Ha Noi, 24 August 2012 – A new project on providing capacity support for the government officials at national and sub-national levels in the development and implementation of a national response to domestic violence is being signed today at an official ceremony in Ha Noi attended by representatives of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST), other line ministries, representatives from provinces, social organizations and the United Nations agencies in Viet Nam.
Viet Nam has achieved extraordinary economic growth even in recent hard times, and has successfully lifted hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty.
However, the national survey on domestic violence against women released in 2010 by GSO showed that domestic violence is still a serious problem in Viet Nam, with 34 per cent of ever-married women report that they have experienced physical and sexual violence from their husbands at some time in their life. Therefore, more efforts are needed to enforce the laws and put the policies into practice in order to address challenging issues of gender discrimination and gender based violence.
The One Plan 2012-2016 between the Government of Viet Nam and the United Nations (UN), signed in March 2012, will help address the challenges ahead and to ensure balanced, equitable and sustainable development. In this context, the project "Development of a national response to domestic violence, period 2012-2016" will be implemented by the Family Department of MOCST, with technical assistance from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in partnership with other UN agencies such as UNODC and UN Women. It will contribute to the Focus Area Two of the One Plan: Access to Quality Essential Services and Social Protection.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Mr. Le Khanh Hai, Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism emphasized that Viet Nam has been one of the pioneering countries in the region in formulating and passing policies and laws to promote gender equality and to end violence against women and girls. The country has also ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1982 and is a signatory to numerous other international human rights treaties and conventions that relate to gender equality and gender based violence. The Government of Viet Nam has addressed state management of domestic violence prevention and integrated the objectives of domestic violence prevention and control into the Viet Nam Family Development Strategy 2011- 2020 with a vision to 2030.
"We hope this project, through multi-sectoral coordination, will play a key role in establishing a national coordination mechanism to respond to domestic violence and a monitoring and evaluation framework on domestic violence prevention and control. It is important to ensure that a minimum intervention package on domestic violence prevention, care, treatment, protection and support will be available and that these interventions are accessible and affordable for every person in the country through a multi-sectoral response," said Ms. Mandeep K. O'Brien, UNFPA Representative a.i. in Viet Nam. It was emphasized that this project will help strengthen the capacity of MOCST in its coordination role with other line ministries and social organizations to promote gender equality and to end domestic violence.
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Notes to editors:
There are 16 UN agencies – FAO, IFAD, ILO, ITC, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNICEF, UNIDO, UNODC, UNV, UN Women and WHO – as well as IOM participating in the One Plan in Viet Nam.
For further information, please contact:
Ms Nguyen Thi Hong Thanh
UN Communications Team
Email: tnguyen@unfpa.org
Tel: 04 3822 4383, ext: 117
Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha
Deputy Director of VNM8P05 Project
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
Email: thuha.vugiadinh@gmail.com
Tel: : 04.39438231, ext 267
Click here to read UNFPA's speech in English and in Vietnamese
