Following the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with the Declaration of Independence in 1945, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Since then, the Party and State have always paid attention to promoting and ensuring the implementation of human rights.
From a country dependent on foreign aid, Vietnam has become one of the world's leading agricultural product exporters and has contributed to maintaining food security in the region and the world. Once among the poorest countries in the world, Vietnam has grown to become one of the fastest growing economies at present.
Vietnam's GDP per capita has increased 40 times between 1989 and 2023. More than 40 million people escaped poverty within the 20 years from 1993 to 2023. And the multidimensional poverty rate has been halved within the 15 years since 2005. The above results have been recognised and highly appreciated by international friends.
In 2022, during his visit to Vietnam, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres affirmed that these results are “a powerful testament to the resilience and hard work of the Vietnamese people — and for policies that place people at the heart of development.” Regarding the UPR Mechanism, to date, Vietnam has always fully participated in the reporting cycles and seriously implemented all received recommendations (Vietnam’s first, second, and third cycles of the UPR were carried out in May 2009, February 2014, and January 2019, respectively).
Based on the effective implementation of recommendations approved in the third cycle, Vietnam has developed a Master Plan with specific assignments for relevant agencies as well as a mechanism to review progress and evaluate results.
Vietnam's national report under the fourth cycle of the UPR mechanism showed that 239 out of the 241 approved recommendations (99.2%) have been completed or partially implemented.
Specifically, Vietnam has made important efforts to strengthen legal frameworks to better ensure human rights. In addition, the law-making process is increasingly transparent and inclusive with widespread participation of the people.
Typically, during the drafting of the revised Land Law, through direct and online channels, there were 12 million comments offering feedback on the draft. With the rapid development of mass media, the internet and social networks in Vietnam have helped strengthen press freedom, freedom of speech, and the right to access information.
During the period of implementing the report of the fourth cycle, the number of internet users in Vietnam increased by 21%, reaching more than 78 million users. Twenty-five million new mobile subscribers were registered, and the 4G network has covered approximately 99.8% of Vietnam's population.
At the same time, Vietnam has always been upholding the right to freedom of religion and belief, while promoting equality between religions and prohibiting all forms of discrimination on religious grounds.
In December 2023, the Vatican appointed the first Resident Papal Representative and established the Office of the Resident Papal Representative in Vietnam. This was a significant step forward in Vietnam-Vatican relations. Vietnam has also shown interest in freedom of association, health care, social security, hunger eradication, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainable development, and so on.
Currently, there are about 72,000 associations which have been making significant contributions to socio-economic development as well as actively supporting the people’s lives in the country.
Social welfare packages, worth nearly 88 trillion VND and accounting for 1% of national GDP, have been effectively allocated to specific groups. By the end of 2023, health insurance coverage has reached about 94% of the Vietnamese population. Vietnam's gender equality index ranked 87th out of 146 countries in 2021; however, by 2023, Vietnam jumped 15 places to rank 72nd.
According to the UNDP’s latest Human Development Report, Vietnam's human development index ranking has continued to increase from 115th to 107th. Vietnam was ranked in the group with a high human development index.
The above results show Vietnam's relentless efforts in ensuring human rights, especially during the recent COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. However, with a hostile attitude, lack of goodwill and the aim of carrying out dark plots against the Party and State of Vietnam, some organisations and individuals have utilised Vietnam’s implementation of the national report under the UNHRC’s fourth cycle of the UPR mechanism to constantly attack and spread false information about human rights in the country.
For example, there was a misrepresentation that the human rights situation in Vietnam is getting worse and worse and that after this report, the human rights situation has remained the same and cannot be improved.
On May 7, when the Vietnamese delegation officially participated in the dialogue, a group of overseas Vietnamese took to the streets to protest in front of the UN headquarters and made unreasonable demands due to lack of information and unfriendly, extremist, and reactionary views.
It can be seen that the above protest’s aim is to distort the human rights situation in Vietnam as well as sabotage the Vietnamese Party and State and lower the country's reputation in the international community. At the above protest, the demands made still repeated familiar and baseless arguments such as requiring the authorities to “stop arresting and oppressing people” and “freeing dissidents and prisoners of conscience.”
However, with the achieved results that were recognised and highly appreciated by the international community, it can be affirmed that all plots and tricks of distortion and sabotage by extremist and reactionary organisations and individuals and those who lack goodwill will not change the reality of the achievements and efforts of Vietnam in ensuring human rights in recent years.
For the near future, the Party and State are determined to continue focusing on building a socialist rule-of-law state, promoting public administration reform, and consolidating democracy at the grassroots; fulfilling obligations within the framework of international treaties on human rights to which Vietnam is a member; and strengthening dialogue and cooperation with countries and the UN human rights mechanisms in the spirit of equality, mutual respect, and respect for the UN Charter and international law.
The country will also promote education on human rights through training and increasing capacity of officials, civil servants, businesses, and people; continue to implement sustainable development goals of the UN and countries; and improve the ability to enjoy civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights for all people, especially vulnerable groups.
Vietnam also affirmed its stance of being ready to answer questions and provide authentic information and emphasised the principles of dialogue, cooperation, and respect for differences. The country also stressed that there is no common model for all countries. Each country, depending on its characteristics and conditions, will have its own development path. Vietnam confidently continues on its chosen path to bring the nation towards having rich people, a strong country, justice, democracy, and civilisation, where all people can enjoy basic human rights.
