“This is a pivotal moment for Viet Nam. The National Assembly has the opportunity to apprise the election law so that is it aligned with national laws and policies and international commitments thereby advancing Viet Nam forward in its journey.”

By Pratibha Mehta, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Viet Nam

When one is on a long hike, you come to a point where you can simply stand still, turn back or charge forward.  This is very similar to a country’s journey towards achieving gender equality. There are easy sections when you can make quick progress and other parts of the path that require concerted effort to make big leaps.

Viet Nam is at a point in its journey where specific effort can result in gigantic steps forward. The National Assembly delegates will be voting on a revised election law that has the potential to advance Viet Nam to one of the leading countries in terms of women’s political representation.

Reforming the election law to ensure that a minimum of 35% of the elected delegates are women is a massive step in Viet Nam’s journey to achieve gender equality. It will demonstrate to Vietnamese citizens, the National Assembly’s full commitment to achieve gender equality guaranteed in the Constitution and in the Law on Gender Equality, and specifically in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and empowering women.

Currently, women hold only 24% of National Assembly delegate positions.  Considering women make up half the population, this is not equal representation that the Government agreed to in signing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Moreover, in the last 10 years, Viet Nam has experienced a decline in women’s representation in the National Assembly.  Without clear measures, this downward trend could continue.

In several discussions I have been part of, I sense a strong commitment from many to meet the actual target of a minimum of 35-40% women’s representation of elected delegates that is set in Resolution 11-NQ/TW of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and the National Strategy on Gender Equality.

Based on international best practices and the CEDAW Convention that calls for governments to implement temporary special measures to accelerate efforts towards gender equality, the UN recommends the use of a gender quota for candidates. If the objective is to have a minimum of 35% of either sex as elected delegates, each list of candidates needs to include both male and female candidates, who are equally represented. Equal gender representation means that one of the sexes is represented by at least 45-50% of the total number of candidates in the list. In many countries, a legal gender quota has proven to be an efficient method to move towards a gender balance in political institutions. Electoral gender quotas are used in more than half of the world’s countries as the most effective mechanism for increasing women’s political representation.

Some argue that a gender quota cannot be implemented because they believe there are not enough qualified women to run in the election. Research conducted by the UN reveals that there is indeed sufficient number of competent and experienced women for these positions. They face however significant barriers that restrict their advancement. With the proper mechanisms and nomination processes, they can be identified as candidates.

International experience shows that a gender quota at the candidate level is relatively simple to implement. For example, if a ballot list is developed that does not comply with the quota, the election management board in the area will be required to revise it within a specific time period. For the quota to be effective, a senior government body, such as the National Assembly Standing Committee, must have full responsibility for ensuring the gender quota is met and that sanctions be in place in situations of non-compliance with the gender quota.

The UN analysis for strengthening gender equality in the draft revised Law on Election of Deputies to the National Assembly and to the People’s Councils can be found here. In addition to the gender quota, provisions for progressive measures towards curbing the practice of casting a vote for others (proxy voting), guaranteeing the impartiality of members of the electoral organizations, and ensuring gender-balanced membership of electoral organizations are also important steps. We hope the UN analysis will help in debating the issues on how to increase women’s representation in parliament.

This is a pivotal moment for Viet Nam. The National Assembly has the opportunity to update the election law so that is it aligned with national laws and policies and international commitments thereby advancing Viet Nam forward in its journey and to decide in which direction Viet Nam will move.