Vietnam's candidacy for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea aims to contribute to strengthening the rule of law

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang said that the responsibility of promoting the rule of law at all levels must be shouldered jointly by all UN member states, which is the key to strengthening multilateralism.

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Head of the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations, speaks at the discussion session. (Photo: VNA)

In recent days, the International Legal Affairs Committee (Committee 6) of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly held a plenary discussion on the topic of promoting the rule of law at national and international levels, with the participation of many representatives of United Nations member states and observers.

Speaking at the meeting, President of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly Philemon Yang, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina J. Mohammed and representatives of many countries emphasized the close connection between strengthening the rule of law and stability and development; affirmed that building a fair, transparent, and inclusive legal system as well as the effective operation of judicial agencies play an essential role in ensuring human rights, including the right to access to justice, maintaining international peace and security, preventing conflicts, and peacefully resolving disputes on the basis of the fundamental principles of international law and the United Nations Charter, thereby creating a premise to promote the full implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals as envisioned in the Future Summit Document adopted by high-level leaders of countries last September.

Along with the achievements in developing international law and strengthening the rule of law at both national and international levels, many countries expressed deep concern about the escalation of many conflicts and hotspots in the world, posing many challenges that the international community needs to continue to address.

Participating in the discussion at the session, Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang - Head of the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations said that the responsibility to promote and maintain the rule of law at all levels must be shouldered jointly by all UN member states; this is the key to building trust, strengthening commitment and consolidating multilateralism.

As a country that always upholds compliance with international law and the United Nations Charter, Vietnam highly appreciates the recent efforts of the international community in promoting the rule of law to respond to emerging challenges on a global scale, including the development of new international conventions on cybercrime, international tax cooperation and many other important issues for international life; affirming that Vietnam has actively participated in these processes and achieved many results in perfecting the domestic law and judicial system.

As a co-founder of the UNCLOS Friends Group (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982), Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang said that Vietnam is actively celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Convention's entry into force, emphasizing the importance of protecting the universality, unity and integrity of UNCLOS in global sea and ocean governance.

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang speaks at the discussion session. (Photo: VNA)

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang stated that Vietnam resolutely maintains its principled stance that all disputes must be resolved by peaceful means, in accordance with international law.

Based on the above stance, Vietnam expresses its concern over recent developments in the East Sea, calling on all relevant parties to fully implement their obligations under UNCLOS, respect the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), exercise self-restraint, peacefully resolve disputes and respect diplomatic and legal processes. Vietnam commits to fully implement the DOC and continue to actively discuss with other countries to soon complete a substantive, effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS.

The Head of the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam affirmed that following the process of active participation in international legal forums in recent times, Vietnam has nominated for the first time Dr. Nguyen Lan Anh, Director of the East Sea Institute, to run for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the 2026-2035 term with the desire to continue to contribute more to efforts to strengthen the rule of law globally.

In the spirit of attaching importance to equal geographical representation and inclusive, gender-equal participation in multilateral mechanisms and international legal bodies, Viet Nam calls on member states and UN agencies to continue implementing capacity building support programmes to empower women from all regions, especially women from developing countries, creating opportunities for them to make more significant contributions to the field of international law.

The International Legal Affairs Committee (Committee 6) is one of the six main committees of the United Nations General Assembly, composed of representatives of all 193 United Nations member states, whose function is to review, discuss and contribute to the progressive development of international law.

Committee 6 is expected to discuss nearly 30 topics, including notable ones such as the activities of the International Law Commission, measures to eliminate international terrorism, and prevention of crimes against humanity.

Promoting the rule of law at national and international levels is one of the top topics of concern at the 6th Committee every year (this year there were nearly 100 speeches), a forum for UN member countries to raise many broad and highly topical international legal issues./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/viet-nam-ung-cu-toa-an-luat-bien-quoc-te-nham-gop-phan-cung-co-phap-quyen-post986887.vnp