Hanoi, July 15, 2021 – Management and Sustainable Development Institute (MSD), in collaboration with the Children’s Rights Governance Network (CRG), conducted a Workshop on Sharing and contributing ideas for the Law on Prevention and Control of Violence family force (DV) revised with the participation of representatives from social organizations in Vietnam. The event was held with financial support from Save the Children.
Domestic violence has always been a common problem of the whole society, leaving many serious consequences, especially for women and children. In order to prevent and combat domestic violence, especially violence against children in the family, in recent years, social organizations operating in the field of human rights protection and children’s rights have deployed many activities of education, communication, awareness raising, behavior change, promotion of new promulgation and effective implementation of policies and laws on domestic violence prevention and control, women’s rights protection, children, people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups in society.
From a legal perspective, the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control, promulgated in 2007, demonstrates the efforts of the authorities in domestic violence prevention and control. After 12 years of implementation, this law has revealed many shortcomings. Therefore, on May 25, 2021, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a plan to develop a draft Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control (amended) in order to complete the policy and increase the effectiveness and efficiency in law enforcement on DV, protecting fundamental rights and ensuring equality among family members, including gender equality; enhance the responsibilities of the heads of agencies and organizations in domestic violence prevention and control. The draft Law will be submitted to the Government in November 2021 and submitted to the National Assembly for approval in 2022.
Promoting the role of social organizations in participating in policy and law development, with the desire to be able to propose, contribute ideas and advocate for the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control. As amended, Management and Sustainable Development Institute (MSD), in collaboration with the Child Rights Governance Network (CRG), organized a workshop to share and contribute ideas for the revised Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control. The seminar had the participation of Mr. Khuat Van Quy – Deputy Director of the Family Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism – Law drafting agency; experts and representatives of more than 30 social organizations operating in majors of child protection, gender-based violence prevention, and protection of the rights of people with disabilities.
In the opening speech, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Linh – Director of MSD said: “When it comes to domestic violence, we often immediately think of the relationship between husband and wife. I feel that children or easy objects Other vulnerable people such as the disabled, the elderly, and the LBGTIQ+ are often overlooked and easily left behind. Therefore, in today’s seminar, the Organizing Committee hopes to bring the voices of these groups to stir up the process of developing legal policies. As a children’s organization, I would like to emphasize the role of children: Children can easily be victims of domestic violence, including being subjected to abuse by their parents, sometimes with physical and mental punishment; Children may just be witnesses to domestic violence, which also affects their physical development, children’s spirit and perspective, human outlook on life. And most of all, children are the ones who can make a change. Children who are aware, have a voice and ask for an end to violence today will be the creators of a safe, just society, families that truly respect children’s rights and human rights. , full of love,…”
(Ms. Nguyen Phuong Linh – Director of MSD)
At the workshop, the speakers and participants shared and updated the development process and main contents of the revised draft DV Law, and discussed the issue of domestic violence. towards children in general, children with disabilities and LGBT children in particular, from the perspective of social organizations working in the field of human rights and children’s rights protection.
Sharing the new points of the revised draft Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control, Mr. Khuat Van Quy said: “With the revised draft law, we want to focus on such issues as concepts related to DV work; additional types of support and counseling for people with domestic violence; perfecting measures to prevent, protect and support DV sufferers, and reconcile in DV; education and communication for perpetrators of domestic violence, not just punishment, information work, propaganda and specifying the phone number (111) to receive information about domestic violence. Strengthening conditions to ensure DV prevention work, whereby it is necessary to clearly define measures to ensure DV prevention work; overcome inadequacies in reporting information on domestic violence, supplement forms of reporting on domestic violence cases or the risk of domestic violence through social networks. In particular, with diverse revised content, we are always willing and willing to listen to and acknowledge contributions from social organizations, but units or individuals who directly support victims of violence to be able to come to a comprehensive and complete draft law.”
Mr. Khuat Van Quy, Deputy Director of the Family Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (on the right).
According to statistics of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism compiled from reports of provinces, in the period 2009-2019, the total number of domestic violence cases detected by localities nationwide was 297,498. During this period, the number of domestic violence cases decreased gradually over the years: in 2009 it was 53,206 cases, decreasing to 20,108 cases in 2015 and only 8,176 cases in 2019.
Explaining and assessing the current situation of violence against children in the family, Mr. Nguyen Trong Tien – an expert representing the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights emphasized: “Forms of violence against children are not only the use of spanking, physical violence which in reality is very diverse such as emotional violence (swearing, insults), sexual violence and economic violence (labor exploitation, seizure and control of property) children). There are many causes for children to experience domestic violence, but the biggest cause still comes from inherent perceptions or concepts such as: “Love the whip, give it a go” or ” If you don’t hit, you can’t teach children”, or the lack of understanding of the law in general and the law on children’s rights in particular. In fact, when reaching out to support the victims, we encountered many difficulties such as difficulty reaching family members; reporting information is often slowly; some family members hiding information about child abuse, etc. Remember, no form of violence is considered as loving towards children”.
(Mr. Nguyen Trong Tien – representative of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights)
The representative of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights also made a number of proposals to amend the law, including promoting legal propaganda and education; connecting, collecting information and recommendations from social organizations and children to state agencies; consolidating and perfecting the state management apparatus and social organizations on child protection; improving child protection knowledge for child protection staff at all levels, especially on a grassroots level, etc.
Save the Children’s Representative, Ms. Hoang Thi Tay Ninh, Program Manager of the Children’s Rights Governance Program, expressed her view: “Currently, many countries around the world have enacted and enforced laws prohibiting punishment. children physically everywhere, including at home, and in the family. Vietnam also has a legal framework to protect children in this regard, however, in all the laws that deal with children, physical and mental punishments are still not properly defined that it is violence against children, and the prohibition of physical and mental punishment, especially those in the name of “education” have not been emphasized or clarified in any law.”
(Ms. Hoang Thi Tay Ninh – Program Manager of the Children’s Rights Governance Program)
In addition, the new point of the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control also focuses more on the addition of laws to protect children with disabilities and LGBT children.
Ms. Trinh Thi Le – Project Coordinator of the Institute for Community Development Studies (ACDC) shared: “Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to suffer a violent attack than children without disabilities. more victims of violence and abuse than children without disabilities. Currently, there are no complete statistics on domestic violence against children with disabilities, but in reality, children with disabilities have to go through many stories of domestic violence. The perpetrators of violence against children can be the children’s siblings, who are impatient or disrespectful to children with disabilities. We suggest that legislators need to study some additional forms of sanction for administrative violations (such as compulsory education, community labor penalty, etc.) in order to diversify sanctioning forms and increase the feasibility enforcement as well as increase the effectiveness of deterrence and education of sanctions for handling administrative violations. It is necessary to increase the level of fines for acts of domestic violence in which the victim is a child with a disability, and to add some sanctions for some acts of domestic violence that are common in practice, such as sexual violence in relationships, especially children with disabilities”.
(Ms. Trinh Thi Le – Project Coordinator of the Institute for Community Development Studies (ACDC)
As a person with many years of experience in the field of LGBT rights protection, Mr. Luong The Huy – Director of the Institute for Social, Economic and Environmental Studies (iSEE) shared: “LGBT people are subjected to violence by many people in society but suffer the most violence by family members. LGBT children are still seen as “misunderstood”, “demanding” and “in need of treatment”, or, more mildly, “redirecting education to the right” or delaying acceptance instead of support and access. to correct information because it is perceived as “give up” or “encourage children to deviate”. Physical violence is quite common because parents think their child is influenced by a deviant lifestyle or an invasion of privacy. There are many causes of violence, but the root cause is gender and sexual stereotypes. Violence against LGBT people is gender-based violence, however, the DV Law does not mention LGBT groups. Therefore, families, authorities and related agencies and LGBT people themselves are not aware of the application of this law to prevent and protect them from violence from their own family members.”
(Mr. Luong The Huy – Director of the Institute for Social, Economic and Environmental Studies (iSEE)
From these sharings, Mr. Huy made recommendations: “It is essential to have extensive communication programs for people in the community, family members, local leaders, police, educators, and LGBT people themselves are more aware of the issue of violence against them and its consequences. Understanding the nature of this violence will also help in the more effective application of legal frameworks on gender equality, domestic violence prevention, and the protection of children’s rights in Vietnam. In addition, it is important to add psychological, health, employment, educational, and legal support services to LGBT people and their family members.
Closing the workshop, Ms. Nguyen Hai Anh – Project Manager, MSD shared: “For many people, especially children or disadvantaged groups, home – family is the safest place. But it is also in their homes that children and disadvantaged groups are witnessing or being victims of many acts of violence, at risk of being ignored and left behind. With the active support and cooperation from the agency in charge of developing the Law Project, we see a lot of positive signals from the amendment and supplement of the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control this time. From the perspective of social organizations, MSD will work with members of the child rights governance network (CRG), networks and organizations to support the disadvantaged, carefully study the proposed amendments and prepare detailed recommendations to the Drafting Committee, in the coming time as well as actively continue to participate in the process of effectively developing Law/policy documents.”
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Watch again the workshop at: https://www.facebook.com/www.msdvietnam.org/videos/923513791560212
Media contact:
(Ms) Chu Thu Ha – Event and Communication Manager
Email: event.manager@msdvietnam.org
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