Hanoi has been one of the first five Vietnamese cities to pilot the "Safe and Friendly City for Women and Girls" program since 2012, towards a safer and more friendly public space for women. 

Accordingly, the Hanoi Police Women's Union has coordinated with the municipal Women's Union to organize two training sessions on gender violence for women and children. Through the trainings, staffs of the Hanoi Police Women’s Union have gained more skills in protecting and dealing with cases of abusing women and children.

Children in Hanoi’s outskirt district of Long Bien play at a playground in a residential area. Photo: The Vinh/ The Hanoi Times

The program also aims to solve the issues that lead to the insecurity for women and girls, as well as towards transforming social prejudices that underpin discrimination on gender and gender-based violence.

According to data from Hanoi Police, from 2019 to 2021, there were 397 domestic violence cases in Hanoi, of which mental violence accounted for 37%, physical violence made up 59. 76% and 119 felony cases related to domestic violence. Between 2008 and 2018, there were 87,215 divorce cases, of which 19,520  involved economic, mental, physical or sexual violence (accounting for 22.38% of divorces).

In recent years, cases of child sexual abuse have tended to increase, causing public anger. From 2019 to 2021, Hanoi Police handled 315 cases of abusing children, other 298 cases resulted in criminal prosecution, accounting for 94.6%, and  eight cases were applied administrative penalty, accounting for 2.54%.

According to estimated figures released by the United Nations, by 2030, about 700 million girls will live in urban areas around the world. The program “Safe city for women and girls" is designed to respond to the growing challenges of urbanization by empowering girls and promoting cooperation between stakeholders to build safer and more communities.