Land rights for women in Vietnam

01.04.2004 To further ensure equality for women in terms of economy, the revised land legislation under which both husband and wife share the same right with their lands was approved in 2003. However, the government and Vietnamese women themselves should do more to enable the new law to overcome the strength of cultural tradition. From: Vietnam Investment Review

Fight for your rights: women’s ongoing struggle for equality

The revised Land Legislation approved by the National Assembly in November last year required that land use right certificates bear the names of both husband and wife if land belongs to both of them.

Although law provides for joint land use right ownership, many women are unaware of their rights. This was a further step towards gender equality, but implementation of this policy remains a challenge, especially at the local level.

“When I wake up in the morning, I am not sure whether I will be able to give my children enough to eat during the day,” says Le Thi Lua, a 38-year-old mother from Thai Binh Province. Her husband died recently and due to a dispute with the family-in-law, she has been left on her own without land to work on.

“I got married 20 years ago and worked on my husband’s land. My name wasn’t mentioned on the land use right certificate, and so I could not get a loan from the bank. Neither was the law able to help me when I had to leave the land,” she explains sadly.

“I wanted to give my children a healthy and prosperous future by having my own business, but the bank didn’t accept the land use right certificate as collateral, as it only mentioned the name of my deceased husband,” Lua said. Today, male family members overwhelmingly retain exclusive legal rights to land. According to recent government statistics, a national average of only 3 per cent of existing certificates mention a wife’s name.

Vietnamese law provides for joint land use rights, in order to prevent cases like Lua’s. The Law on Marriage and Family requires that the names of both wife and husband be mentioned on land use right certificates, as land acquired after marriage is considered to be a common asset. The revised land legislation approved by Vietnam’s National Assembly in November 2003 also requires that land certificates bear the names of both husband and wife if the land belongs to both of them. If the woman’s name is stated on the certificate, the law protects her and she maintains rights to the land in case of separation, divorce or widowhood.

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