Should Vietnam become a member of the UN Human Rights Council? – ASEAN TODAY

Vietnam has announced itscandidacy to join the UN Human Rights Council, basing its case mostly on the countryssuccessful containment of COVID-19. However, when it comes to Vietnams own human rightsrecord, the government has done everything to curtail peoples fundamentalcivil and political rights.

By Umair Jamal

Vietnam has announced its bid to join theUN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the bodys 2023-2025 term.

The countrys foreign minister, PhamBinh Minh, justified the application by saying that peoples freedom can only besafeguarded if a country defends itself against pandemics like that of COVID-19.

Critics are skeptical of the bid, sayingthat the one-party communist state is hardly a torch bearer when it comes to protectingand promoting peoples fundamental rights.

TheUNHRC, responsible for promotingand defending human rights globally, has 47 members who are elected for three-yearterms, according to quotas by region. The UNHRC elected 15 members in its lastelection in October 2020. The next round of elections will take place laterthis year.

DespiteVietnams announcement, evidence suggests the government has done little toimprove its poor human rights record over the years and remains one of the mostoppressive states in Southeast Asia.

Electingthe country to the UNHRC would virtually give Vietnams government a permit tocontinue its oppressive policies.

For Vietnams government, successful containmentof the COVID-19 pandemic is apparentlyenough to deserve a UNHRC seat. Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh indicatedthat Vietnams supplying of masks and medical equipment to over 50 countries make it an effectivecandidate for the UNHRC.

Speaking at the UNHRCs 46th Regular Session in Geneva inFebruary, Binh said that keeping people safe amid a pandemic is essential tosafeguarding rights and freedoms. [This] isthe best way to ensure that each and every member of the society can fullyenjoy their human rights, Pham said, as quoted by Vietnamese media.

We continue to put emphasis on theprotection and promotion of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of ourpeople, even in this most difficult of times, he added.

Vietnamese Foreign Office spokesperson Le ThiThy Hang echoed Binhs points in a statement onMarch 11, but she didnt exactly explain how Vietnam has promoted human rights.She offered no indication of whether Vietnam has followed any of the actionplans proposed by international observers to improveits poor human rights record.

The fact that the governments justification for its UNHRC candidature has not gone beyond COVID-19 shows that the country doesnt have much to offer when it comes to real efforts to defend peoples rights and freedoms.

Critics say that Vietnams one-party statestrictly limits peoplesfundamental political and civil rightsand should not be offered anyposition at the UNHRC.

Nguyen Van Dai, a Vietnamese lawyer and democracyadvocate, says that its surprising that the country has applied for UNHRCmembership. According to Van Dai, Vietnam is Southeast Asias one of the mostoppressive states.

Surely, Vietnam cant run for [membership on] the Human Rights Council, Nguyen toldRadio Free Asias Vietnamese Service.

For the last four years, Vietnamhas become Southeast Asias most oppressive country, even replacing Burma asthe country holding the most political prisoners.

In addition, Vietnams tradepartners like the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the UnitedStates and Australia have frequently called on it to release the activists nowbeing held in Vietnams prisons, and to improve its record on human rights, headded.

Vietnams human rights record remains dismal in many areas,including freedomof expression, freedom of speech and the rights to freely practice beliefs andreligion. The ruling communist party maintains a monopoly on power and hascrushed all political challenges to its leadership. The countrys courts and criminal justice system lack independence and onlyserve the ruling partys interests.

Thepress in the country is subject to government attacks for little more than publishingfacts. In its 2020 WorldPress Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders placed Vietnam at 175 outof 180.In the run up to Vietnams CommunistParty Congress in January, the ruling party used strict laws and other means toarrest and intimidate independent journalists and to silence critics. Dozens ofbloggers and journalists are imprisoned in Vietnam for merely publishing material critical of theruling partys domestic and foreign policies.

A USState Department report examining therights records of countries around the world said that in 2019, Vietnam wasresponsible for considerable violations of human rights, including unlawful orarbitrary killings by the government; forced disappearance; torture bygovernment agents; [and] arbitrary arrests and detentions.

According to Human Rights Watch,Vietnams government presented aninaccurate report of its human rights record at the the UNHRC in Geneva in2019. Vietnam claimed that it had implemented 175 out of 182 recommendations fromthe 2014 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to improve its human rights record, butHuman Rights Watch said this bears no semblance to reality.

Vietnamsleaders could have used the UN session to commit to real rights reforms, butinstead they plunged deeper into denial about the countrys abysmal humanrights record, said Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watchs deputy Asia director.

Vietnamshould recognize that when the only country that praises your human rightsprogress is China, you are clearly doing many things wrong, he added.

TheUNHRC should push Vietnam to implement existing action plans to improve humanrights conditions in the country, rather than offering it a place in the forum.If Vietnam becomes a member of the UNHRC, it will not only discredit the UNbodys standing but will also legitimize Vietnams policies of oppression.

Related

Continued here:

Should Vietnam become a member of the UN Human Rights Council? - ASEAN TODAY