Vietnamese human rights issue in the eyes of foreign friends

Viet Nam is an important partner of the United Nations and has made many substantial and effective contributions to UN peacekeeping operations, affirmed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a message to the government and people of Viet Nam on 45 years of Viet Nam joining the United Nations on September 22. 

The UN Secretary-General hailed the partnership between the United Nations and Viet Nam and expressed his wish this partnership would be further strengthened in the coming time to promote peace, sustainable development and human rights in the world.

Former Secretary General of the France-Viet Nam Friendship Association Jean-Pierre Archambault stated that achievements in ensuring human rights in Viet Nam are undeniable.

He stressed that in its development policy, the Vietnamese Government always gives priority to helping the poor, especially Agent Orange/dioxin victims.

He lauded relevant Vietnamese agencies for paying attention to gender equality and ensuring rights of vulnerable groups like the elderly, women, children and people with disabilities. Viet Nam has also actively joined the United Nations’ conventions to protect them.

The role of the Vietnamese women has changed, evidenced by the election of many female deputies to the National Assembly. 

Viet Nam’s effective anti-COVID-19 strategy has been welcomed by the World Health Organisation and foreign media. The Vietnamese Party, State and Government offered free medical care and vaccination to citizens, as well as gave support to disadvantaged firms and people.

Viet Nam has also actively joined humanitarian activities at the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan which has been hailed by the UN and international community.

Former UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam Caitlin Wiesen said that Viet Nam made exceptional progress in bringing down the extreme poverty rate to under 5 percent in 2020 from 40 percent in the 1990s.

Ms. Caitlin Wiesen also lauded the achievements which the Vietnamese Government has attained in ensuring safety for people under the spirit “Leaving no one behind.” 

Hervé Conan, director of the French Development Agency (AFD) was impressed by Viet Nam’s achievements in gender equality promotion. 

He assessed that the image of women is completely different from that of 30 years ago, which was always associated with cooking and taking care of the house. 

The Vietnamese Government has made great efforts in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. Viet Nam also shows a very active role in promoting gender equality in the world when it was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Prohibition of All Forms of Discrimination against Women more than 40 years ago and followed by the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,” added Mr. Hervé Conan.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) praised Viet Nam’s achievements in children’s protection rights especially via the amendments of the Government's laws when promulgating the 2016 Law on children to replace the 2004 Law on child protection, care and education.

A series of international experts also assessed that Viet Nam sets a successful example in socio-economic development, human rights protection and fulfillment of MDGs. 

Viet Nam climbed two places from the 117 out of the 189 countries in 2019 to the 115 out of the 191 countries in 2021 in the global 2021/22 Human Development Report (HDR) freshly released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Freedom of the press and opinion expression and the use of social networks in Viet Nam are in line with the development of the world and the region as well as the development of the country in recent times. 

According to We Are Social & Hootsuite, Viet Nam was home to 150 million mobile subscribers and 70 Internet users. The State also creates favorable conditions to form some of its own social networks or links between Viet Nam and other countries, for example Zalo, Viber, and Zingme. That shows social networks are very popular in Viet Nam.

The United Nations General Assembly elected 14 member of the Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term, including Viet Nam in New York on October 11 (local time).

Viet Nam unanimously received support from ASEAN as the bloc’s only candidate for this position, and it was also the only Asian candidate of the Francophone community.

Viet Nam, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, will directly contribute to human rights protection and promotion over the next three years.

This is the second time Vietnam has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council. In 2013, it was elected to the UN body for the first time for the 2014-2016 term with 184 out of 192 votes in favor, the highest among the 14 members of the body./.