Launching the National Action Month for Gender Equality and Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence in 2024

On November 15, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) to organize the launching ceremony of the National Action Month for Gender Equality and Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence in 2024.

Launching ceremony of the National Action Month for Gender Equality and Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence 2024 on November 15. (Source: UN Women)

This year's National Action Month for Gender Equality and Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence has the theme "Ensuring social security, empowering and creating opportunities for women and girls to achieve gender equality and eliminate violence against women and girls".

Attending the ceremony were comrade Dao Ngoc Dung, member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs , Chairman of the National Committee for the Advancement of Vietnamese Women; comrade Lieutenant General Le Van Tuyen, member of the Standing Committee of the Central Public Security Party Committee, Deputy Minister of Public Security, Ms. Pauline Tamesis, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Vietnam, representatives of leaders of ministries, central agencies, leaders of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of some localities, ambassadors, representatives of international organizations, enterprises and more than 800 delegates from units of the People's Public Security force.

Over the years, the Party, State and Government of Vietnam have always made efforts to implement measures to ensure social security, promote gender equality and prevent and respond to gender-based violence, especially violence against women and children.

Resolution No. 42-NQ/TW dated November 24, 2023, the 8th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to innovate and improve the quality of social policies, meeting the requirements of the cause of building and defending the Fatherland in the new period, has identified social policies as policies to care for people, for people, taking people as the center, the subject, the goal, the driving force, and the resource for sustainable national development.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung affirmed that "social security issues, measures to promote equality, care for the needs and legitimate interests of women and children, and move towards real gender equality still need to be prioritized in the coming time.

With the theme “Ensuring social security, empowering and creating opportunities for women and girls to achieve gender equality and eliminate gender-based violence”, this year’s Action Month emphasizes the importance of measures to maintain a stable, fair, democratic society, ensuring social security and security, and safety for people, especially women and girls”.

The highlight of this year's Launching Ceremony is the cooperation and participation of agencies and units in the People's Public Security force through the coordination of the Launching Ceremony and commitment to implementing gender equality work and preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

The highlight of this year's launching ceremony is the cooperation and participation of agencies and units in the People's Public Security force. (Source: UN Women)

Lieutenant General Le Van Tuyen, Deputy Minister of Public Security, emphasized that “in recent years, the Ministry of Public Security has always paid attention to and directed the Public Security forces at all levels to proactively coordinate with relevant units, ministries, agencies and organizations to promptly detect, intervene and handle cases of gender-based violence, illegal marriage brokerage and protect victims; prevent crimes of child abuse and human trafficking; coordinate in organizing the signing and implementation of inter-sectoral coordination regulations related to the prevention of gender-based violence. These tasks will continue to be deployed in the People's Public Security force in the coming time.”

With the joint efforts and coordination of ministries, branches, and agencies at the central and local levels, gender equality work has achieved many remarkable results in recent times. The proportion of women participating in Party committees at all levels in all terms has increased. 59% of ministries and ministerial-level agencies have female key leaders. 74.6% of provincial-level local governments have female key leaders. The proportion of female deputies to the 15th National Assembly reached 30.26%, higher than the world and regional average.

The gender gap in all levels of education has been narrowed; the service system to support victims of gender-based violence has been expanded and improved in quality; the role and position of women in the economic field has been enhanced; more and more outstanding female entrepreneurs and female executives of Vietnam have been recognized and honored by world economic forums. Many female officers have joined the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, demonstrating the potential capacity of women and when women are promoted, they can fulfill any task.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024 published by the World Economic Forum, Vietnam's gender equality index in 2024 ranked 72nd out of 146 countries, up 11 places compared to 2022. On April 9, 2024, the United Nations Economic and Social Council elected Vietnam to the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) for the 2025-2027 term, affirming Vietnam's position and prestige in the international arena.

The event kicks off a nationwide campaign on gender equality and prevention and response to gender-based violence in 2024. (Source: UN Women)

On behalf of the United Nations in Viet Nam, Ms. Paulines Tamasis, UN Resident Coordinator, said: ''The United Nations is supporting the capacity building of the Vietnamese police force in handling cases effectively, ensuring investigation processes are child-friendly, victim-friendly, gender-sensitive and gender-responsive. Through our cooperation, we hope to ensure that the police force is well-equipped and trained to provide women and children with the confidence and safety to report and seek assistance from the authorities.''

In addition to the above results, gender equality work still has certain shortcomings and limitations such as: Gender prejudices in society are still a major obstacle to gender equality work; the gender imbalance at birth is still high; early marriage and early childbearing are still quite common in ethnic minority areas; violence against women and children still exists; women still have to take on more housework and family care than men; population aging and new issues such as climate change and natural disasters have severely affected the socio-economic development process and people's lives... in which women and children are the ones who are more affected.

To solve this problem requires the participation of the entire political system and the community. The promulgation of policies and laws must go hand in hand with the responsibility and efforts of the authorities in implementing them so that the laws can truly come into life.

In addition, attention must be paid to the proactive and positive role of the media in changing traditional notions, gender stereotypes and gender-based violence.

More importantly, women and children themselves must be more proactive in sharing and seeking help to resolve the problem of violence and abuse, and at the same time need to be equipped with knowledge and skills to prevent and combat violence and abuse.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung proposed and hoped that ministries, branches, agencies, Party committees at all levels, authorities, organizations, unions, international organizations at home and abroad, media agencies and each of us would commit, participate and take specific, practical and effective actions towards gender equality, for the prosperous development and happiness of each individual, family and the whole society.

The launching ceremony of the Action Month is the opening event for the peak communication campaign on gender equality and prevention and response to gender-based violence in 2024 nationwide. Immediately after the launching ceremony, side events were organized such as parades, martial arts performances by the People's Public Security force and thousands of activities in response to the Action Month were simultaneously organized by agencies and units in localities across the country.

The month of action for gender equality and prevention and response to gender-based violence is held from November 15 to December 15 every year. 100% of localities and many ministries, branches and central agencies have developed plans and implemented activities in response to the month of action.

In 2023 alone, ministries, branches and localities carried out more than 6,000 communication activities with more than 950,000 participants (of which men accounted for about 30%); nearly 480,000 communication products were published; nearly 3,800 conferences, seminars, talks and thematic talks were organized; 57,683 news and articles were produced and communicated on mass media; more than 1.4 million leaflets and communication products were produced. It is estimated that more than 10 million people participated and accessed communication messages.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/phat-dong-thang-hanh-dong-vi-binh-dang-gioi-va-phong-ngua-ung-pho-voi-bao-luc-tren-co-so-gioi-cap-quoc-gia-nam-2024-293823.html