The achievement of poverty reduction has created more solid basis for Vietnam to ensure the rights of the people.

With a solid political and legal basis, high political determination and synchronous implementation of solutions, Vietnam has achieved great achievements in poverty reduction, the firm guarantee for better implementation of human rights. It is also the basis for refuting all false and misrepresented statements about ensuring human rights in Vietnam.

Aware of President Ho Chi Minh's point of view that "If a country is independent but its people do not enjoy happiness and freedom, then independence will make no sense", the Party and State of Vietnam always take care of all the people to ensure all of them have jobs, meals, and clothes, can go to school and be physically and mentally cared for. “The people are at the center of the development strategy and also the entity of development. Vietnam always respects and protects human rights, associates human rights with the rights and interests of the nation, the country and the people's mastership”. The Communist Party of Vietnam always "respects the happiness and comprehensive development of human beings, protects and guarantees the legitimate rights and interests of human beings, and respects and implements international human rights treaties that Vietnam has signed."

The participation of the whole political system with the spirit of "for the poor" has spread widely and deeply throughout the whole society, with practical contents and forms. The task of hunger eradication and poverty alleviation in Vietnam has achieved great achievements, with historical significance and world recognition.

It is a fact that if poverty is not solved, no goal set by the international community or nations, such as economic growth, improvement of life, peace, stability and ensuring of human rights, can be realized. The Vietnamese State has considered the Poverty Reduction Program one of the seven national target programs, and has given special priority in terms of human and material resources to this program.

At the United Nations Conference on November 11th 2006, Vietnam announced that it achieved the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) on poverty reduction 10 years ahead of schedule (2015). Accordingly, in the 1993 - 2004 period, the rate of poor people decreased from 58.1% (1993) to 19.4% (2004). In the 2011 - 2015 period, the rate reduced from 14.2% (2010) to 4.25% (2016).

Under the new standards, by 2017 the percentage of poor people decreased to 7% (down 1.3% compared to 2016). The average rate of poor households in poor districts was under 40% and it fell by 3% - 4% compared to 2016 in extremely difficult communes, coastal areas and islands, and in some communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Vietnam has eradicated hunger for tens of millions of people, pushing back and eliminating hunger across the country. Vietnamese people not only have food, clothing, and have access to education, but have good food, enough nutrients, nice clothes. And essential infrastructure to care for people has been getting better.

The achievement of poverty reduction has created more solid basis for Vietnam to ensure the rights of the people. Most notably, in terms of housing and transportation, the country has built thousands of houses and apartments for the poor and eliminated most temporary houses in villages and hamlets. Up to 99% of the mountainous areas have roads connecting to the centers. Regarding health care, over 90% of people have health insurance cards (of which 98% are the poor) and get low-cost health care services. With the system of hospitals, clinics and medical services from the grassroots to the centre, Vietnam has controlled and repelled many dangerous epidemics. The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people increased from 64 years old in the 90s (20th century) to nearly 73 years old in 2015. The number of women dying during pregnancy decreased from 233/100,000 to 62/100,000. The under-five mortality rate decreased from 58% to 23.1%, etc.

The Party and State of Vietnam continue to promote hunger eradication and poverty alleviation in order to fulfill committed goals: building a society with healthy people, a powerful country, a country of justice, democracy and civilization. The State has been implementing a series of programs on economic development and poverty reduction to ensure social security and justice throughout the country, especially in rural, remote and mountainous areas. The focus is developing essential infrastructure and services, boosting production, and raising incomes for poor districts, poor households and the poor in general.

On September 2, 2016, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 1722 / QD-TTg on the approval of the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction in the 2016 – 2020 period, which has further motivated the task of hunger eradication and poverty reduction in the next five years.

The Government of Vietnam has also set the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction (2016-2020), with capital of VND41,449 billion (VND14,584 billion allocated for the 2016-2017 period). In addition, the State has allocated VND44,214 billion to implement the regular poverty reduction policy, supporting the poor in health, education, housing and credit. Local authorities have raised more than VND7,303 billion for this program, of which over VND5,560 billion was spent on social welfare and poverty reduction activities in 2016 and 2017.

With a solid political and legal basis, high political determination and synchronous implementation of solutions, Vietnam has achieved great achievements in poverty reduction, the solid guarantee for promoting human rights. It also confirms the good nature of the socialism that Vietnam is always striving for. That is the basis to reject all false and misrepresented statements about ensuring human rights in Vietnam.

Thu Thuy