Vietnam pursuing core values of human rights
26/5/19
As
a nation that had gone through many wars, Viet Nam understood well the true
value of peace, freedom, self-determination, equality, justice, and human
rights. That was why the country worked hard to promote and protect human
rights in its national development process, and was making improvements not
only in economic area, but in law, justice, non-discrimination, governance, and
the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms.
Viet
Nam had gone a long way to become internationally well-known for outstanding
progressive reforms and positive changes in all aspects of life, which took
place not only in the booming economic and commercial areas, but also in the
even more difficult ones, such as law, justice, non-discrimination, governance,
and the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms. As a
result, the material and spiritual life of more than 90 million of Vietnamese
changed rapidly for the better. The reforms took place at all levels of
the Government to better serve the people, and civil servants were trained and
equipped with more appropriate knowledge and skills to perform their duties.
Yet,
difficulties and challenges remained, acknowledged the Vice-Minister, for which
not only political commitments and concrete actions on the part of Government
were needed, but the support and cooperation of all concerned stakeholders,
including international ones. Patience and the time were also
crucial. Viet Nam integrated widely and deeply into the world and the
region; it concluded about 100 international treaties, which represented the
legal foundation for Viet Nam’s national development and international
cooperation. Recently, the country had acceded to the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and was studying in
earnest international experiences and accession to other international human
rights treaties, including the International Labour Organization Convention 98
concerning the Application of the Principles of the Right to Organize and to
Bargain Collectively. The new Treaty Law required an implementation plan
for each ratified treaty to ensure that it was honoured in practice and that
necessary actions, including legal changes and dissemination of the treaty,
were taken for the successful implementation. The implementation plan
would also be adopted for the Committee’s upcoming concluding observations, the
Minister said.
Transparent
mechanism was in place to provide for anyone to exercise their right to
vote. The counting of the voting results was conducted in a transparent
manner and complaints could be made both by individuals and by political
organizations. Inmates serving their sentence were not allowed to vote,
while those in pre-trial detention were. Viet Nam was carefully studying
the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, said the
delegation, adding that its anti-corruption law was currently being
amended. Viet Nam had a very effective mechanism to prevent and address
the cases of corruption.
As
for the independence of judiciary, according to the organic Law on People’s
Courts, the National Assembly appointed the judges to the Supreme Court, which
supervised the lower courts. A national examination was necessary for any
judge to be appointed, and judges could be dismissed before the end of their
term in case they reached the retirement age or in cases of serious violations
of the law. A website dedicated to publishing of judgements had been set
up in order to further promoted the judicial independence.
The
press law stipulated the rights of journalists and reporters and prohibited any
acts that infringed their rights; it also prohibited censorship, harassment of
journalists and reporters, and seizure of their equipment. In the last 17
years, the press had joined hands with the socioeconomic development of the
country. There were 868 newspapers, as well as international media
outlets and agencies in Viet Nam, which was a clear sign of the improvements in
the area of freedom of expression, speech and press. Two-thirds of the
people in Viet Nam used the Internet, which raised the need for a safe
cyberspace that was being provided by the Cybercrime Law.
The
new law on religion provided that all religions were equal before the law and
was endorsed by various religious organizations and groups. Facilities
and favourable conditions were being provided to the 23 existing religious
organizations and more than one hundred smaller groups whose rights were
guaranteed by this law. The registration of religious communities would
enable the Government to provide favourable conditions for their operations,
and those not yet registered were being encouraged to do so. All in all,
there was no discrimination on the grounds of religious practice, reiterated
the delegation.
Viet
Nam was a country with 54 ethnic minorities, said the delegation, adding that
there was no definition in the country of indigenous communities. A
number of comprehensive programmes and plans were in place on a whole range of
issues of concern to ethnic minorities, while preferential treatment was being
provided to those most in need.
A
new Constitution, adopted in 2013, contained a number of important provisions
on the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms; since then, over
100 laws had been reformed or enacted, including many human rights-related
laws. Viet Nam was increasingly focusing on disseminating legal
information and legal education. A new Law on Legal Dissemination
required all legal rules and treaty rules to be fully and clearly disseminated
to the people to ensure that they knew the rules, especially those on human rights
promotion and protection. Viet Nam would continue to work hard towards achieving
its goal of having prosperous people, a powerful nation, and a democratic, just
and civilized society./.
All comments [ 20 ]
Vietnam over the past years has achieved numerous advances in human rights. Vietnam considers respecting, protecting, and promoting human rights, a universal value, its responsibility.
Vietnam has gained remarkable accomplishments in promoting and protecting human rights in building a law-ruled State, fine-tuning the legal system on human rights, building a facilitating government, promoting socio-economic development, improving the efficiency of judicial agencies, promoting the role of socio-political organisations and the press, and increasing international integration.
The Vietnamese Party and State have worked hard to enable its citizens to enjoy all human rights and strengthened international cooperation in human rights on the basis of fairness, respect, and understanding among countries.
“People know, people discuss, people work, and people check”, enabling people’s participation in State affairs.
Freedom of expression in Vietnam is seen in the rapid growth and diversity of mass media. The increasing number of organizations, associations, and clubs indicates that the citizens’ right to assembly is protected.
The number of religious dignitaries, followers, and activities is on the rise to meet the people’s spiritual needs. Religions are entitled to enjoy favorable conditions to open training institutions, publish bibles, and take part in social activities.
Vietnam gives priority to ethnicity and ensures ethnic fairness, considering it a decisive factor in national development.
Economic growth has created a premise for Vietnam to settle urgent social issues, achieve its goal of social fairness, and better protect human rights. Vietnam has completed numerous Millennium Development Goals, including reducing extreme poverty, universalizing primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing maternal and child mortality rates, controlling TB, and containing the spread of HIV/AIDS.
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Many developing countries appreciated Vietnam’s endeavours in reducing poverty and narrowing development gaps among regions as well as ensuring access to healthcare and education, particularly for people inhabiting remote and ethnic minority areas.
Vietnam has over the past 30 years joined in almost all important UN conventions on human rights and her consistent policy is ensuring, protecting, and promoting human rights.
The country has beefed up communications to raise awareness of people, especially youngsters, of human rights.
Rising from wars, Vietnam has made continuous efforts to build a socialist state with the rule of law, which is of the people, by the people and for the people.
Vietnam has strived to improve the institutional system and create material facilities to better ensure human rights, adding that all socio-economic development projects, programmes and strategies are built on the people-centred and people-oriented basis.
The rights of education, health care and accommodation have been strongly improved with universal preschool and primary school education in all the 63 cities and provinces.
Vietnam is actively involved at human rights forums of the United Nations (UN), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other mechanisms.
To better ensure the rights of the people in the coming time, Vietnam will maximise efforts to perfect the state with the rule of law, strengthen the legal foundation and policies related to the protection and promotion of human rights.
The European Union and Vietnam have held many rounds of their annual Human Rights Dialogue, for an open discussion on a wide range of human rights issues related inter alia to freedom of expression (online and offline), cybersecurity, the death penalty, labour rights, the environment, and cooperation within the United Nations framework.
The White book on human rights provides updated information about the laws, policies, efforts and achievements of the State of Vietnam in ensuring human rights, once more confirming the fact that Vietnam has closely followed international norms in ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights of its people.
Building on the recent achievements, which were appreciated by the people in the country and international friends, with the determination and the spirit of the Vietnamese people and open dialogue and cooperation with other countries and international organizations on both bilateral and multilateral channels in the field of human rights, the State of Vietnam has been and will strive to achieve the objective of better ensuring the rights and fundamental freedoms of citizens in a law-governed state while joining hands with the international community to address regional and global issues related to human rights.
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