On the basis of the traditional human dignity of “people are the flower of the earth” and “respect for the people”, Ho Chi Minh applied and creatively developed the ideology of Lenin (1870-1924) on the right to national self-determination under socialism; the ideology of freedom, equality, and fraternity of the French bourgeois revolution in 1789; the ideology of “Three rights of the people” (national independence, civil rights, and people’s livelihood and happiness) of Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) and the ideology of the natural rights of each individual in international human rights law - into the right to independence, freedom, and happiness associated with socialism of each individual and the Vietnamese nation on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. This is the ideology - theory that the Party, State and people of Vietnam apply and creatively develop in the period of renovation.
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| President Ho Chi Minh in his office at the Viet Bac base (1951). (Source: hochiminh.vn) |
Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on human dignity and human rights
Regarding human dignity. President Ho Chi Minh considered human dignity from the human nature of man himself. He once borrowed the saying "Human nature is inherently good" to explain the issue of Good and Evil in a simple way: "On earth, there are millions of people. But those people can be divided into two categories: Good people and evil people. In society, although there are hundreds of jobs, thousands of tasks. But those tasks can be divided into two categories: righteous and evil. Doing righteous work is a good person. Doing evil work is an evil person"1. For President Ho Chi Minh, "good and evil are not inherent natures. Most of them are formed by education"2; a person with human dignity will do good deeds, no matter how small, and avoid evil deeds, no matter how small.
He believed that the issue of good and evil, human dignity in traditional humans is basically expressed in humanity and morality. Morality and human rights (or human rights) are different expressions of human nature whenever humans are present in the community and in society under different perspectives and roles.
When approaching Marxism-Leninism, President Ho Chi Minh considered morality and human dignity as factors that have great influence on people's perception and emotions, not just the factor of ideological genius.
Indeed, in the article “Lenin and the Peoples of the East” (1924), he wrote: “It was not only his genius but also his contempt for luxury, his love of work, his pure private life, his simple lifestyle, in short, his great and noble morality that had a great influence on the peoples of Asia and made their hearts turn to him unstoppably”3.
Human dignity is closely linked to progressive human values and also to "advanced" human values of the nation and humanity.
Under the light of Marxism-Leninism, those qualities were elevated to a new level, such as: From the rational “thinking person” of the West and the “heart” or soul of the Eastern people were integrated into “living with love and meaning”, “learning combined with practice”, “saying goes with doing” to harmonize talent and virtue; from the humane love for humanity was elevated to communist humanism, bearing Vietnamese identity; from traditional patriotism was elevated to Vietnamese patriotism in the era of socialist revolution; from the tradition of national solidarity and affection was elevated to the tradition of national solidarity associated with international solidarity;…
Through that, according to Soviet journalist Osip Mandelstam (1923): "from Nguyen Ai Quoc radiated a culture, not European culture, but perhaps the culture of the future".
On human rights. The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 recognizes the dignity and equal, inalienable rights of all members of the human family. Human rights are the expression of human dignity by law in society. President Ho Chi Minh, through the Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945, linked individual rights with the right to independence - freedom - happiness of all peoples.
Thus, he expanded human rights to include the right to self-determination of peoples. One point that needs to be emphasized is that it was not until 1966 that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) linked the right to self-determination of peoples with human rights.
This is because Ho Chi Minh really valued the practice of the dialectical relationship between individual rights and the rights of communities (ethnicity - ethnicity, religion, gender, ...) with the right to independence, freedom, and happiness of the nation - state, in accordance with Article 55 of the 1945 UN Charter. The sovereignty of a nation-state belongs only to all the inhabitants permanently residing on the territory of the new nation-state, because they are subjects of international law.
Human rights are the sum total of social and legal relations of human dignity and are expressed in cultural personality. He considers human rights to be mainly the real product of human beings' struggle with the natural world, society and themselves, especially in the struggle against oppression and exploitation, and is associated with the level of economic and cultural development in each historical period of the nation and humanity.
Therefore, human rights always carry national and class identities and depend on each political-social regime and each national culture. Therefore, human rights are not only limited to the aspect of natural-social entities, but have the nature of "the sum of social relations" 4 (Karl Marx), first of all legal relations, of human dignity, and are expressed in cultural personality. Therefore, we must find a way to make culture penetrate deeply into the national psychology..., we must find a way for everyone to have the ideal of autonomy, independence, freedom,... everyone understands their duties and knows how to enjoy the happiness they should enjoy.5
Human rights are recognized in both civil rights and human rights through laws and self-governing cultural institutions in society. Inheriting this ideology of Karl Marx, President Ho Chi Minh used both the terms human rights and civil rights (civil rights) and always attached importance to the unified relationship between them in order to realize the independence, freedom, and happiness of the nation - state on the basis of respecting, protecting, and realizing the right to life, freedom, and the right to pursue happiness of every Vietnamese person.
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| President Ho Chi Minh visited the evening cultural and technical supplementary class of workers at the 1-5 Automobile Factory, the leading movement of cultural supplementary education in Hanoi industry (1963). (Source: hochiminh.vn) |
Applying Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on human dignity and human rights today
Firstly, applying President Ho Chi Minh's thought on the relationship between human dignity and human rights in the direction that human rights are both universal in nature and specific in social conditions that create human dignity. Human rights are not limited to the aspect of natural and social entities, but are essentially "the sum of social relations" (Karl Marx), first of all legal relations, of human dignity and expressed in cultural personality.
Second, apply the idea of the reciprocal relationship between ensuring national rights and respecting, protecting and implementing the rights of individuals and communities in the country. In fact, the cause of renovation has solved this problem quite well, but the value of this dialectical relationship has not been fully realized.
Therefore, in the current period, we must be aware and constantly conscious of practicing and resolving that dialectical relationship well; in which respecting, protecting and implementing the rights of the people and large and small communities is the basis for ensuring the country's independence, freedom and happiness.
Third, applying the idea of “a hundred things must have the spirit of the rule of law” to “reform the world and business ethics to implement human rights” (the social change to implement human rights). The result of the application is the building and perfecting of the socialist rule of law state.
However, there are still limitations in building and perfecting institutions to implement institutions of the people, by the people, and for the people. For example, we have only paid attention to building the rule of law institutions of the state apparatus, but have not simultaneously paid attention to building and developing the rule of law institutions of citizens in their relations with the State and society as the foundation and purpose of the socialist rule of law state institution of which the people are the masters.
Therefore, it is necessary to continue institutionalizing the State's responsibility in ensuring human rights and citizens' rights in all three aspects: responsibility of agencies and organizations; responsibility of state officials, civil servants and public employees; responsibility of state administrative management documents.
At the same time, attach importance to implementing the Law on Grassroots Democracy in 2022, first of all to promote the guarantee of human rights and civil rights at the grassroots level and enhance the capacity of social criticism and supervision of social organizations, especially the press and the Internet. Currently, many agencies and enterprises have not paid due attention to implementing this Law in their localities and areas of operation. This has resulted in a lack of coordination in implementing democracy in a unified and synchronous manner between officials and people at the commune level and officials and civil servants at agencies and enterprises.
Especially in the context of the country entering a new stage of development, with new position and strength, it is necessary to immediately overcome the limitations in applying Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on human dignity and human rights.
That is: (i) avoid confusing Ho Chi Minh's thought on criticizing human rights under the bourgeois, colonial and feudal regimes during the national liberation revolution with the right to be the master and master in the period of advancing to socialism; (ii) pay due attention to creativity in ensuring human rights in accordance with the country's conditions; (iii) attach due importance to ensuring "financial rights" associated with human rights and civil rights as determined by the Resolution of the Tan Trao National Congress (August 16-17, 1945)6.
Although Vietnam has so far done quite well in the rights to hunger eradication and poverty reduction, production, business, entrepreneurship, etc., it has not paid due attention to effectively resolving issues of ownership rights related to the rights to possess, use, and manage land, housing, and other real estate as the foundation of economic rights. As a result, many economic issues, especially land, housing, and other real estate, often cause consequences for many human rights and civil rights issues and cause economic losses to the State and the people.
Along with that, there is still a lack of attention to clarifying, applying and creatively developing the relationship between building new ethics and new culture and ensuring human rights (while President Ho Chi Minh considered ethics as the foundation and root of revolutionaries); not paying due attention to concretizing the respect, protection and implementation of institutions to ensure the rights of each social class (workers, farmers, intellectuals, businessmen, etc.) in accordance with the situation of polarization between rich and poor, and social polarization according to the socialist-oriented market mechanism.
In the context of increasing awareness of human rights, ensuring and promoting civil rights must be associated with human rights in accordance with the Party's viewpoints and policies and the spirit of the 2013 Constitution: "In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, human rights and civil rights in the political, civil, economic, cultural and social aspects are recognized, respected, protected and guaranteed in accordance with the Constitution and laws."1 Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2011, vol.6, p.129.
2 Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 413.
3 Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 317.
4 C.Marx - F.Engels: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 1995, vol.3, p.11.
5 Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, op. cit., vol. 1, p. XXVI
6 See: Communist Party of Vietnam: Complete Party Documents, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2000, volume 7, p.559.
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