US embassy cable - 03HANOI2116

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 002116 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR PRM/POP, PRM/ANE, DRL/BA, DRL/MLA, DRL/CRA AND 
EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, VM 
SUBJECT:  A/S DEWEY DISCUSSES POPULATION, FAMILY, AND 
CHILDREN POLICY WITH GVN 
 
REF:  Hanoi 2047 
 
1. (U)  Summary:  In discussions with A/S Dewey, National 
Committee for Population, Family, and Children's Affairs 
officials stressed that GVN policies guarantee and respect 
the right of citizens "freely and responsibly to choose the 
size of the family."  At the same time, they said, GVN 
policy also emphasizes the responsibility of the entire 
society to carry out family planning and population tasks. 
Population policy focuses on propaganda and education so 
that people will make the right decisions on family size. 
Officials stated that there is no doctrine, law, or policy 
applying fines or incentives to families on the basis of 
family size, and that the GVN regards giving birth as a 
fundamental human right.  A/S Dewey said that the USG wants 
to work with Vietnam using the voluntary/informed choice 
approach.   End Summary. 
 
2. (U)  A/S Dewey, EAP/BCLTV Desk Officer Charles Jess, 
Charge Porter, and Poloff met with National Committee for 
Population, Family, and Children's Affairs Vice Chairman 
Phung Ngoc Hung on August 14.  Also on the Vietnamese side 
were Nguyen Van Tan, Chief of the Executive Office; Ta Thanh 
Hang, the Deputy Chief of the Department of International 
Cooperation; Pham Ba Nhat, the Chief of the Population 
Department; and Le Do Ngoc, the Chief of the Family 
Department. 
 
COMMITTEE STRUCTURE 
------------------- 
 
3. (U)  A/S Dewey said he had heard positive things about 
population issues in Vietnam and was interested in hearing 
from the officials responsible.  Vice-Chairman Hung welcomed 
A/S Dewey on behalf of the committee and explained that the 
committee was new, having been created in August 2002 by the 
merger of the Committee for Family Planning and Population 
and the Committee for the Protection of Children.  He noted 
that the Chair of the committee (Ms. Le Thi Thu) is a member 
of the cabinet, and also a minister.  The reason the 
Committee is not itself called a ministry is that the 
Committee also includes the deputy ministers of Justice, 
Health, Education, and Public Security.  "Many" mass 
organizations also assist the committee, and the deputy 
chiefs of those organizations are also members of the 
committee, he added.  The Committee employs a total of about 
300 cadres. 
 
NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS 
----------------------- 
 
4. (U) Vice chairman Hung said that, while the GVN had been 
trying to control population growth since 1961, it had only 
been successful since 1993.  According to Hung, the birth 
rate had fallen from 3.8 children/woman of childbearing age 
in 1989 to 2.2 in 2003.  In addition, he noted, the number 
of children desired by women of childbearing age in 1988 was 
3.3, but fell to 2.4 in 2003.  The Vice chairman attributed 
the success of the program to the efforts and commitment of 
the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and mass organizations 
under the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and noted the assistance 
of other countries, especially NGOS from the United States. 
 
CONTINUING CONCERNS 
------------------- 
 
5. (U) The Vice chairman expressed his concern that the 
situation in the Central Highlands, among ethnic minorities, 
and in the mountainous northwest was not improving as 
rapidly as in other parts of the country, however.  In 
contrast to the national average, the number of children of 
woman of childbearing age in the mountainous regions was 
3.4.  In the Central Highlands specifically it was 4.3.  The 
consequences of this, he said, was increased migration to 
the major cities from these more heavily populated and 
poorer areas.  The Committee intended to address the problem 
by focusing on the Population Ordinance ratified in February 
2002 and which came into effect on May 1, 2003. (reftel) 
 
THE POPULATION ORDINANCE 
------------------------ 
 
6. (U) Hung emphasized that the ordinance's basic principles 
guarantee and respect the right "freely and responsibly to 
choose the size of the family."  At the same time, the law 
declares the responsibility of the entire society to carry 
out family planning and population tasks.  The GVN, Hung 
said, continues to encourage people to have small, healthy 
families so they can avoid hunger and illness.  The GVN also 
emphasizes to families that smaller family sizes enable 
better prenatal care and healthier children. 
 
7. (U) In response to A/S Dewey's question regarding 
incentives or penalties for families having more or less 
children, Hung stated that there was no doctrine, law, or 
policy in Vietnam applying fines or incentives to families 
on the basis of family size.  The GVN, he emphasized, 
regards giving birth as a fundamental human right. 
Population policy focused on propaganda and education so 
that people would make the right decisions on family size. 
In Vietnam, he added, independent and social organizations 
elicited family commitments to have only one or two 
children.  Chief of the Population Department Pham Ba Nhat 
added his own personal experience, noting that he himself 
had three children, and that neither he nor his family faced 
any sanction or harassment.  Nhat observed that "here and 
there" the media might report differently, but that the GVN 
was dedicated to a policy of "awareness and voluntarism" to 
control population.  He said that many World Bank experts 
and American experts had visited villages and communes where 
family planning projects were underway.  These experts 
completely supported the extension of the projects to other 
areas, he stressed.  (Note: Le Dinh Phuong, the head of the 
International Cooperation Department, made a similar point 
the previous evening at a reception at the Charge's 
residence.  When asked about Vietnamese population policy, 
he declared that coercive measures were "totally 
ineffective" and "no longer" used in Vietnam.  Tran Tien 
Duc, Country Director of POLICY Vietnam  -- a Vietnamese NGO 
and USAID partner -- agreed.  End note.) 
 
CHILDREN'S ISSUES 
----------------- 
 
8. (U) Le Do Ngoc, the Chief of the Family Department, 
stated that Vietnam was the first in Asia (and the second in 
the world) to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the 
Child.  After the ratification, he added, Vietnam had issued 
two laws: the first was on the universalization of primary 
education, and the second was on the protection and care of 
children.  Of greatest concern now, he said, was the 
protection of "special children," including homeless 
children and the disabled.  He explained that the rights of 
children to care, education, entertainment, and opinions 
were assured by the population, families, and children 
system.  Most children in Vietnam could go to school, he 
said, and were covered under the immunization program.  Ngoc 
admitted greatest challenges in mountainous and remote 
areas, including the Central Highlands, but said that the 
GVN was dealing successfully with children's problems in 
those areas thanks to funding and technical assistance from 
international organizations and "from the United States." 
 
9. (U) Ngoc stated that in the 20 years he had been working 
on the issue of children's welfare there had never been as 
much government attention, but the issue had never been as 
complicated as it is now.  In the past, he said, the country 
was poor but the children were all right.  Now, he said, the 
country was richer but the children had more problems.  He 
listed several, including: 
 
-    Children from the countryside living on the street in 
the cities; 
-    300,000 children disabled from contact with toxic 
chemicals; 
-    Children who had contacted HIV/AIDS; 
-    Children without parents, or from divorced families; 
-    Children who were in accidents and were disabled; 
-    Children who fled the flooded Mekong region to come to 
Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. 
 
To resolve these difficult issues, Vietnam needed resources 
and technology, Ngoc said.  He said he hoped Vietnam could 
call on U.S. experience to help resolve these problems. 
 
10. (U) A/S Dewey praised the Committee's presentation as 
encouraging and clear, noting that the GVN's stated 
population policies indicated that the emphasis in Vietnam 
is on informed choice, the rights of women, and the right to 
choose the number and spacing of children.  Dewey said he 
hoped that other countries that have coercive policies would 
review Vietnam's record and learn from Vietnam's lessons. 
The USG, he said, wanted to work with Vietnam using the 
voluntary/informed choice approach.  A/S Dewey added that 
the USG was in negotiations with China regarding the return 
of the U.S. to the UN Population Fund, and that, if 
successful, many countries -- including Vietnam -- would 
benefit. 
 
11. (U) COMMENT: The GVN's population policy and the 
commitment of its senior officials are clearly against 
coercive measures to control population.  Propaganda efforts 
and local peer pressure are the preferred solution, although 
the references to occasional reports of abuses at the local 
level suggest that peer pressure may sometimes cross the 
line into coercion.  Still, reports of coercion are 
relatively rare and it seems reasonable to take the GVN's 
description of a voluntary/informed choice approach at face 
value.  End comment. 
 
12.  (U)  A/S Dewey did not have a chance to clear this 
message before departing. 
BURGHARDT