Attending the Seminar were leaders of provincial departments, committees, branches and mass organizations; university lecturers and representatives of women's unions and youth workers in the province.
Necessary to amend and promulgate the Law on DV Prevention and Control
The Law on DV Prevention and Control was approved by the 12th National Assembly on November 21, 2007, and took effect from July 01, 2008.
After nearly 15 years of implementation, the Law has made a positive change in awareness in DV prevention and control, contributing to the protection of people suffering from DV, handling acts of DV, breaking the law in DV prevention and control, and improving gender equality in the family.
However, despite the achieved results, DV is still a painful and difficult problem in Vietnam. There are many DV cases with serious harm, complicated, sophisticated, unpredictable and difficult to handle by current legal regulations.
According to statistics of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the 2009 - 2021 period, the total number of DV cases detected across the country was 324,641 cases, and 4,967 cases in 2021 alone. Meanwhile, according to survey data released in 2019, 31.6% of women experienced at least one form of violence in 12 months, nearly 1 in 3 women (32%) experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands. Notably, 90.4% of women who experienced physical or sexual violence by their husbands did not seek help, only 4.8% sought help from the police.
Overview of the Seminar
A study on domestic violence conducted by the Institute for Family and Gender Studies in 2019 showed that 69% of children said that they had been punished by their parents in the form of hitting, punching, kicking, slapping, etc. and 31.6% of parents admitted that they had punished their children with violence. Children are also a social group at high risk of being sexually abused in the family, of which 21.3% of sexually abused children are abused by their own family members. DV against the elderly is quite common in many localities.
The DV problem tends to be more serious, more diverse, more complex, and has been leaving tragic and painful consequences for many families, creating great damage to the whole society.
One of the basic causes of the above situation is that the provisions and policies in the current Law on DV Prevention and Control still have many shortcomings and are not suitable with the development reality of today's society. There are also many limitations in the implementation of the Law, especially in the area of responsibility and inter-branch cooperation in DV prevention and control.
From the above reasons, the current Law on DV Prevention and Control needs to be amended and supplemented.
Accordingly, the Draft Law on DV Prevention and Control (amended) includes 06 chapters, 62 articles; increase 16 articles compared to the current Law. The Law prescribes measures to prevent, protect, support and handle violations in DV prevention and control; rights and responsibilities of agencies, organizations, families and individuals and conditions for ensuring the implementation of DV prevention and control; come into effect from July 01, 2023.
Enhancing the responsibility of the whole society in DV prevention and control
At the Seminar, branches and units presented and discussed their views on current policies and laws as well as the draft Law on DV Prevention and Control (amended). At the same time, the Seminar also received opinions and sharing of branch's experts on DV, especially in the context of the current changing situation.
The representative of the Provincial People's Court emphasized that the role of propaganda for young people about awareness and prevention of DV is very important and urgent, requiring branches and levels to work together so that all classes of society are aware of and work together to prevent and control DV. Thereby, improving people's access to and understanding of the law on gender equality, DV prevention and control, as well as people's enjoyment of health care services.
Regarding the form of propaganda, a representative of the Provincial Women's Union shared, special attention should be paid to the methods and ways of propaganda to bring practical effects; good propaganda, good advocacy; having a team of enthusiastic staff in DV prevention and control.
Representative of the Provincial Women's Union speaks at the Seminar
Many deputies said that branches, units and localities need to improve their responsibilities, actively cooperate and really pay attention to DV prevention and control; especially in the context that DV is becoming more and more sophisticated, complex, and physically and mentally abusive. Gender equality education and violence prevention and control must be carried out right from the family to school and society to shape awareness. At the same time, it is necessary to closely coordinate and deploy channels of interaction and support so that women or children victims can contact and report promptly.
The provincial Police representative proposed to supplement regulations on the responsibility to recognize and denounce acts of DV; consider denunciation as an obligation; severely sanction cases of knowing, seeing but covering up or failing to denounce, leading to serious consequences. Due to limited awareness of the law by a part of the people, they cover up, do not declare, and are afraid of being ridiculed. Communities and mass organizations do not care, sometimes consider domestic violence to be a private matter, only intervening when the consequences are serious.
Regarding comments on the draft Law on DV Prevention and Control (amended), deputies emphasized that the draft Law needs to clarify three groups of policies in the Law project, including: Measures to prevent DV, strengthening protection and support people living with DV; coordination mechanism and conditions to ensure the implementation of DV prevention and control; encouraging socialization of DV prevention and control. In particular, focusing on mobilizing socialization resources to prevent and control DV, because the material and spiritual consequences of DV are huge.
Deputies comment on the draft Law on DV Prevention and Control
Many deputies said that it is necessary to study and empower the Commune Police to apply professional measures to protect whistleblowers and victims of DV. Simultaneously, clarifying regulations on protection of victims of mental and sexual violence, while the mental torture is sometimes even more severe than physical. In addition, it is necessary to clarify the object of DV against people who have lived together or have had a nurturing relationship; especially, review for abusive stepmother with stepchild of husband or stepfather abusing and violent with his wife's own child.
Mr. Pham Trong Nhan - Deputy Head of the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies speaks at the Seminar
Speaking at the Seminar, Mr. Pham Trong Nhan affirmed that DV is a painful problem for society and has many serious consequences for people, especially for women and children. Therefore, the amendment and promulgation of the Law on DV Prevention and Control is extremely important and is a key task to focus on. Through the Seminar, the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies will acknowledge and absorb the multi-dimensional and highly critical opinions that the deputies have participated in; report to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.
Reported by Doan Trang- Translated by Thanh Tam