Spokesperson for the Vietnam Foreign Ministry Le Thi Thu Hang

At the ministry’s regular press conference in Hanoi on December 6, Hang briefed the media about these outstanding achievements which were contained in Vietnam’s third-cycle UPR that was officially submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Vietnam plans to participate in the dialogue on the UPR National Report at the UN Human Rights Council on January 22, 2019. “Vietnam supports the UNHRC’s UPR and is always serious in making the review and implementing the recommendations it accepted in the first-cycle UPR in 2009 and the second-cycle UPR in 2014,” Hang said.

The third-cycle UPR deals comprehensively with the guarantee of human rights in Vietnam since the second-cycle UPR, updates laws and policies pertaining to human rights, reports on the outcomes of ensuring human rights across the board, and screens the implementation of the recommendations Vietnam accepted in the second-cycle UPR. The report also defines prioritized commitments of the country in the coming years.

As by October 10, 2018, Vietnam implemented 175 out of the 182 recommendations it accepted in the second-cycle UPR, or 96.2 percent. The remaining seven recommendations are being implemented or are being considered for implementation at an appropriate time.  There were achievements in ensuring civil and political rights, including the right to equality before the law, the freedom of the press and the Internet freedom. People’s religious and spiritual life has been thriving with over 95 percent of the population leading a spiritual or religious life, Hang said.