010) realities and may marginalize the experience of women in different societies (e.g., Carby, 1997; Kurtiş and Adams, 2015)

Research so far has studied a variety of very different components of women’s empowerment, such as agency, autonomy, capacity for action, self-determination, and self-confidence (e.g., Cheston and Kuhn, 2001; Malhotra et al., 2002; Narayan, 2005; Hansen, 2015) All definitions stress that women’s empowerment is a multifaceted concept, which includes different components and assumes that empowerment is a process from being un-empowered to becoming empowered

1.3 Legal Empowerment

In recent years, international organizations and development agencies have developed strategies for using the law to help disadvantaged populations have more control over their lives Although these approaches vary in structure from legal literacy to public interest litigation, they are similar in embracing empowerment as processes2

Legal empowerment is a subjective as well as an objective phenomenon Most of the related research studies seem to emphasize the creation of empowering opportunities such as providing legal aid, legal information, and legal institutions reform3 However, the broad concept of legal empowerment emphasizes the process and strategies that use “legal services and related development activities to increase disadvantaged populations’ control over their lives”4 Legal empowerment also has been seen as a “goal,” referring to the actual achievements of the disadvantaged groups through the use of law This distinction is important, because the process of legal empowerment can proceed even if the goal has yet to be achieved5

1 Sahar Maranlou (2014), Access to Justice in Iran, Online publication date: December 2014, pp 123-154 Cambridge University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680493.006.

2 Sahar Maranlou (2014), Access to Justice in Iran, Online publication date: December 2014, pp 123-154 Cambridge University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680493.006.

3 Narayan, Deepa 2002 Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook Washington, DC: World Bank © World Bank https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/15239 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

4 Sahar Maranlou (2014), Access to Justice in Iran, Online publication date: December 2014, pp 123-154 Cambridge University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680493.006.

5 Van Rooij, B 2007 Bringing Justice to the Poor: Bottom-up Legal Development Cooperation, Working paper available

at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTJUSFORPOOR/Resources/VanRooijBringingJusticetothePoor.pdf

Beyond objective or subjective approaches, legal empowerment fundamentally is about power However, most definitions of legal empowerment avoid “power” and use the term “control” instead

In this perspective, “control may relate to priorities such as basic security, livelihood, access to essential resources, and participation in public decision-making processes”1 Legal empowerment consequently must include the processes and mechanisms that enable women to perceive themselves

as entitled to make choices

There is no single model for legal empowerment Legal empowerment programs are likely

to vary in different contexts, cultures, and communities of society A road map to women’s legal empowerment, therefore includes three main dimensions2: (1) the importance of law reform to promote gender equality should be acknowledged; (2) legal services provided by the justice system should be based on the rights and needs of women; (3) the capacity of women as “users of justice” should be strengthened

One potential approach to strengthen the capacity of women as “users of justice” to use the law and the legal system is to educate them to deal with legal matters Another promising mechanism

is developing efficient legal aid systems, which need to emphasize legal assistance provided by paralegals and legal aid clinics Expanding legal aid systems facilitate accessibility of the judicial procedures for women, who have no legal representation Beyond expanding legal services to the poor by paralegals, legal aid clinics and clinical legal education can involve law students who provide free legal advice for disadvantaged groups Clinical Legal Education (CLE) has emerged as a reaction

to the failures of the traditional legal education during the last thirty years

2 Women’s Access to Justice in International Law

Access to justice is fundamental to the realization of any human rights and a key to realizing these rights When a right is violated, it is presumed that there is a remedy to rectify the act of violation Under international human rights law, every country is expected to ‘respect, protect and fulfil’ the universal human rights of all individuals regardless of the inherent diversities This notion

of ‘respect, protect and fulfil’ mandates a scheme for persons whose rights are violated to seek justice and a remedy

The normative legal standards and mechanisms are found not only in national constitutions, laws, and policies, but also in the international human rights treaties and jurisprudence of human rights bodies However, this paper focuses on the provisions in the Convention on the Elimination

of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) On 18th December 1979, CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, which entered into force as an international treaty

on September 3rd, 1981 after the twentieth country had ratified it Among the international human rights treaties, the Convention takes an important place in bringing the female half of humanity into the focus of human rights concerns

1 Golub, Stephen and Kim McQuay Legal Empowerment: Advancing Good Governance and Poverty Reduction In Law and Policy Reform at the Asian Development Bank, 2001 Edition Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2001.

2 Sahar Maranlou (2014), Access to Justice in Iran, Online publication date: December 2014, pp 123-154 Cambridge University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680493.006.

The CEDAW is the key women’s human rights treaty ensuring that women are able to access, exercise, and claim their existing human rights without any form of discrimination It has articulated specific situations and contexts where women are most likely to be discriminated against and their rights are likely to be violated, restricted or denied on the pretext that women are different and not equal but inferior to men Women’s lives and their entitlement to rights are always distinguished between private and public spheres, and the harshest and horrifying discrimination and violence committed against women occurs within the private sphere, its impact is seen in women’s role and participation in the public sphere

Furthermore, the CEDAW is the first treaty that has explicitly recognized the inter-relatedness and interdependent nature of women’s civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights The CEDAW provides a philosophical base for women’s rights which is substantive equality and non-discrimination

It is a very useful tool or framework in assessing the nature and extent to which women have been able to exercise their rights to access justice, as it not only looks into the individual violations, but also undertakes a scrutiny from a feminist lens of the lacunae in the system and institutions which is then likely to perpetuate and/or contribute towards discrimination against women

The legal basis for access to justice is stated in Article 2 and Article 15 of CEDAW of which the Article 2 is crucial to the full implementation of the Convention since it identifies the nature of the general legal obligations of States parties The obligations enshrined in Article 2 are inextricably linked with all other substantive provisions of the Convention, as States parties have the obligation to ensure that all the rights enshrined in the Convention are fully respected at the national level

According to the discussion of the CEDAW at its 53rd Session1, Article 2 was mentioned as the duty of the State parties in ensuring the availability of remedies for women subject to discrimination mainly mentioned in Article 2(b) and 2(c) The provisions prohibiting discrimination must embody some form of legal or other material consequence for those who violate them This provision includes all types of remedies and all types of penalties, whether penal, civil or administrative depending on the forum that has jurisdiction over particular claims The nature and extent of the sanctions will vary according to the particular subject and the nature of the infringement Article 2(c) requires effective judicial protection of women’s entitlement to enjoy rights on an equal basis with men As such, it is

a stringent obligation of result, meaning that the remedy is a practically available and accessible one

as soon as women wish to assert their rights before the relevant courts, tribunals or other institutions

It should also be underlined that the national tribunals referred to in the provision comprise tribunals

at all levels of the constitutional structure of the State parties The application of article 2(c) has led

to including other institutions, such as administrative bodies or national human rights institutions The interpretation of the obligations under this article is set out in General Recommendation 282 The structures and institutions comprising the justice system must ensure legal protection of the rights

of women on an equal basis with men Therefore, they should be impartial, efficient, adequately resourced and free from gender bias and negative stereotypes in the administration of justice

1 CEDAW (2012) Access to Justice - Concept Note for Half Day General Discussion Page 3 Retrieved from https:// www.ohchr.org/documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/AccesstoJustice/ConceptNoteAccessToJustice.pdf

2 CEDAW (2010) General recommendation No 28 on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Retrieved from https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G10/472/60/PDF/G1047260.pdf?OpenElement

Article 15 is a response to the gender bias in legal systems It embodies the principle of equality before the law, which is to be interpreted broadly, meaning equal access to courts and tribunal, non-discriminatory administration of justice, as well as equal protection of the law It encompasses “all decision-making bodies, executive or judicial, including civil, criminal, and administrative courts and tribunals”1 Traditional legal systems are also bounded by this provision Under this article, the Convention seeks to protect women’s status before the law, be it as a claimant, a witness or a defendant Further, State parties must ensure that a woman’s right to bring litigation is not limited

by law or by policies or practices of the legal system Within the structures of the domestic justice system, State parties must not only ensure equality of women’s legal capacity, but also not permit individuals or institutions to limit women’s legal capacity Hence, legislative measures and legal reform are required to enshrine such capacity to women Achieving substantive equality within the meaning of Article 15 involves that legal literacy and legal aid must be accessible to women to claim their rights Article 15 bears fundamental importance to the realization of other social and economic rights under the Convention, such as employment (Article 11) or health (Article 12), as well as in the area of family relations (Article 16)

Access to justice has been an ongoing concern for the CEDAW Committee, which has continuously reminded State Parties of the need to take measures to ensure that women across the world have access to fair and effective remedies when their rights are affected The Committee has addressed the issue of access to justice through its various general recommendations, concluding observations as well as decisions on individual communications2

The Convention establishes not only an international bill of rights for women, but also an agenda for action by countries to guarantee the enjoyment of those rights Vietnam was the 6th country in the world that joined CEDAW and has made significant efforts to implement its commitments to promote gender equality

3 Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment for Women in Vietnam

3.1 Legal Framework

Over the last years, Vietnam has continued to accelerate the development of the rule of law, improve its legal system to better respect, and ensure human rights Vietnam has adopted several laws and also ratified international human rights treaties in relation to human rights and gender equality, which are consisting of:

Local laws adopted and revised: Constitution in November, 2013; Land Law 2003 (revised in 2013); Law on Marriage and Family 2000 (revised in 2014; Law on Gender Equality, 2006; Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control, 2007; National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2011-2020; National Programme on Gender Equality for 2011-2015; Labour Code 1994 (revised in 2013; Law on Civil Status, 2014; Law on Social Insurance, 2014; Penal Code, 1985 (revised in 1987, 1999,

2015, 2017); Penal Procedure Code, 1987, revised in 2015, etc

1 Freeman, M., Chinkin, C., & Rudolf, B (2012) The UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, A Commentary Oxford University Press Page 392

2 CEDAW (2012) Access to Justice - Concept Note for Half Day General Discussion Page 4-9 Retrieved from https:// www.ohchr.org/documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/AccesstoJustice/ConceptNoteAccessToJustice.pdf

International human rights treaties ratified: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

in 1982; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in 1982; Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in 1982; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, in 1982; Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1990; Convention Against Torture, in 2014; International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPF),

in 2014

Various important changes have been made in the Constitution of Vietnam 2013, the Law on Gender Equality 2006 and the Criminal Law 2015 which created the basis for improving access to justice for citizens in general and women in particular

The Constitution of 2013 is a great step forward in protecting human rights and citizenship

In addition to the provisions on civil rights, human rights are also regulated in detail and in full In general, human rights have a broader scope than citizenship While Vietnamese citizenship is reserved only for persons of Vietnamese nationality, the human rights of a person are broader than those of Vietnamese citizens, foreign nationals, non-nationals (including foreign nationals and Vietnamese people) One of the human rights provisions is that the Constitution provides for “prohibiting gender discrimination” (paragraph 3 of Article 26) Accordingly, every individual is equal before the law and protected by the law of non-discrimination as a man or a woman

According to the Law on Gender Equality, gender equality is a non-discriminatory relationship with women, which women and men have the equal position, role, treatment, and enjoyment, and they are facilitated an opportunity to develop their capacity for the development of the community and families Men and women have equal rights in all aspects of politics, economics, culture, society, and family

In particular, some prohibited behaviours according to the law are as follows: obstructing men and women from exercising gender equality; gender discrimination in all forms; gender-based violence Therefore, persons who commit acts of violating the law on gender equality shall, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, be disciplined, administratively handled or examined for penal liability Agencies, organizations, and individuals committing acts of violating the law on gender equality, which causes damage, shall have to pay compensations according to the provisions

of law

The Penal Code 2015 (revised 2017) amended and supplemented Article 165: “Infringement of gender equality rights” Besides, the Penal Code in 2015 has many other articles, which have related content of the criminal liability increase related to the “gender” issue of a victim For example: Article

140 on the torture of others states that: “1 Persons who mistreat or humiliate their dependents, if not falling into the cases prescribed in Article 185 of this Code, shall be subject to the non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or a prison term of between 3 months and 2 years; 2 Committing the crime

in one of the following circumstances, the offenders shall be sentenced to between one and three years of imprisonment: a) For people under the age of 16, women who are known to be pregnant, the frail elderly, sick or otherwise unable to defend themselves “ Article 143 on crimes of rape states that: “1 Persons who use tricks to make relatives or those who are in distress reluctantly coerce or reluctant to commit other sexual acts shall be sentenced to between one and five years of imprisonment; 2 Committing the offence in one of the following circumstances, the offenders shall

be sentenced to between three and ten years of imprisonment: d) Making the victim pregnant ”

The new provisions in the revised version of the Penal Code in 2015 are more clearly defined, emphasizing humanities, focusing on age, gender, and severe punishment to protect women, mothers, and children In addition, the 2005 Criminal Procedure Code also has new and specific provisions on the protection of the victim’s personal safety and well-being with specific protective measures The

2013 Criminal Procedure Code aims to further ensure the victim’s rights of the criminal proceeding

3.2 Challenges facing women to access to justice in Vietnam

In all societies, access to justice is perhaps the most prohibitive for groups who have been

rendered vulnerable by social, economic, and political policies These groups tend to include informal workers, refugees, children, disabled people, and women, among others There is a symbiotic relationship between poverty, political exclusion, and lack of access to justice Indeed, the lack of access to justice exacerbates the social, economic, and political marginalisation faced by these groups and vice versa The challenges for women’s capability in demanding justice may be discussed in multiple perspectives, which are included:

Gender inequality

Inequalities between men and women appears in all spheres of societies The CEDAW’s 2015 General Recommendation No 33 on women’s access to justice corroborates the incontrovertible link between the access to justice and gender equality.1 The Committee has observed a number of obstacles and restrictions that impede women from realizing their right of access to justice on a basis of equality They include a lack of effective jurisdictional protections offered by the States Parties in relation to all dimensions of access to justice These obstacles occur in a structural context

of discrimination and inequality due to factors such as gender stereotyping, discriminatory laws, intersecting or compounded discrimination, procedural and evidentiary requirements and practices, and a failure to systematically ensure that judicial mechanisms are physically, economically, socially, and culturally accessible to all women All of these obstacles constitute persistent violations of women’s human rights

We might call this situation as patriarchy Patriarchy is defined by the UN as the shaping of

society around men’s control over women and children within the family and the replication of this unequal relationship in other spheres of life Patriarchal paradigms tend to have a profound influence

on legal systems Patriarchal legal systems often claim to be gender neutral while in reality, they are complicit in the oppression and subordination of women By tacitly privileging male interests, they fail to recognize the different ways which the law treats men and women and the different outcomes which men and women face when accessing justice depending on their political and economic position

in the family and society

In Vietnam, gender inequality has practical consequences for women both in the private and public sphere, including:

Making a decision in the household: There is a fact in Vietnam’s traditional culture that men are

considered as the head of the household and are able to exert control and dominance over women Vietnamese culture strongly believes in respecting one’s elders However, if the eldest is female, the eldest man retains the power, whether he wants it or not because of his obligations

1 CEDAW (2015) General recommendation No.33 on women’s access to justice Retrieved from https://tbinternet ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/CEDAW_C_GC_33_7767_E.pdf

Female employment: According to a report by the General Statistic Office of Vietnam, as of 1

July 2016, the labour force aged 15 and above is estimated at 54.5 million people of whom 51.9% are male and 48.1% are female1 However, the quality of employment of female workers is unstable and unsustainable due to the factors including2: Female workers often work in industries with low professional qualifications such as services, textiles, footwear, etc (accounting for 70% of total employees in these sectors); 62.4% of female workers work as unpaid family workers; 41.1% of female workers do simple jobs, and 43.6 % of female workers work in agriculture Moreover, in reality, women have more barriers to enter the workforce, as they are more likely to be dismissed following childbirth and maternity leave And women’s retirement age is earlier than man’s, according to the Labour Code of Vietnam, aged 55 and 60 respectively3 And the average monthly wage of female labour is about VND4.58 million, lower than that of male labour which is about VND5.19 million

Domestic violence: Domestic violence is a major public health problem that strikes couples of

all races, socioeconomic status, religions, and sexual orientations There are multiple understandings about what constitutes domestic violence, but it broadly includes physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence conducted in the domestic (usually household) space The 2010 Vietnam National Study4 conducted by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam and the World Health Organization on domestic violence has revealed that 58.3% of married women have experienced at least emotionally, physical, or sexual domestic violence at some point in their relationships However, only 13% of the abused women sought help from the justice system Traditionally, violence against women in Vietnam is still seen as a sensitive and private matter of the family; this is the reason why women are encouraged to deal with violence outside of the justice system and domestic violence has become a silent problem Women are reluctant to share their experiences or to seek help due to stigma, a lack

of sensitive responses and support from family members and the authorities, and fear of possible repercussions for themselves and their children

The critical importance of combating and preventing domestic violence has been recognized by the Government of Vietnam through the adoption of the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control in 2007, as well as other legislation including the 2006 Law on Gender Equality The objective

of the Law on Gender Equality 2007 is to eliminate gender discrimination and strengthen gender equality in all aspects of social and family life, this is considered as CEDAW internal legislation; and the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control (2008) promulgated in accordance with Article 3, Sections 1, 5a, 6 and the General Recommendation 19 of CEDAW Additionally, the Law

on Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking came into effect on January 1st, 2012 and established guidelines for the receipt, reintegration, and support of trafficked persons and detailed agencies responsible for implementation The Labour Code was amended in 2012 to particularly address sexual harassment in the workplace, and the National Study on Domestic Violence against

1 Statistics on Labour force at 15 years of age and above by sex and by residence Retrieved from https://www.gso.gov vn/Modules/Doc_Download.aspx?DocID=22363 Page 121

2 The statistics of the General Statistic Office of Vietnam Retrieved from https://www.gso.gov.vn/Modules/Doc_ Download.aspx?DocID=22363

3 The Labour Code of Vietnam 2012, Clause 1, Article 187 Age of retirement: ‘An employee who meets the conditions

on the period of payment of social insurance stipulated by the law on social insurance is entitled to a pension when reaching full 60 years of age, for males, or full 55 years of age, for females.’

4 Keeping silent is dying http://www.gso.gov.vn/Modules/Doc_Download.aspx?DocID=12579