Vietnam is always serious about implementing international human rights commitments

The National Report under the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 15.

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet (center) speaks at the April 15 press conference. Photos: Baoquocte

Of the 241 recommendations accepted in the third cycle of the UPR report, as of January 2024, Vietnam fulfilled 209, accounting for 86.7% of the total, while 30 recommendations are being processed and two are under consideration, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet told a press conference held to announce the report. 

Viet added that the national report under the fourth cycle of the UPR provides an overall view of the protection and promotion of human rights in Vietnam in all areas.
According to the Deputy Minister, Vietnamese lawmakers have passed 44 laws from 2019 to November 2023, including those regulating human and civil rights.

The report showed that since 2009, Vietnam's GDP per capita has increased by 25% and the poverty rate has fallen by 1.5% per year. The preventive medicine network is organized nationwide, and closely linked to primary health care, and health insurance coverage has grown from over 81% in 2016 to 92% in 2022. The proportion of households in Vietnam with access to safe water has reached 98.3%, an increase of nearly 1 percentage point compared to 2018. The advanced media and press landscape and the Internet have become forums for people and civil society, and tools for monitoring the implementation of policies and laws and the protection of people's legitimate rights and interests.

Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet emphasized that after 26 years of connecting to the Internet, Vietnam has a modern telecommunications infrastructure with high coverage. As of September 2023, Vietnam has 78 million internet users, an increase of 21% compared to the number in 2019. The number of mobile broadband subscribers is 86.6 million, an increase of 38% compared to 2019. There are currently about 72,000 associations operating regularly in Vietnam, actively contributing to solving key socio-economic issues in the country.

Speaking about the process of drafting the report, Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet said that it was prepared in a comprehensive and transparent manner with the participation of public bodies, socio-political organizations, trade organizations, non-governmental organizations, development partners, and the people, as well as comments made directly at the consultation workshop organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some ministries and agencies, or sent straight to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet rejects some unverified information about human rights in Vietnam.

Deputy Minister Do Hung Viet expressed his disagreement with the report of UN agencies under the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in Vietnam. According to him, the report has a lot of content built on unverified information and makes non-objective judgments about the situation in Vietnam.

Vietnam held many consultation workshops to gather opinions, but these organizations did not show up, some were not even present in Vietnam, but released a lot of misleading information about the situation in the country, Viet said.

He urged international organizations and diplomatic missions in Vietnam to be more cautious and seek legitimate and accurate information about the country.

"It is the foreign missions living and working in Vietnam, witnessing the development and progress of our country every day, that will provide the most accurate and unbiased information for their governments to prepare meetings with ours at the next working sessions of the Human Rights Council."

On April 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Deputy Spokesperson Doan Khac Viet said that Vietnam is disappointed with the outcomes of the fourth cycle UPR report compiled by the United Nations agencies in Vietnam.

According to the official, the UN report contains many false and unverified contents, and makes many non-objective and unfair assessments, without accurately and fully reflecting Vietnam's situation, efforts, and achievements in the protection and promotion of human rights.

“It completely failed to reflect the spirit and reality of cooperation between Vietnam and the UN, as well as the cooperation priorities agreed upon by Vietnam and UN agencies,” he told the ministry’s regular press conference.