The United Nations and Viet Nam's National Assembly

The UN was o­ne of the first development partners to work with the National Assembly, and has provided o­ngoing support ever since, with a focus o­n capacity building and policy development, especially in the areas of governance, population and reproductive health, domestic violence, and gender equality. 

Highlights of the IPU mission and the work of the UN and the National Assembly are summarized below.

Inter-Parliamentary Union delegation focuses o­n UN Reform and Viet Nam's National Assembly  

The IPU mission during February 23rd-26th focused o­n UN Reform efforts and the relationship between the UN and Viet Nam's National Assembly. The delegation members met with Viet Nam's Vice-President and several other members of the National Assembly, leaders of several UN organizations, as well as representatives of Government ministries, the World Bank, the IMF, NGOs and donors. The delegation gathered first-hand information about progress made in the One UN Initiative, and gained a better understanding of UN support to the National Assembly. A similar IPU mission to Tanzania, another UN Reform pilot country, took place last September.

The findings of the mission to Viet Nam will be presented to the IPU Executive Committee at the forthcoming IPU Assembly in Addis Ababa (5-10 April 2009) and shared with the full IPU membership of parliaments. There will be an opportunity to further exchange ideas, good practices and recommendations when the IPU Committee o­n UN Affairs meets in October 2009.

The UN intends to strengthen cooperation with national parliaments through their global organization, the IPU, which includes 154 member parliaments.

The United Nations and the National Assembly of Viet Nam

Viet Nam’s 1992 Constitution states that the National Assembly is the “highest organ of state power” and the highest-level representative body of the people. It can draw up, adopt and amend the constitution and make and amend laws. It also has the responsibility to legislate and oversee implementation of State plans and budgets.

The role of the National Assembly has been considerably strengthened as part of Viet Nam’s reform process, and the Assembly today appears to be a far more powerful and relevant institution within the political system than it was ten years ago.

The UN has been supporting the National Assembly since the mid-1990s and has focused o­n strengthening its institutional and policy capacity, particularly in the legislative review and oversight process.

Building Institutional Capacity

In the mid 1990s, the UN was o­ne of the first development partners to work with the National Assembly, through the Office of the National Assembly. Since then, with significant financial contributions from other development partners, the UN has provided continuous support to the National Assembly to build its institutional and policy capacity. The focus has been o­n the law making process, oversight and representation.

Increasingly, work is being conducted directly with key Committees of the National Assembly. This is being done through projects (e.g. support to budgetary oversight), policy research or assistance in the revision of draft laws.

Population, Reproductive Health & Domestic Violence

UN support to the National Assembly in these areas is aimed at building the capacity of Deputies to: i) review and ratify the draft of new and/or revised laws and ordinances o­n health in general, and in particular those o­n population and reproductive health; and ii) monitor the implementation of these laws and policies at the community level. The UN has given presentations o­n the current population and reproductive health situation in Viet Nam at various meetings and workshops organized by the National Assembly, and also supported the National Assembly in integrating emerging population and reproductive health issues into an internal bulletin addressed to Deputies. Furthermore, the UN monitored the implementation of the Law o­n Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence in two pilot provinces.

Women's Rights and Gender Equality

Viet Nam remains the leader in Asia in terms of female parliamentarian membership. Through strengthening the capacity of the National Assembly, efforts have been made to integrate the Convention o­n the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) into national legislation and to monitor the implementation of laws and policies to ensure that national legislation, policies and development programmes for ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas are developed within the CEDAW framework, that they incorporate principles of substantive equality, non-discrimination and state obligation and are in line with the Law o­n Gender Equality.

Members of the National Assembly now have an increased understanding of how CEDAW can be applied and reflected in legislative processes, monitoring and oversight of development programmes for ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas.

The UN has advocated strongly for gender budgeting and has provided support for enhancing regional female parliamentary caucuses. Recent activities have included training of National Assembly Deputies o­n how to mainstream gender equality into legislative work, including gender sensitive budgeting, and organization of a regional workshop to facilitate dialogue among female parliamentarian caucuses of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia.

In addition, a recently formed Female Parliamentarians Group is being supported by the UN through the UN Gender Joint Programme, which is currently being established.