2. regUlatory and InstItUtIonal bacKgroUnd of UnIversal accessIbIlIty In vIetnaM

Experiences from other countries shows that voluntary efforts and demographic dynamics are not sufficient in adequately removing barriers towards achieving Universal Accessibility (UA). Instead, among other things, a range of standards and regulations are necessary, along with institutions that are prepared to disseminate these and enforce compliance.

The 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam introduced the need to protect people with disabilities (PWDs).

The rights of people with disabilities were identified in the Law on People with Disabilities, approved by the National Assembly on June 17, 2010, and became effective from January 1, 2011. This includes, among others, the right to equal participation in social activities, living independently, and having access to public services, transportation, information technology, cultural services, sports, tourism, and other services appropriate to the different types and levels of disability.

Since then the Ministry of Construction, which has a mandate and responsibilities to ensure that the built environment is accessible to PWDs, has published a number of legal documents for the design and construction of accessible structures to cater for their needs. These are as follows: • Vietnam Construction Standard TCXDVN 228:1998

Access of disabled to the building— Part 1: Access for the wheelchair bound person – Design requirements. • Vietnam Construction Standard TCXDVN 264:2002

Building and Facilities— Basic rules of accessible design and construction for people with disabilities. • Vietnam Construction Standard TCXDVN 265:2002

Route and Sidewalk— Basic rules of accessible design and construction for people with disabilities. • Vietnam Building code QCXDVN 01:2002 Building code of accessible construction for people with disabilities.

However, after 2006, Vietnam’s institutional approach to disability changed significantly, as a consequence of becoming one of the 150 country signatories of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). This advocates for the promotion and protection of PWDs to ensure they enjoy fully and fairly all human rights and freedoms.

The convention sets the level and quality of inclusion of PWDs in society and the type of policies and instruments that must be used to facilitate this. Accessibility is one of the most important elements to be considered, as can be seen from Article 9 of the convention:

to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, state parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas.

This article also highlights the importance of promoting, monitoring, training on, and maintaining accessibility.

Following the signing of the UNCRPD on October 22, 2007, Vietnam issued new legal documents for PWD inclusion. The most important is the Law on People with Disabilities (No. 51/2010/QH12) which aims to identify the fundamental rights of PWDs and ensure these are protected. Following this law the government has issued decrees, and the Prime Minister decisions on the subject. Ministries have also issued several supporting documents for PWDs; particularly the Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Transport, which issued the following new accessibility-related standards and instructions: • The Ministry of Construction issued the National

Technical Regulation QCVN 10:2014/BXD National

Technical Regulation on Construction for Disabled

Access to Buildings and Facilities replacing the

QCXDVN 01:2002 • The Ministry of Transport issued the Circular No. 39/2012 / TT-BGTVT dated September 24, 2012, guiding the implementation of national technical regulations on assigned infrastructure, including information, support tools and policies for priority access of PWDs to public transport. The 2010 Law on People with Disabilities (Article 40) also stipulates that all apartment buildings, working offices, public technical and social infrastructure facilities must ensure accessibility for PWDs by January 1, 2025.

In summary, Vietnam’s legislation for safeguarding the rights of PWDs has advanced significantly in the last decades. However, regardless of the modernization produced following the signing of the UNCRPD, there are still fundamental gaps in ideology and instruments. One of these gaps, as highlighted by Phan (2017) , is that Vietnamese regulation still portrays PWDs as persons in need of charity, rather than as individuals whose accessibility needs must be accommodated as a matter of basic human right (the so-called rightsbased approach to accessibility).

With regards to accessibility codes and standards, Vietnam is not yet equipped with the right structures and instruments to support their implementation and mainstreaming, and in areas such as the MDR, progress made to date is not evident. So far, field observations and data gathered by specialists reveals that enforcement of relevant regulations has not been very effective in the region. As a result, most buildings, public spaces, and transport facilities are still not usable or easily accessible to PWDs. This is elaborated on further in this document.

17 Phan, G (2017) Understanding National Implementation of the CRPD in Vietnam, in Derrick L. Cogburn and Tina Kempin Reuter, Making disability rights real in Southeast Asia : implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in ASEAN, Lexington Books.

The allocation of responsibilities for achieving the goals defined in the Law on People with Disabilities, is clearly stated in Article 50 of the law, with national ministries, agencies, departments and public sector agencies having responsibility for regulating and safeguarding the rights of PWDs.

The distribution of competences and responsibilities linked with UA are appointed specifically to the following ministries:

boX 2.1 MInIstrIes WIth responsIbIlItIes lInKed to UnIversal accessIbIlIty

• The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social

Affairs is the lead agency responsible for vocational training, job creation, awareness raising, care and support for PWDs. • The Ministry of Education and Training is responsible for increasing PWDs’ access to education. • The Ministry of Construction is responsible for making the built environment accessible for

PWDs. • The Ministry of Transport is responsible for ensuring

PWDs can access and use transportation. • The Ministry of Information and

Communications is responsible for ensuring

PWDs’ in accessing and using information and communication technologies. • The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is responsible for ensuring PWDs access and participation in cultural, sports and tourism activities.

Among these ministries, the mandates of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Construction are the ones most closely related to mobility of PWDs and use of the built environment. Additionally, the Provincial People’s Committees are responsible for the implementation of annual work plans which relate to providing support for PWDs.

Regarding policies and action plans, a scheme for supporting initiatives targeting PWDs during the period of 2012- 2020, was approved on August 5, 2012, following the Prime Minister’s Decision 1019/ QD-TT. The objective of this scheme was to provide support for the improvement of PWD’s access to basic rights, including: • Access to education; • Access and use of the built environment; • Access and use of urban mobility and transport systems; • Access and use of information and communication technology; • Access to legal aid; and • Supporting PWDs in cultural activities, sports and tourism. The National Coordinating Council for Disabilities (NCDD) was established in 2001 under the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs. It is responsible for leading, coordinating, inspecting, and monitoring the development and implementation of legislation, projects, proposals and plans for supporting disability. The NCDD has focused its efforts on communication and awareness-raising activities on disability issues and the introduction of targets in areas including access to public urban environments and public transport, access to information and communication and assistive technologies.

Decision No. 1019 dated August 5, 2012, approved major activities such as: providing assistive tools for people with disabilities and assistance access to education, vocational training, job creation; assistance to access and use of construction works; assistance to access and participate in traffic planning and transportation; assistance to access and use of information and communication technology, and legal assistance; assistance in cultural activities, sports and tourism; and awareness raising; care capacity ;support for people with disabilities and monitoring and evaluation.

On October 6, 2015, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 1717 establishing the National Committee on Disability of Vietnam (NCD) to comply with provisions of the UNCRPD. According to this decision, the Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs is the Chairman of the Committee, and the Deputy Minister is the Vice Chairman of the Committee. The Commissioners include Deputy Ministers of the Interior; Finance; Planning and Investment; Justice; Medical; Education and Training; Culture, Sports and Tourism; Construction; Transportation; Information and Communication; Science and Technology.

The NCD is responsible for assisting the Prime Minister in directing and coordinating between ministries, branches and localities in resolving issues related to mechanisms and policies for public implementation.

In addition, representatives of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Vietnam Association of People with Disabilities, Central Vietnam Women’s Union, Vietnam Sponsoring Association for the Disabled and Orphans of Vietnam, Vietnam Blind Association, Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange are also invited to become members of the NCD.

Vietnam currently has no regulations for regional administrative units, although the country is divided into many regions such as the Red River Delta Region, the Mekong Delta Region, the Northern Midlands and Mountains, Central Highlands, Southeast region and Southwest region.

Provincial departments and agencies are a part of public administration similar to ministries at the central level and acting under the people’s committees of provinces or cities. These public bodies in the provinces of Vietnam have similar responsibilities to the ministries in relation to PWDs but to a limited level within each province.

The People’s Committee is a national administrative agency of the administrative system of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is a law enforcement agency at provincial, district and commune levels. The function of the People’s Committee is state management. The People’s Committee has the right to promulgate mechanisms and policies suitable to the reality of its locality and create favorable conditions to encourage all economic sectors to develop and attract foreign investment. The Provincial People’s Committee has a decisive role in defining the organizational structure and specific tasks and powers of professional agencies under the people’s committees at their respective levels.

At the central level, the role of civil society organizations representing PWDs, is fulfilled by the Vietnam Federation on Disability. It consists of a cluster of disability organizations at the national level following Decision No. 1179-QD-BNV of the Ministry of Home Affairs on October 14, 2010. At the province and district levels, depending on the specific conditions, the Provincial People’s Committee shall decide to the “Union” that consists of voluntary representatives of the Federation, its divisions and affiliated units established in accordance with the law.

In addition to this, the following organizations participate in advocacy and action for improving accessibility for PWDs each with different scopes, missions, and responsibilities: • Vietnam Fatherland Front; • Vietnam General Confederation of Labour; • Vietnam Women’s Union Vietnam; • Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union; • Vietnam Cooperative Union, Vietnam Red Cross

Association; • Vietnam Association for People with Disabilities; • Vietnam Sponsoring Association for the Disabled and Orphans; and • Vietnam Association for Invalids and Disabilities

Enterprises. Apart from general advocacy activities, these organizations help provide assistance, access to social services, implementation of policies, laws and programs and general support to PWDs. It seems that these organizations are not as involved in wider advocacy for accessibility in the built environments.

Additionally, according to Help Age International, there are 11,122 older people associations (OPA) within all communities with about 99,578 branches (at village level) in Vietnam. All OPAs belong to the Vietnam Association of the Elderly (VAE), which is an organization with more than 8.3 million members across the country. VAE conducts many activities for care and promotion of older people in Vietnam (longevity ceremony, rights protection, establishing clubs, advocacy, etc.) and contributes substantially to community and society.

In summary, according to the institutional structures analyzed, there are enough formal structures with the mandate to ensure that accessibility issues are included in bylaws, plans and policies. Furthermore, from the point of view of having a fabric of administrative institutions and instruments, Vietnam seems prepared to cover what is needed for the implementation of UNCRPD. Using these structures correctly in education and enforcement of existing disability regulations and mainstreaming UA seems to be the main barrier, and the priority going forward.