Take Action to End Violence against Women and Girls

Urgent global action is needed to address it.

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in collaboration with the United Nations in Vietnam and other development partners have come together on November 18 to launch the national campaign “Take Action to end Violence against Women and Girls”. The campaign call on the public, particularly men and boys, to take action to end all forms of violence against women and girls in Vietnam.

Addressing the lauching event, Mr. Huynh Vinh Ai, Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: “The national campaign in response to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women re-affirms the importance of the multi – sectoral coordination between the Government agencies, the United Nations in Vietnam, the civil society organizations and other international organizations to end violence against women and girls and to prevent domestic violence”.

Ms. Pratibha Mehta, Resident Coordinatior of the United Nations in Vietnam, said: “If we want to reduce violence, conflicts and wars, if we want meaningful relationships, we will have to understand men and masculinity better, we will have to socialize boys and girls differently, we will have to rethink the idea of what is male and what is a female; we will have to develop partnership between boys/men ad girls/women. Women and men have together lead gender equality and anti-violence movement”.

The campaign consists of a series of activities organized from 18 November to 16 December 2014 including workshops, exhibitions, cycle parades, running competition, street dance in 12 cities and provinces. Now it is the time take action to end violence against women and girls. Let’s work together to ensure that Vietnamese men and boys “Raise hands to hold, not to hit”.

Here in Vietnam, the National Study on Domestic Violence against Women, released by the General Statistics Office and the United Nations in Vietnam in 2010, showed that 58% of ever-married women had experienced at least one form of violence (physical, mental or sexual) at some point in their lives.

Approximately 50% of victims did not tell anyone about the violence they endured, and 87% did not seek help from public services.

Violence against women and girls not only has serious impacts on the physical and spiritual well-being of victims, but also has enormous socio – economic costs. A recent UN study showed that the cost fo gender –based violence against women in Vietnam, in out of pocket expenditures and lost earnings represented nearly 1.5% of national GDP in 2012.

Vietnam has a solid legal framework in place to address gender equality and gender based violence, as well as legal instruments in place to guide the implementation of the existing laws. However, much more needs to be done to ensure that the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control is further reinforced and implemented effectively to help end all violence against women and girls.