An international workshop was held on July 14 in Hanoi on introduction to the best practices and methods for developing a voluntary mid-term report on the implementation of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) third cycle recommendations.

The event was jointly held by the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

As part of his opening speech at the event, Deputy Foreign Minister Đặng Hòang Giang affirmed that the nation strongly supports multilateralism with the central role of the UN, the principles of fairness, transparency, non-discrimination, substantive dialogue, and effective co-operation in the field of human rights.

The country therefore places great importance on, fully participates in, and continues to pays close attention to the UPR process. The nation is strongly committed to continuing to make positive and responsible contributions to the activities orgainised by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), whilst also running for candidacy as a UNHRC member for the 2023 to 2025 term.

With this in mind, the country’s voluntary mid-term report was made in order to provide true and comprehensive information that reflects Vietnamese commitments and consistent efforts to continue stabilising socio-economic development. This is along with ensuring human rights, especially among vulnerable groups, amid the difficult context brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kamal Malhotra, resident coordinator in Vietnam of the UN, welcomed the nation’s strong commitment to multilateralism and human rights protection, with evidence for this being its decision to implement the voluntary mid-term report.

Kamal Malhotra, UN resident coordinator in Vietnam addresses the event

The UN also highly appreciates the proactive Vietnamese response to challenges regarding the protection and promotion of human rights. It is therefore willing to accept and take action to implement recommendations in difficult areas, Malhotra said.

UN agencies based in Vietnam continue to be proud to have united in support of the nation carrying out at least 75% of adopted recommendations. It has therefore proposed that the country needs to protect vulnerable groups, whilst simultaneously ensuring human rights in digital transformation.

Malhotra stated that UN agencies operating in Vietnam will continue to augment co-operation to support the Government and people in this field.

Participants at the seminar listened to several experts from the UNHCR Secretariat, foreign ministries off Thailand, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, who presented their experience in implementing UPR recommendations and making voluntary mid-term reports.

The UPR mechanism was originally established in 2008 and is one of the outstanding successes of the UNHRC due to the fact that it was built on the principles of transparency and fairness, regardless of the size of a country.

Since the establishment of the UPR mechanism, the nation has participated in the review of three UPR cycles in 2009, 2014, and 2019.

Currently, the country is implementing approved recommendations under UPR cycle III on the basis of the Master Plan adopted by the Prime Minister in 2019, including the task of outlining a voluntary mid-term report.

As of June, a total of 78 countries have submitted their reports of this kind to the UNHCR, of which 15 countries have submitted their cycle III reports.