Gender equality Law

The Law Drafting Committee was officially established in March, 2005 with 10 members including leaders of Vietnam Women’s Union, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Labor-War Invalid and Social Affairs, Ministry of Justice, People’s Supreme Court, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Office of the National Assembly, Fatherland Front and National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam.

To assist the Drafting Committee, an Editing Group of 12 members who are department’s leaders and officials from different ministries and branches was established in March 2004, and headed by the Standing Vice chairperson of the Drafting Committee

From April to December 2004, Vietnam Women’s Union has conducted number of preparatory activities for the law drafting, of them 6 main activities are as follows:

- Gender training for members of the Drafting Committee and Editing Group

- Collect, translate documents and conduct study visits to learn experience in drafting gender equality and other gender related laws of countries in Asia and Europe.

- Organize workshops to solicit consultations o­n target groups, scope and content of the gender equality law

- Review, analyze and evaluate the system of legal documents o­n gender equality

- Conduct training o­n international experience and skills in drafting gender equality law.

- Conduct assessment of the real situation of gender equality in Vietnam.

From these preparations, the Drafting Committee and Editing Group finalized the draft before circulating for comments.

In 2005, the focus of this law formulation process will be organization of workshops, meetings and dialogues to solicit feedbacks for finalization of the Draft. Feedback and comments are expected to be collected from law experts, gender experts, agencies of Party and State, Political and political-social organizations, local governments, the public and other organizations. Workshops will be conducted in Northern, Central and Southern parts of the country. The law draft will then be revised and finalized through series of workshops, meetings and dialogues.

The issuance of Gender Equality Law will concretize fully and concretely the Party’s and State’s point of view o­n gender equality which has been reflected in different Party’s reports, Constitution of 1930 and 1945 to date. It is also appropriate to the international trend. However, this is a rather difficult legal document as it relates to changes in attitude o­n gender equality and concepts that are still brand-new to or not yet fully understood by many people… Therefore, Vietnam Women’s Union would highly appreciate to receive any feedback and comments from different agencies, organizations, localities and the public o­n the draft Law.

Please send your feedback and comments to the following address:

Law and Policy Department

Vietnam Women’s Union

39 Hang Chuoi, Hanoi

Tel: 04 9719913/9723005

Fax: 04 9713143

Email: banlpcs@yahoo.com or HTTVan@cardvn.net