Viet Nam reiterates support for victims of Agent Orange/dioxin

She made the above statement at a press briefing in Ha Noi on Thursday after the French Court of Cassation held a public hearing for the appeal of Ms. Tran To Nga, a French-Vietnamese victim suing 14 U.S. chemical corporations for supplying Agent Orange/dioxin during the Viet Nam War.

Decades after the war, the devastating consequences continue to profoundly affect Viet Nam and its people, including the longstanding and serious impacts on Agent Orange/dioxin victims, said Pham.

"We strongly support the victims of Agent Orange/dioxin in demanding that the chemical companies that manufactured and supplied Agent Orange to the U.S. military during the war in Viet Nam be held accountable for remedying the consequences they have caused," Pham stressed.

This case has so far centered on whether the companies can claim jurisdictional immunity because they acted under contracts with the U.S. Administration, rather than on the merits of the case itself.

Lawyers representing Ms. Tran have argued that the defendants are private commercial entities and therefore cannot be shielded by immunity normally reserved for states or bodies exercising sovereign authority.

If the Court of Cassation overturns an August 2024 ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal, which upheld the companies' immunity claims, the case could be sent back to a lower court for reconsideration and, for the first time, open the way for judicial examination of the companies' alleged responsibility for the consequences of Agent Orange.

Statistics showed that around 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin during and after the war. Of those, about three million are considered victims, suffering from illnesses, disabilities or birth defects linked to the toxic chemical that was used widely by the U.S. military as defoliant during the war./.