Vietnam: State policies to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage

Vietnam: State policies to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage (Illustrative image)

Under Article 32 of the Draft Population Law 2020, several measures to prevent and reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in Vietnam are as follows:

- The State gives measures to prevent and reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas, contributing to improving the quality of the population and human resources in ethnic minority areas.

- Measures to prevent and reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in Vietnam include:

+ Informing, educating, communicating, propagandizing, advocating, and changing manners for ethnic minorities about child marriage and consanguineous marriage;

+ Providing counseling, conducting intervention, research, applying, and widely implementing models and lessons learned to change manners, enhance access to information, and mobilize community participation to prevent and reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas;

+ Enhancing professional and operational capacity for officials involved in the implementation of ethnic affairs.

+ Promoting the role of socio-political organizations, village elders, village chiefs, and reputable individuals in ethnic minority areas to participate in propaganda and advocacy for abolishing outdated customs and preventing child marriage and consanguineous marriage;

+ Implementing international cooperation, mobilizing aid sources, and other legitimate financial sources for implementation.

- Responsibility to prevent and reduce the situation of child marriage and consanguineous marriage is specified as follows:

+ The Prime Minister of Vietnam issues programs and schemes to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas;

+ Ministries and agencies assigned to lead, organize, and guide the implementation of programs and schemes to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas are responsible for cooperating with ministries, central authorities, and localities during the organization and implementation process;

+ Ministries, central authorities, and provincial/municipal People's Committees, according to their assigned functions and tasks, are to coordinate and integrate related activities to effectively achieve the objectives of programs and schemes to reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage in ethnic minority areas.

Through this, the State coordinates with specialized agencies and especially the people to jointly prevent and reduce child marriage and consanguineous marriage; strengthen propaganda, and encourage people in border areas, islands, and ethnic minority areas to eradicate child marriage customs; develop a scheme to develop the population sustainably.

More details can be found in the Draft Population Law 2020.

Ngoc Tai

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