Statement of Nguyen Khue-Tu, representing Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, at July 9 Lunch Briefing prior to CEDAW/Review

DVOV | Jul 12, 2015

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

Today I will be discussing the truth about the status of women in Vietnam, which you might find is quite different from the watered-down, oftentimes misleading versions that the Vietnamese government often portrays to us.

So I’ll dive right into the reply that the government of Vietnam provided to CEDAW on your List of Issues. In that reply, they state that they encourage young women and youth to join associations and organizations, which, in many ways, is very misleading because organizations such as the one I represent—Vietnamese Women for Human Rights—are not allowed to exist in Vietnam. They’re outlawed. In fact, another woman, Ta Phong Tan, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for co-founding the Club of Free Journalists of Vietnam.

So lack of freedom of association, lack of freedom of expression—that violates Article 3 of CEDAW. Because of that violation, CEDAW cannot be fully implemented in Vietnam without those fundamental human rights.

Next, women in Vietnam are shamed when they participate in civic engagement. How are they shamed? The government actually admits to hiring one thousand “online public opinion shapers”. What they do is they go online and attack and bash female human rights activists. They state things like “Why are you not at home in the kitchen?”, “You’re such a bad wife, you’re such a bad mother”.

In the reply they provide to CEDAW, the government says that they promote the advancement of women, when in fact government forces actually cause the regression of women’s status. They move them back a thousand years to archaic values, like women belonging in the kitchen and not in civic engagement.

This discouragement of women living a life of civic engagement leads to violence against these women. In their reply to CEDAW, they talk a lot about domestic violence, but not a single word about state-sponsored violence against these women. It ranges from sexual harassment, to torture, to imprisonment, to threats on their life for civic engagement.

They also state that they have many laws that protect the equality of women, stating that they educate women on their rights. In fact, that is not entirely true because a group of women were going into a park, disseminating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they were beaten. So far from educating women about their rights, they are in fact attacking women who try to educate others about their rights. And that is not right.

I only have two-and-a-half minutes, so that’s all I’ll say for now. I can definitely provide more information and answer any questions during the discussion.

Thank you very much.