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VIR-news
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Working for total equality
Update: 19-12-2006
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Vietnam has been recognised as a regional leader in improving gender equality, following the release of an annual UNICEF report last week.
However, the report also found that the country needs to focus on the implementation of nationally coordinated policies that will continue to protect women from exploitation, trafficking and prostitution.
“Women need to be able to make choices in all areas of their life, including the question of fertility. They need to have the knowledge, power and means to plan how many children to have and when to have them,” said Ian Howie, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative in Vietnam.
“Women’s and girls’ rights, including their rights to education, employment and freedom from violence, abuse and discrimination, need to be protected. Without these, women become victims and when their full human capital is not realised, the development of entire communities and nations suffers,” Howie said.
Rapid economic growth has brought new opportunities. However, due to gender inequalities in access to productive resources, women have much less capacity to compete.
Women are often required to put their families first, even at the expense of their own health or aspirations and are also expected to defer to male authority. As a result, women may not be aware of, or do not exercise, their legal rights.
“In many areas though, Vietnam leads the Asia-Pacific region on gender equality indicators. On average, Vietnam performs well in delivering education and health services to girls and boys, women and men,” said UNICEF representative to Vietnam Jesper Morch, adding that the “school enrollment rate shows little difference between girls and boys and the gap between male and female literacy rates has been decreasing over time”.
Dr Nguyen Duc Thuy, director of the Human Right Researching Institute, said the social position and status of the Vietnamese women has been greatly improved when compared to previous years.
“At present, Vietnam is the leading Asian country, ranked second in the Asia-Pacific region, with 27.31 per cent of the National Assembly made up of women,” Thuy said.
According to a 2003 World Bank assessment, Vietnam has one of the world’s highest economic participation rates with 85 per cent of men and 83 per cent of women aged between 15-60 involved in economic activities.
No. 792/December 18-24, 2006
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By Bich Ngoc
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