Need for transgender law emphasised at Hanoi forum

Hanoi (VNA) – An official of the Justice Ministry has underlined the need to issue a law on transgender issues to ensure the right to gender re-identification, which is enshrined in the 2015 Civil Code.

Nguyen Thanh Tu, Director of the ministry’s Department of Civil and Economic laws, stressed the necessity at an annual law forum in Hanoi on December 14 that focused on the 2015 Civil Code.

He said that law should stipulate conditions for gender reassignment and sex confirmation surgery. It also needs to include regulations on protecting transgender people.

This was the first time in law-making history gender re-identification had been recognised. A law on transgender issues is being drafted by the Ministry of Health and expected to be submitted to the National Assembly before 2020.

At the law forum, participants updated information about the enforcement of the Civil Code and looked into the Code’s major amendments and supplements. They also suggested ways to overhaul legal normative documents and apply civil legal regulations.

Many called for legal documents relating to personality rights, including the right to gender re-identification, to be aligned with the 2015 Civil Code so as to ensure the consistency of the legal system and law enforcement.

The law forum, held by the Justice Ministry and the US Agency for International Development, has become an annual dialogue on legal and judicial reforms in Vietnam for the last 10 years. 

Thanks to this forum, many programmes and projects on legal and judicial cooperation have been expanded between Government agencies and international organisations, according to Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Khanh Ngoc.

In 2015, Vietnamese agencies worked with foreign organisations to implement 53 legal and judicial cooperation programmes nationwide. These programmes have helped the country fine-tune its legal system, make reforms and promote international integration.

The Justice Ministry will hold more forums to encourage dialogue on legal and judicial reforms in the future, Ngoc noted.-VNA