Resolution No. 5-CP On Preventing and Combating Prostitution

RESOLUTION

OF THE GOVERNMENT DECREE NO. 5-CP OF JANUARY 29, 1993 ON PREVENTING AND COMBATING PROSTITUTION

Prostitution is a social evil. In our country, many years after the liberation of the North and the South, this evil had been basically eradicated, but in recent years it has re-emerged, eroding moral values, traditional customs, and adversely affecting cultural life, public order, and security, and furthermore, it can spread AIDS and cause serious consequences for the nation's future generations. This situation is causing concern and dissatisfaction among the people.

The existence of this situation is due to a part of the population not being adequately educated in healthy lifestyles, leading them to indulge in decadent and hedonistic behaviors; state management work at all levels from central to local has been lax, and the enforcement of laws against prostitution has not been strict enough.

To gradually push back and eliminate the evil of prostitution, making society healthier, the Government decides on the following policies and measures:

1. Firmly eradicate prostitution (including buying and selling sex) in any form. This is a very complex and difficult task, which is the responsibility of state management agencies at all levels, sectors, mass organizations, social organizations, and the entire population.

In the short term, immediate measures must be taken to prevent and eliminate prostitution, with a focus on major cities, industrial centers, and tourist areas.

Utilize comprehensive methods of propaganda and education, administrative measures, and legal penalties; organize treatment for diseases and simultaneously provide vocational training and suitable employment opportunities for those involved in prostitution due to economic hardship.

2. Widespread dissemination of information about the harms of buying and selling sex, especially in relation to the AIDS epidemic, so that everyone clearly understands and must absolutely eliminate prostitution from society. Educate a healthy lifestyle and maintain the fine ethical traditions of the nation, particularly among young people.

3. Develop an inter-sectoral program to prevent and combat prostitution. The main contents of the program are:

a) Investigate and classify prostitutes. For those who frequently engage in prostitution, they need to be concentrated and compelled to undergo treatment, education, vocational training, and job placement in their respective communities.

Annually, the State budget will allocate necessary funds for this program. From the beginning of 1993, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs will consult with the Ministry of Finance to immediately allocate a portion of the social security fund for this program.

b) Severely punish those who harbor, entice, or introduce prostitutes under any form in places such as hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, dance clubs... according to criminal law. If these are private establishments or other non-state forms, business licenses must be revoked and the owners prosecuted under criminal law. If they are state-owned establishments, the direct managers must also be prosecuted under criminal law; the directly responsible superiors must be administratively disciplined.

c) For those who buy sex, if they are civil servants, regardless of rank, violation records must be established, reported to the management agency, and strictly dealt with through administrative discipline, and possibly publicized in the media to educate the general public. If they are not civil servants, violation records must be established and handed over to the local authorities, and they must be required to commit to not repeating the offense.

Responsibilities of local authorities at all levels and relevant ministries and sectors:

- Chairpersons of People's Committees at all levels, especially at the commune and ward level, must closely monitor the situation of prostitution in their areas, plan preventive and combating measures within their jurisdictions. In the short term, immediately implement measures to eliminate all forms of prostitution dens, severely punish brothel owners and accomplices.

- The Ministry of Home Affairs must strengthen inspections of hotels, restaurants, guesthouses... suspected of engaging in prostitution activities. Concentrate prostitutes in social facilities for education, treatment, and vocational training.

- The Ministry of Health is responsible for organizing the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases for prostitutes at social, private, or home-based medical facilities.

The Tourism General Department is responsible for strengthening inspections of facilities under its management; any unit allowing prostitution to occur must have its direct manager punished under criminal law.

- The Ministry of Justice, together with related sectors, is responsible for researching, supplementing, and amending laws on the trial of prostitution-related offenses, and promptly submitting them to the Government for submission to the National Assembly for approval.

- The Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism should cooperate to research and incorporate necessary knowledge about the harms of prostitution into school and community education, promote healthy and cultured lifestyles, and encourage all strata of the population to participate in preventing and eliminating this evil.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs is responsible for coordinating and directing the implementation of the inter-sectoral program; linking this program with job promotion programs and poverty alleviation programs. In the short term, establish some educational, treatment, vocational training, and job placement centers for these women; develop some projects providing jobs in sewing, weaving, knitting, embroidery, and new economic zones (with emphasis on the Tan Hiep project in Ho Chi Minh City; the Soc Son Ba Vi project in Hanoi).

- We request the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Vietnam Women's Union, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the Vietnam Farmers' Association, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, and other social organizations to mobilize and educate members to fight against prostitution and participate in programs to prevent and eliminate this evil.

Ministers of Ministries, agencies equivalent to Ministries, heads of government agencies, chairpersons of provincial and municipal people's committees directly under the Central Government are responsible for implementing this Resolution.