Vietnam resolved to tackle domestic violence: Workshop

Hanoi (VNA) – The Government of Vietnam is determined to tackle domestic violence by prioritising the amendment of relevant laws and policies on domestic violence prevention and control, and raising public awareness to change people’s behaviours, heard a workshop in Hanoi on March 24.

The event was held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST) in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and funded by the Government of Australia under the Project “Eliminating violence against women and children in 2021-2025”.

It discussed the implementation of the new National Programme on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control until 2025, approved by the Prime Minister in January 2022, and the Prime Minister’s decisions on the family work. 

The discussions focused on key solutions of this national programme, including the revision and finalisation of laws and policies on domestic violence prevention and control, strengthening the leadership and coordination between ministries, sectors, and localities in achieving targets of the national programme, and building and operating support systems for domestic violence survivors.

The key objectives of the national programme include over 70 percent of people at risk of domestic violence to be equipped with knowledge and skills in domestic violence response; 95 percent of detected domestic violence survivors to receive protection, legal assistance, and healthcare; 95 percent of communes, wards, and towns to run and maintain the Domestic Violence Prevention and Control Model; and 90 percent of people directly engaged in domestic violence prevention and control to be provided with training in knowledge, skills, and professional practices on domestic violence prevention and control, among others.

In his opening remarks, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Australian Embassy in Vietnam Mark Tattersall said: "No society is immune from domestic and family violence, and no country can afford to be passive. Not Australia, not Vietnam.”

 

Commending Vietnam for the goal it has set itself in the national programme, he affirmed that Australia is committed to staying the course with the Vietnamese Government to support the realisation of the goal. 

Meanwhile, UNFPA Representative in Vietnam Naomi Kitahara welcomed the Domestic Violence Prevention and Control Law which is scheduled to be endorsed in October 2022.

Kitahara said: “I am very proud of Vietnam reaching this level of engagement in trying to eliminate domestic violence in the country, and in the next five years, UNFPA is fully committed to continue supporting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the implementation of this national programme to ensure that all women and children in Vietnam, including those most vulnerable, live a life free of violence.”

Ending violence against women and girls should be a priority for everyone for the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, leaving no one behind, she stressed.

“We must stop violence against women and children now, and I trust the cooperation between the Government of Vietnam, the Government of Australia, UNFPA and other international and national partners will realise that goal,” Kitahara believed.

The workshop also looked into the implementation of the Vietnam Family Strategy by 2030 and the Programme on Family Ethics and Lifestyle Education by 2030.

Vietnam has fully recognised that sustainable family development constitutes one of the key factors to ensure the success of industrialisation and modernisation in the country.

With its responsibility of state management in family development, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has worked closely with other relevant ministries and agencies as well as local authorities to review the implementation of the 2010-2020 Family Strategy and to develop the National Family Development Strategy by 2030 and the Programme on Family Ethics and Lifestyle Education by 2030, which were approved by the Prime Minister.

The Family Development Strategy aims to build Vietnamese prosperous, progressive, and happy families, which act as healthy cells of the society; the homes for everyone; and the place to nurture and foster individuals’ personalities and lifestyles of respecting the nation's good traditions, thus promoting and multiplying positive values that contribute to the country’s sustainable development./.