The event was held by the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in Vietnam, in collaboration with the Embassy of Norway Vietnam, the Gender and Community Development Network (GENCOMNET), the Gender-based Violence Prevention Network (GBVNet) and Land Alliance (LANDA).
Speaking at the event, Shoko Ishikawa, UN Women Country Representative in Vietnam said that the country has actively participated in the CEDAW and effectively coordinated with UN Women in promoting gender equality and protecting the rights of women and girls.
She emphasised that the UN convention aims to protect and promote gender equality, empower women and girls as well as facilitate the participation and leadership of women in social issues.
The UN official noted that youngsters must be the ones to continue to encourage and support gender equality and the empowerment of women as they will be leaders in the future to make changes. She also stressed UN Women’s commitments to helping young people organise activities to raise public awareness on gender equality and protecting the rights of women and girls.
Sharing the results released by Vietnam’s authorities during the implementation of CEDAW, Hoang Thi Thu Huyen, Deputy Head of the Gender Equality Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), noted that the Vietnamese Government is actively building an action plan to implement recommendations by the CEDAW Committee.
After receiving approval from the Prime Minister, the MoLISA will issue documents guiding the implementation of the action plan, in addition to indicators for monitoring the implementation of the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations for relevant ministries, branches and localities to follow, Huyen added.
She expressed her wish to continue receiving support and experience sharing from UN Women and other international organisations to help the country better realise the convention’s contents, especially the making of a mid-term report on the convention implementation to the CEDAW Committee in 2017.
Participating in the dialogue, young people expressed their wish that the Government and international organisations would continue creating favourable conditions for them to engage in implementing the convention, contributing to boosting gender equality and the rights of women and girls in Vietnam.
Earlier the same day, around 50 young people from across Vietnam joined a mock CEDAW session, in which they experienced how stakeholders work in implementation of CEDAW. They set up a simulated CEDAW Committee, including member states of the convention and social organisations, discussing measures to deal with issues during the convention implementation.
The activity was considered a sound opportunity for the youth to learn about CEDAW, talk about the convention and take actions to realise it.
CEDAW was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 18, 1979. To date, 185 countries around the world have ratified and signed the convention. Vietnam signed CEDAW in 1980 and ratified it one year later.
