Blue Heart campaign looks to end violence in Viet Nam
VGP - The United Nations in Viet Nam along with the Government of Viet Nam and the Australian Government on July 5 launched the Blue Heart 2022 awareness campaign towards ending violence in the context of exacerbated risks and diversifying forms of violence.
UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, MOLISA and DFAT restart Blue Heart 2022 awareness campaign to generate public attention and call for action in response to increased violence against children and women, Ha Noi, July 5, 2022
This initiative builds on the 2020 campaign that aimed to raise public awareness and change individual and social behaviors to help stop violence before it begins.
This 2022 campaign urgently calls for public attention and support to generate violence-free in home, school, community, and online environments.
The Government of Viet Nam has made relentless efforts towards ending violence against children and women in the past years with particular attention to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on
However, this battle is still ongoing and can only be won with tremendous and joint endeavors from all members of society, organizations and responsible agencies, she added.
"Viet Nam has received great support from United Nations agencies and the Australian Government working on this matter. Together, we are stronger in promoting solutions and actions towards ending violence against children and women", the Deputy Minister emphasized.
Globally, one billion children suffer some forms of violence every year. The Viet Nam Sustainable Development Goal indicators on Children and Women Survey 2020-2021 indicated that more than 72 percent of children aged 10-14 years experienced violent discipline.
Emotional abuse was reported by 39 percent of such children, along with physical abuse (47 percent), sexual abuse (20 percent) and neglect (29 percent).
Another study showed that 21.4 percent of adolescent girls and 7.9 percent of adolescent boys reported having had suicidal thoughts, while another study revealed that 5.8 percent of adolescents reported having attempted suicide.
According to the UNFPA-supported 2019 National Study on Violence against Women in Viet Nam, 62.9 percent of women in Viet Nam experienced one or more forms of physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence, and controlling behaviors by their husband in their life time.
Violence is hidden in Viet Nam's society, as 90.4 per cent of survivors of violence did not seek any help from authorities and half of them never told anyone about the violence.
Furthermore, violence against women is costing the country 1.81 percent of GDP.
