Affirming Vietnam's desire and determination in protecting and promoting human rights

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet answered questions about the results of the meeting to approve Vietnam's UPR Report, Cycle IV.

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet and the Vietnamese delegation at the 57th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. (Source: VNA)

Dear Deputy Minister, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Vietnam's National Report under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycle IV on September 27 in Geneva, Switzerland. Could you please share more about this result?

The United Nations Human Rights Council has just officially adopted Vietnam's National Report under the UPR mechanism for the fourth cycle. This is the result of a long preparation process by the Vietnamese Government. Immediately after the dialogue session in May 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chaired and coordinated with ministries, branches and agencies to actively conduct a thorough review of all 320 recommendations received from 133 countries, reporting to the Prime Minister for approval.

At the meeting on September 27, Vietnam announced its decision to accept 271 out of 320 recommendations made by countries, reaching a rate of 84.7%. This is the highest approval rate in 4 cycles. This demonstrates Vietnam's strong commitment to the UPR process, as well as affirming Vietnam's desire and determination to protect and promote human rights.

There were about 90 countries, international organizations and some non-governmental organizations attending the meeting. It can be said that the vast majority of opinions expressed highly appreciated Vietnam's efforts, the participation of the Vietnamese delegation in open and frank exchanges and dialogues, with a lot of useful information, helping the international community better understand the situation in Vietnam.

On this occasion, we also updated information on new developments since the May 2024 dialogue session in areas such as building and perfecting legal institutions, continuing to ensure basic foundations for socio-economic development to better ensure human rights in Vietnam.

At the same time, the Vietnamese delegation also promptly responded to the false arguments and use of unverified information showing prejudices about Vietnam in the statements of a few non-governmental organizations at the meeting.

We affirm that we will always create a favorable environment for people to participate in contributing to the development of legal policies; affirm that the implementation of human rights must also be based on the rule of law, respect for the rights and interests of individuals and communities, for the stability and prosperity of the whole country; emphasize the determination to be uncompromising in the face of actions that take advantage of freedom and democracy to incite and cause instability.

Could the Head of Delegation please share more about the most notable contents in the statements of the countries at the Adoption Session?

What was particularly touching at the September 27 session was that countries and international friends took advantage of the limited time the Human Rights Council had allotted for their speeches to express solidarity and share the pain and loss caused by Typhoon Yagi to the Vietnamese people.

The delegate's speech expressed that with the Government's efforts and commitments, people's working life and production will soon be stabilized, and the consequences will soon be overcome to continue the growth momentum.

At the same time, there were opinions highly appreciating the significance of Vietnam conducting dialogue activities on the UPR at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland in 2024, the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory and the signing of the Geneva Agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Indochina.

Some speeches also reviewed the struggle of the Vietnamese people to decide their own destiny and the path to independence, freedom and happiness, considering it the foundation for protecting and promoting human rights in Vietnam.

With the main purpose of the session being on the results of the fourth cycle review with Vietnam, all speaking countries recommended that the Human Rights Council adopt our fourth cycle national report, along with our stance on the 320 recommendations that we have announced.

Countries welcomed Vietnam’s acceptance of a large number of recommendations, demonstrating its strong commitment to the UPR process in particular and to protecting and promoting human rights in general. Countries also had positive assessments of our efforts and achievements in a number of aspects such as promoting sustainable development to better ensure human rights, having a multidimensional approach to poverty reduction, paying attention to promoting gender equality and protecting vulnerable groups, etc.

At the same time, some countries assessed that Vietnam has good experiences in effectively participating in the UPR and suggested that we continue to share them with other countries.

I believe that the comprehensive, objective and realistic assessments in Vietnam show that international partners have a positive interest, a deep understanding of updated information about the country, people, history, culture and development process in Vietnam, as well as demonstrating our international position and prestige at multilateral forums. This is something we need to continue to cultivate and promote in the coming time.

Could you please share more about Vietnam's next steps to implement the 271 recommendations that Vietnam has declared its acceptance in cycle IV?

We have had experience in implementing UPR recommendations in the previous three cycles. In this fourth cycle, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to coordinate with ministries and sectors to develop and report to the Prime Minister for approval a Master Plan to implement the 271 approved recommendations.

This master plan will assign specific responsibilities and tasks to each ministry, sector, and agency to implement the recommendations, as well as propose a mechanism to monitor and evaluate the implementation. We also plan to conduct a mid-term review to determine the progress of implementation and areas where further efforts are needed.

During this process, Vietnam will continue to cooperate with the United Nations, international partners, and friendly countries to have more resources to help us best implement these recommendations.

Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/khang-dinh-mong-muon-va-quyet-tam-cua-viet-nam-trong-bao-ve-va-thuc-day-quyen-con-nguoi-288415.html