UN Women co-hosts hybrid Forum on developing Viet Nam’s plan on women and peacebuilding

Hanoi, Viet Nam – The Viet Nam Women’s Union discussed with Government, social organizations and international agencies today how it can help develop a national plan to achieve the United Nations goal of strengthening the role of women and women’s organizations and concerned stakeholders in promoting Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.

The Government has actively supported the 2000 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. However, further attention is needed to mechanisms to implement the WPS Agenda, including the establishment of a National Action Plan on WPS as many other countries in Asia and elsewhere have done.

To promote the understanding of and implementation of the WPS Agenda in Vietnam, UN Women and the Viet Nam Women’s Union, a socio-political organization, organized today’s Forum in Hanoi. The more than 200 participants also included representatives of Vietnamese businesses and social organizations as well as United Nations agencies, international organizations, and embassies.

The Forum discussed how the country can promote women’s involvement in United Nations peacekeeping operations, stemming domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, and other fields. It highlighted the key ways in which the Viet Nam Women’s Union can help develop any national action plan and get the general public involved in the process. Representatives from the Philippines and the European Union detailed how those countries developed and implemented such plans.

“By having the forums like this one today, I believe that the progress to discuss the development of a NAP (national action plan) for Viet Nam shall proceed more comprehensively and inclusively. I recognize that the Viet Nam Women's Union is already ahead in defining its concrete roles to ensure that the NAP, if it is to be developed soon, is participatory, transparent, and accountable,” said Pauline Tamesis, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam.

According to the Vietnam Women's Union, women are often among the most vulnerable in unstable environments and crisis situations. They, however, are also active agents for crisis prevention and management, and  peace-making. The WPS Agenda becomes even more important and urgent currently. Also, the role of women's organizations like the Vietnam Women's Union is ever emphasized in the peace and security process in each country and on a global scale.

This forum is even more meaningful in the context that the world is facing major security challenges, especially non-traditional security -- epidemics, natural disasters caused by climate change, cybercrime, etc. -- threatening to push back the sustainability of achieved development.

Viet Nam presented UN Security Council Resolution 1889, adopted by the Security Council in October 2009 to strengthen the implementation and monitoring of Resolution 1325. And in December 2020, Viet Nam hosted an international conference on Strengthening Women’s Role in Building and Sustaining Peace: From Commitments to Results; that conference produced the Hanoi Commitment to Action.

UN Women supported today’s conference as part of its project, Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN, which is funded by the Governments of Canada, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Viet Nam is a member.