At a press conference held in Hanoi on November 9 to announce the event, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs warned that gender-based violence was an alarming issue in many countries around the world, including Vietnam and that it was considered as a big obstacle to removing gender-based discrimination.
Speaking at the conference, Nguyen Trong Dam, Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the month of action aimed to raise public awareness of gender-related issues in a bid to eliminate gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls, with the aim of building an equitable, progressive and developed society.
A total of 50 cities and provinces nationwide had approved plans of action for gender equality and 30 ministries and sectors had committed to responding to the month of action, he reported.
Global research conducted by the World Health Organisation in 2013 revealed that 35% of women and girls worldwide had once experienced acts of physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetimes and over 700 million living women had been married as children.
Vietnam has been hailed by international organisations as one of the countries that have made significant achievements in eliminating the gender gap over the past two decades, particularly in such fields as employment and healthcare.
However, statistics from national surveys on domestic violence in Vietnam have shown that 34% of married women reported that they suffered from physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands. Fifty-eight percent of women had experienced at least of three acts of physical, spiritual and sexual violence in their lifetimes.
What is worrying now is that the violence against children, particularly girls, in the country has seen complicated developments as around 1,000 cases of sexual harassment against girls are reported in the country every year.
