UNDP Representative: Viet Nam on the right path to become a member of the UN Human Rights Council
According to Mrs. Diana Torres, Assistant Resident Representative & Head of Governance and Participation at United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Viet Nam, Viet Nam has made remarkable progress in ensuring human rights and is expected to be elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the term 2023-2025.
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| Mrs. Diana Torres, Assistant Resident Representative & Head of Governance and Participation at United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Viet Nam. (Photo: Thu Phuong) |
Recently, on the sidelines of the international consultation of the Workshop on the Draft Voluntary Mid-term Report on the Implementation of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Third Cycle Recommendations, Mrs. Diana Torres expressed her views on the implementation and promotion of human rights in Viet Nam.
How do you evaluate Viet Nam's organization of the international consultation workshop on the draft of the voluntary midterm report on the implementation of the UPR’s 3rd Cycle?
UNDP highly evaluates Viet Nam's initiative as it has been taking steps to complete the Voluntary Mid-term Report of UPR 3rd Cycle, then submit it to the UNHCR. This represents a political will and commitment to the Human Rights Council in particular and the United Nations in general.
We also welcome this consultation workshop, which expressed the desire to enhance the quality of Viet Nam's Voluntary Mid-term Report for the implementation of UPR 3rd Cycle. At the same time, it shows that Viet Nam is willing to make substantive progress in the implementation and promotion of human rights in the country, and actually take actions to strengthen the realization of human rights in a number of areas.
The Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years has had a profound impact on all aspects of life, directly affected people's enjoyment of human rights. So how is the implementation and promotion of human rights in Viet Nam in the context of the pandemic?
It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down much of Viet Nam's progress, especially in eradicating hunger and reducing poverty, narrowing inequality, and promoting growth and development for ethnic minorities though Viet Nam has made remarkable progress in the above area over the past years.
However, Viet Nam still remains committed to making further progress in realizing human rights in these areas. Along with efforts to control the pandemic, Viet Nam has had particularly outstanding results in promoting socio-economic rights.
In addition to efforts in improving the institutions and national legal system to ensure and promote human rights, Viet Nam has participated in most of the basic international conventions on human rights. What do you think about this?
The participation in most of the basic international conventions on human rights has demonstrated the efforts, will and seriousness of Viet Nam to implement international standards.
I especially appreciate Viet Nam's goal to become a developing country with advanced industry, high middle income by 2030. Currently, Viet Nam is a middle-income country and I have seen Viet Nam's high determination and desire to improve the legal and judicial frameworks to achieve the same economic development progress as that of other developed countries.
In addition, UNDP also welcomed Viet Nam's progress towards perfecting the national legal system and institutions on the guarantee and promotion of human rights. These are important steps to improve the legal framework and bring Viet Nam closer to international standards. The clearest evidence is the implementation of the UPR recommendations that Viet Nam accepted.
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| The Workshop on the Draft Voluntary Mid-term Report on the Implemenentation of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Third Cycle Recommendations on 22nd October, 2021. (Photo: Thu Trang) |
Among the recommendations of UPR 3rd Cycle, which areas do you think Viet Nam performs most successfully?
In the recommendations of UPR 3rd cycle, Viet Nam has made and achieved significant progress in some areas which I mentioned above, namely social protection, poverty reduction and gender equality. In comparison with other countries in the region, Viet Nam has really made remarkable progress in these areas.
The right to access information, Internet freedom in general and social networks in particular, is also one of the areas that Viet Nam does quite well because I do not see any restriction in internet access. However, especially for foreigners in Viet Nam, there are still few websites, portals in both Vietnamese and English languages for them to access information. Therefore, it is necessary to have more open platforms so that people can access information more easily.
Viet Nam is running for membership of the UNHCR for the term 2023-2025. What is your opinion about this?
As I have shared, Viet Nam has been making good strides in the implementation and promotion of human rights, which is a solid basis for becoming a member of the Human Rights Council.
Firstly, Viet Nam has voluntarily prepared the midterm report for the implementation of the UPR 3rd Cycle. This is a right decision reflecting Viet Nam's consistent commitments and efforts to continue socio-economic stability and ensure human rights.
Secondly, Viet Nam has strong commitments in specific areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, etc. as well as the ratification of basic international conventions on human rights. All of these are steps in the right direction to become a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Personally, I think that Viet Nam has a great opportunity to be elected a member of the Human Rights Council. I also expect this hope to come true so that Viet Nam can advocate for the world's human rights agenda.
Thank you so much!
