Workshop reviews 70 years of constitutional history

NDO—The National Assembly Office held a workshop in Hanoi on November 5 to review the values of the first Constitution in the process of completing the legal system.

The workshop was chaired by NA Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu.

Throughout its 70-year history, the NA has passed five constitutions: the 1946 Constitution, the 1959 Constitution, the 1980 Constitution, the 1992 Constitution and the 2013 Constitution.

Participants at the workshop shared the opinion that each Constitution had been milestones in the building and growth of the Vietnamese revolutionary State, institutionalising the line of the Communist Party of Vietnam in each period of the nation’s development, serving as the foundation for completing the legal system and building a law-ruled socialist State of the people, by the people and for the people.

The 1946 Constitution crystalised the fruits of the 1945 August Revolution, being the legal declaration on the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which encouraged a spirit of close unity among the Vietnamese nationalities and a spirit of honesty, righteousness and equality among all social classes.

The 1946 Constitution comprises the Preamble and seven chapters with 70 articles clearly defining the nation’s tasks to defend its territorial integrity, gain complete independence and build the country on a democratic foundation. It confirms three basic principles, namely the unity of all people regardless of race, gender, social class and religion; the protection of the people’s democratic freedoms; and the construction of a strong and clear-sighted administration of the people.

It states in Article 1 that, “Vietnam is a democratic republic. All national powers belong to the entire Vietnamese people regardless of race, gender, economic conditions, social class and religion.” Moreover, the Constitution confirms, “All Vietnamese citizens are equal in rights in all aspects—political, economic and cultural; are equal before law and are entitled to participate in administration and national construction, depending on their respective talents and morality.” With such provisions, the 1946 Constitution confirms the emergence in Vietnam’s history of a democratic people’s State and acknowledges for the first time the freedoms of speech, publication, organisation and association, belief, residence and movement within the country and abroad.

Previously, the NA Office also held an exhibition on the 70 years of Vietnam's Constitutions. The exhibition featured nearly 100 photographs and documents on the preparation and adoption of the Constitution in 1946 and those that followed it.