Promoting gender equality and women’s rights
A seminar was held in Hanoi on March 12 to discuss issues related to gender equality and women’s rights.
The event was co-organised by the Department for Gender Equality under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the United Nations Gender Programme Coordination Group to review implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by 189 UN member countries, including Vietnam, at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
The programme has 12 strategic goals with the aim of boosting women’s progress throughout the world.
Pham Ngoc Tien, Head of the Department for Gender Equality, said that over the past 15 years, Vietnam has become one of the countries which have progressive policies and laws on gender equality and women’s rights. The country has recorded remarkable achievements in implementing the 12 strategic goals.
Currently, the literacy rate among people above the age of 10 stands at 93.1 percent, while the literacy rate among women is 90.5 percent. In the 2006-2007 academic year, more than 55 percent of students in universities and colleges were women.
To fulfill these goals, Vietnam is building a 10-year national strategy on gender equality and a five-year national target programme on gender equality to encourage women’s contributions to the development of family, community and the whole nation.