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22. In Vietnam, the family plays a special role and is "the nucleus of society". Vietnamese traditions treasure family values, praise sentiments and responsibility among family members and respect for old people, women and affection for children. In family and public life, the role of the wife and the mother has been satisfactorily accepted. The 1986 Marriage and Family Law stipulates "the wife and the husband have equal rights and obligations in all fields in family life" (Article 10), "Parents have the obligation to love, upbring and educate children and share the duty on studies and healthy development, physically, intellectually and virtually", (Article 19) and "interests of children shall be given first priority" (Articles 41 and 42).

Family education has been given attention by the Government and branches. The Committee on New-Typed Life Style on 20 July, 1989 issued Circular 35 on accelerating work to build new-typed cultural families, aiming to build families of "wealth, equality, progress and happiness". In response to the International Year of the Family in 1994, the Vietnamese Government set up a national steering board to run activities relating to the theme "family, responsibilities and resources in a changing world". Family issues have become a theme for State-level research projects which aim to discover and promote fine traditions in modern Vietnamese families. The Vietnam Women's Union launched in 1990 two campaigns entitled. "Women Help One Another in Household Economy" and "Raising Children Well", helping to reduce the number of malnourished children and school drop-outs. In 1997 the Union at its eighth congress launched a campaign on "Women Actively Study, Creatively Work, Raise Children Well and Build Happy Families", while the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour ran the "Good at State Work and Housework" campaign among female public employees, and the Fatherland Front ran the campaign on "Grandparents Live Exemplary and Grandchildren Live Dutifully". These campaign, together with activities in schools and through media groups, have helped people better understand the role of each member of the family, the husband sharing the workload with the wife and the mother, thus establishing close ties among family members in accordance with the fine traditions of Vietnamese families.

The roles of' wife and husband have been altered, with the husband, far from controlling and deciding all matters of the family, now discussing family matters with the wife and caring for the family and children with the wife. Children have received the most attention and investment of all members in Vietnamese families. Socio-economic life in the country has been improved during the renovation process, providing favourable conditions for families to give better care for children.

Though public consciousness has progressively changed, incorrect opinions regarding the role of men and women have not yet been eliminated completely. In public life, many believe it is impossible for women to shoulder key tasks. In family life, women influenced by traditions spend most of the time doing housework and caring for old people and children without caring for their own health. This problem requires wider and uninterrupted education on gender issues for all members of society.

52. With the aim of lowering natural population growth rates to improve the living conditions, the Vietnamese Government aims to raise the quality of population and family planning activities by implementing synchronous solutions from organizing and developing appropriate policies, to disseminating information and providing family planning services to community members. Family planning activities and protecting maternal and child health are considered an important factor to ensure the sustainability of the national objective programme on population and family planning. Providing information and encouraging people to contraceptive measures and the quality of family planning services are decisive factors, with importance attached to the health and safety of the users. Population and family planning activities has become a movement drawing the participation of mass organizations, including the Vietnam Women's Union, and the majority of people over the past years. Family planning and population policies further reflect the views against discrimination against women by encouraging men to use contraceptive measures in order to share the responsibility with women. According to a survey, 95 percent of people of reproductive age is provided with information on contraceptive measures. Birth-control measures often used include the IUD, contraceptive pills, condoms, and sterilization. Women and men are provided with information and encouraged to use birth-control measures on a voluntary basis. They also have access to consultancy and assistance from medical workers and experts at public health care establishments, offices, enterprises and meetings held jointly by local administration in collaboration with the healthcare and population and family planning sectors.

Vietnamese law permits abortion, provided that it is carried out at those establishments licensed by the Ministry of Health. Women can have an abortion at any healthcare centre offering the service. Abortion is kept confidential. Women are given information related to abortion so they can make their own decision and know how to better look after themselves. Condoms and contraceptive pills are distributed free-of-charge in highland, rural, isolated and remote areas or can be purchased at any drug store and healthcare centre. Female sterilization and male vasectomy are carried out in well-equipped healthcare centres on a voluntary basis. Usually, couples are provided with information on contraceptive measures to enable than to choose the measures that suit them psychologically and physically. Sterilization and vasectomy are often requested by couples with many children or those that cannot resort to other measures. Abortion and sterilization fees are included in the health insurance fund for insurance buyers (health care insurance funds have contributions by both the employee and the employer, with each paying an insurance fee equivalent to 1 percent of his/her monthly salary). In addition, public employees who undergoes abortion or sterilization are permitted to have between five to seven days off without salary deduction. At present, measure to test pregnancy at an early state are widely available in the community. This helps women remove their unwanted foetus early. Pregnancy testing is commonly applied for its convenience, low cost, and absence of side effects.

The outstanding problem in Vietnam at present is the high rate of abortion. According to statistics, 1.2 million abortions were performed in 1996 and 1.1 million abortions in 1997, with the number of young unmarried women on the rise. Due to poor sanitation and equipment, a number of women having abortion suffered from haemorrhaging, infections, and other side effects. The rate of men using contraceptive measures is still low. The situation requires the provision of necessary equipment to medical centres to improve the quality and safety of family planning measures and greater efforts to boost training and education activities in order to raise women's awareness of family planning.

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55. In an effort to protect women's health, future generations and family happiness the Government has in recent years carried out a programme to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), improve reproductive health, and run a national programme on HIV/AIDS. The National Committee for the Prevention of SIDA (acronym of AIDS in French) was established in 1990 under a decision issued by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (now the Prime Minister). The Committee has been renamed the National Committee for the Prevention of AIDS. However, a high number of women suffering from gynaecological diseases was reported in rural areas. About 3.99 million women had their health checked up with 1.5 million of them undergoing medical treatment for gynaecological diseases. About 38 percent of gynaecological patients were cured. Vietnam detected 8,060 cases of HIV infection in 1997, which increased to 8,417 by March 1998 (female victims accounting for 1,246 cases or 14.8 percent of the total; prostitutes for 5 percent, and STD patients for 2.4 percent). Like other countries in the region, HIV/AIDS spreads in Vietnam, and high-risk groups include prostitutes and drug users. The Vietnamese Government has focused efforts on instructing, informing and educating people about the disease, preventive measures and how to care for HIV/AIDS patients, increasing investment in these activities, strengthening the structure of relevant agencies, encouraging the people's participation and calling for more international assistance in this field.

In conclusion, Vietnamese women are essentially ensured equal access to available healthcare services. One of the advantage is the Government's appropriate policies on the women and children's healthcare and the encouragement of participation by the entire society, as well as effective information dissemination activities. However, primary disadvantages lie in the limited funding and poor technical infrastructure for the service. Only 80 percent of the women has access to healthcare services due to the country's rapid population growth. Poor sanitation conditions and the practice of out-dated customs pose great challenges to the community. In order to better implement the task of protecting and caring for women and children's health, the Government should continue its efforts to:

- Increase investment in disseminating information on women and children healthcare, particularly in implementing the National Programme on Population and Family Planning in isolated, remote, rural and highland areas.

- Strengthen the existing healthcare network, improve the medical service quality to meet common requirements and build a network of hospitals for mothers and children.

- Devise and carry out a programme to improve reproductive health in line with the spirit of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development and the 1995 Beijing Conference.

- Step up the socialization of women and children's healthcare and protection.

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