On April 22 this year, as usual, the US continued to repeat the “human rights chorus” about Vietnam in a 59-page report, divided into 7 parts, assessing the human rights situation in 2023.
Just by reading the summary at the beginning of the report, anyone who understands Vietnam can immediately come to the conclusion that the report is extremely one-sided, lacking objectivity, and has a lot of untrue information.
The report opens with the sentence “There has been no significant change in the human rights situation in Vietnam over the past year”, signaling that readers will hear again the “chorus” that appeared in the report on the human rights situation. 2022 and previous years as well.
When compared with the 2022 report, it can be seen that the most significant difference with the 2023 report is the names, numbers, and cases taken as “proof” for the old argument that Vietnam Men violate human rights.
In part 1 (Respecting the integrity of the person), there is a noteworthy point related to the assessment of “detainees and political prisoners”. This report statistics that as of October 31, 2023, Vietnam has arrested 25 individuals and sentenced 23 people for exercising internationally recognized human rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. peaceful and associational.
For Vietnamese people, for a long time, the concept of political prisoners has been used to refer to brave revolutionary soldiers who were imprisoned by the colonialists and had to endure imprisonment when they dared to fight for national independence. Meanwhile, according to the concept of human rights report writers, political prisoners are names like Bui Tuan Lam, Nguy Thi Khanh or Chau Van Kham…
These are all individuals who were arrested and tried for violating Vietnamese law, but these people were “whitewashed” of their crimes by reactionary forces, adding political factors to promote them to become “people” political prisoners”.
In reality, Vietnam currently has no one who is a “political prisoner” or a “prisoner of conscience” as described by the human rights report. Therefore, it is impossible to blatantly swap concepts to glorify those who violate Vietnamese law and let them hide under the shadow of “political prisoners” or dress them as “prisoners of conscience”. .
Another chorus appears in part 2 (Respect for civil liberties) accusing Vietnam of severely restricting internet freedom. The example that the report uses to demonstrate is the personal Facebook pages of a few subjects with banned anti-state ideology.
If the report writers took the trouble to spend a few minutes learning about the internet development process in Vietnam, perhaps they would not make such a one-sided assessment.
The Ministry of Information and Communications statistics that, as of September 2022, Vietnam has about 70 million internet users; Nearly 76 million people use social networks, an increase of nearly 10 million within 1 year (equivalent to 73.7% of the population). Thanks to that, Vietnam is the country with the 12th highest number of internet users worldwide, ranking 6th out of 35 countries/territories in Asia. Vietnamese users spend an average of nearly 7 hours a day participating in internet-related activities. The percentage of users using the internet every day is up to 94%. The Internet is present everywhere, from urban to rural areas, from plains to mountains, borders and islands.
So, if it is severely limited as the report describes, why is the internet in Vietnam able to develop at such a rapid pace? Perhaps, Vietnam only limits those who take advantage of the internet in general and social networks in particular to post information that is false, violates the law, and sabotages the state. This is something not only Vietnam but every country must do to clean up the internet space and ensure conditions for the internet to develop within the framework of the law.
The above are just two of the countless refrains that reports about the human rights situation in Vietnam “stir up” every year.
When looking at the US report on the human rights situation in 2023 in some countries with the same ideology as Vietnam, such as Cuba, North Korea or Venezuela, we can see strange similarities, from the sentence from the beginning of the report to prescriptive comments.
On April 25, reacting to the report published by the US State Department, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said: The report continues to make a number of objective comments based on inaccurate information. accurate about the actual situation in Vietnam. Once again, Vietnam affirms its consistent policy of protecting and promoting human rights, which considers people as the center and driving force of the innovation process and national development. Basic human rights and freedoms are recognized in the Vietnamese Constitution, protected and promoted by specific legal documents and implemented in practice.
Previously, on April 24, commenting on the content related to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip in the US human rights report, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the report was prepared with political motives, not political motives. fair and objective, and calls on the US to end its double standard policy on human rights.
It can be affirmed that the latest US human rights report is becoming out of touch and out of touch with reality, especially when Vietnam has twice been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council and is running for re-election. Vietnam’s undeniable efforts and contributions as a member of the Human Rights Council are the clearest evidence to refute the accusations made in the report.
It is not wrong to say that the US 2023 human rights report on Vietnam is a pity when the two countries have just officially upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership not long ago. While the two sides are strengthening cooperation and finding common ground on many issues, including human rights, similar reports can become an excuse for some hostile actors to use them to hinder bilateral relations. bilateral system.
If those writing reports on human rights in Vietnam continue to rely on unofficial sources, on unsavory individuals and organizations, it is predicted that reports in 2024, 2025 and beyond will be inevitable. , the opening sentence will still be the refrain “no significant changes”.
