Viet Nam’s Compliance with Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: The Death Penalty
Country: Vietnam
Partners: Harm Reduction International, The Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Issues: Death Penalty, Women's Rights
Mechanism: UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
Report Type: Shadow/Parallel Report
This report supplements and provides updates on the report that the coauthors submitted to
the Committee in January 2024 at the list of issues stage, highlighting Viet Nam's death
penalty practices and their effects on women. Viet Nam continues to sentence women to
death, but Viet Nam recently took steps to limit the application of the death penalty to the
most serious crimes by reducing the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty from
18 to 10. Nonetheless, Viet Nam still classifies the death penalty as a state secret, so little
information is available about various aspects of the application of the death penalty to
women. Despite this secrecy, Viet Nam has been an active executioner, conducting
documented executions in 20234
and in 2024. Although the law categorically prohibits
executions for pregnant women and nursing mothers with children under the age of three, the criminal legal system places women in conflict with the law at risk of violations of their
right to a fair trial.
