Naomi Kitahara, UNFPA Representative for Vietnam, speaks at the conference on the review of the six-year implementation of the Civil Status Law.(Photo: UNFPA)On this occasion, Naomi Kitahara,UNFPA Representative for Vietnam, grants Vietnam Law & Legal Forum magazinean interview on the results Vietnam has achieved in civil status work as wellas things that should be done in the future for fulfilling the country’s setgoals.
The Civil Status Law was passed by the 13th NationalAssembly in 2014 and enacted in January 1, 2016. This was the first timeVietnamese legislators had issued a separate law to govern civil status work.One year after the promulgation of the Law, the Prime Minister approved the NationalAction Program on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics for the 2017-24period. This is considered the country’s long stride in improving the legalframework for civil status work, facilitating citizens’ registration of vitalevents, thus contributing to better protecting their legitimate rights andinterests.
May you share with us some of your thoughts about the results Vietnam hasachieved so far in civil status work?
First and foremost, I would like to congratulatethe Ministry of Justice for acting as the lead Government Ministry to ensurethe implementation of the Civil Status Law. Since the Law took effective in2016, encouraging results have been achieved and documented. These include thefinalization of legal documents detailing the implementation of the Law,modernization of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), and thepromotion of online civil registration. The ministry has taken a lot of effortsand actions to strengthen cross-sector coordination, and to increase theregistration rates for vital events of people’s life. A national e-database onvital statistics and the shared software for civil registration and vitalstatistics registration and management was developed. As a result, a personalID is being issued right after a childbirth registration. Efforts have alsobeen made to reform administrative procedures to simplify civil statusregistration.
Vietnamese citizens can now perform their civil status registration at theirconvenience. They may submit dossiers of civil status directly to the civilstatus registration agency or send them by post, or they may register throughthe online civil status registration system. Currently, all provinces andcities have online birth registration, while 62 out of 63 provinces and cities haveonline death registration and 62 out of 63 provinces and cities have the onlinemarriage registration system. Almost all the provinces and cities across thecountry have the Provincial Administrative Procedure Information Systemconnected with the Ministry of Justice's electronic civil status registrationand management system, thus contributing to synchronizing and unifying data aswell as reducing the workload and time for civil servants.
Also in 2014,Vietnam participated in the First Ministerial Conference on Civil Registrationand Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific where attendants adoptedthe Ministerial Declaration to “Get Every One in the Picture” and shared thevision that “all people in Asia and the Pacific will benefit from universal andresponsive CRVS systems facilitating the realization of their rights andsupporting good governance, health and development.” Later in 2021, at theSecond Ministerial Conference on CRVS, Vietnam, together with other countries,continued to commit to “building a more resilience future with inclusive CRVSin Asia and the Pacific”.
Inyour opinion, how Vietnam’s legal system in general and the Civil Status Law inparticular facilitated the country’s fulfillments of commitments on CRVS? Arethere any legal loopholes that should be removed to improve civil status workin Vietnam?
The implementation of the Civil Status Law and the2017-2024 National Action Program on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics(CRVS) plays an important role in modernizing CRVS, which helps Vietnam honorits commitments to “building a more resilience future with inclusive CRVS inAsia and the Pacific” as declared in the Second Ministerial Conference on CRVSin Asia and the Pacific, held in Bangkok in 2021.
A well-functioning CRVS system in Vietnam canprotect people’s rights and benefits including health and education. Astreamlined registration mechanism across the life such as births, marriages,deaths, and other vital events of life must be registered and documented by thelegal authorities, so that people can access and benefit from public servicessuch as education, health care, employment, social protection, and other publicservices. Civil status registration is also particularly important for women,creating a framework for addressing gender inequalities.
In addition, accurate and complete vitalstatistics - derived from civil registration records - are critical to developnational and local policies and to monitor and assess development outcomes,especially in the analysis of ensuring no one is left behind. For example,timely statistics disaggregated by causes of death and other demographiccharacteristics are crucial to design, implement and monitor public healthpolicies as well as to detect emerging health crises, such as COVID-19.
Vietnam has so far been successful in capturingalmost all birth records in the system, but much more attention should be paidto recording deaths per international death identification codes, so that theCRVS data can be more complete. It is welcoming that the Ministry of Justice isaware of this aspect, and it is in their plan to accelerate the registration ofdeaths in coming years.
Theworld has only less than eight years left to fulfill the United NationsSustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given the fact that 15 out of 17 SDGs useindicators which require high-quality CRVS data, for the remaining duration,what should the country do to improve the quality of CRVS, thus contributing toachieving SDGs?
In the National Conference held in Hanoi in late2022, the Ministry of Justice reviewed six years of the implementation of theCivil Status Law, and confirmed that Vietnam needed to further increase therate of death registration and other vital events as above. It is also essentialto promote a stronger collaboration between relevant ministries and sectors aswell as agencies at all levels. More financial resources for the implementationof the Law at local levels need to be allocated in order to develop thenational civil status database, assuring personnel working in civil statusregistration, addressing the issue of the low death registration rate, andresolving the lack of timely and full registration of other civil status events.
UNFPAVietnam has been supporting the Vietnamese Government in building a modern andprogressive CRVS system to “get everyone in Vietnam in the picture”. Could yougive us some highlights of UNFPA Vietnam’s activities over the past time aswell as projects to be launched in the upcoming time for accelerating the CRVSsystem in Vietnam?
Since March 2020, UNFPA Vietnam in partnershipwith Vital Strategies through the “Data for Health Initiative” of BloombergPhilanthropies has provided technical support to the Civil Registration,Nationality, Attestation Department of the Ministry of Justice to improve theCRVS for birth and death registration, and pilot an innovative model on birthand death registration. The partnership aims at strengthening further the CRVSlegal framework and improving the collaboration among relevant ministries insharing CRVS data to for policy and decision making.
Within the context that we have only less thaneight years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and the progressto achieve SDGs requires data from the CRVS system, the importance ofmodernized and reliable CRVS must be underscored. We need to remind ourselvesthat 15 out of 17 SDGs use indicators which require high quality CRVS data. Assuch, CRVS can be an accelerator for the achievement of SDGs, as well as aneffective tool to monitor the country’s progress towards 2030.
UNFPA is honored to support the Government ofVietnam to speed up the process of change towards a modern and progressive CRVSsystem in which data including vital statistics will be shared and used for theformulation and implementation of evidence-based policies and decision-making.And we are fully committed to continuing our interventions for CRVS.
A modern and progressive CRVS to “get everyone inVietnam in the picture” is essential for the achievement of the UN SustainableDevelopment Goals by 2030./.
VNA
