The Government’s Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs and the UN Women in Vietnam held a conference in Hanoi on July 11 to give ideas to the draft national review report on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, one of the world’s most comprehensive documents on gender equality and women empowerment.

Deputy Minister-Vice Chairman of the Committee
on Ethnic Minority Affairs Hoang Thi Hanh 

Addressing the event, Deputy Minister-Vice Chairman of the Committee Hoang Thi Hanh said that as the State management agency on ethnic minority affairs, the committee hopes that achievements as well as difficulties and challenges in dealing with gender inequality among ethnic minority groups will be fully included in the report.

This will contribute to defining Vietnam’s priority in promoting gender equality and the progress of women from the groups, she said.

As Vietnam is implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the spirit of “leaving no one behind”, the issues related to ethnic minorities and gender equality should receive special attention, said Hanh.

She stressed the importance of the voice and engagement of ethnic minorities in the reviewing process in Vietnam.

In 2020, the world will celebrate the 25 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. 

Vietnam has planned to submit the national review report 2019 to the UN, thus actively involving in the review process at the Asia-Pacific level that will be implemented in late 2019.

As the agency providing technical support to Vietnam in building the report, the UN Women has assisted Vietnam in designing, implementing and supervising the implementation of legal policies on gender equality and women empowerment, especially among women from ethnic minority groups.