Hoang Thi Thanh Nga, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry’s International Organisations Department, said Vietnam was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2014-2016 term with the highest vote among candidates (184 out of 192). The country takes its role seriously and has actively contributed to the HRC’s work though its speeches at hundreds of meetings and participation in designing and negotiating the Council’s resolutions and decisions, thereby helping to ensure the common values of human rights. 

It has seriously implemented universal periodic reviews and engaged in straightforward dialogues with other countries. Vietnam, together with Bangladesh and the Philippines, co-sponsored a resolution on climate change impacts on the rights of the child. 

Vietnam has worked to promote dialogues and cooperation among countries, and to improve the effectiveness, transparency and equality in the Council’s activities, while raising its voice to refute wrong information about human rights in the country, she said. 

Regarding the protection of children’s rights, an official of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) noted that Vietnam has more than 26 million children, of whom over 1.5 million are less privileged children while over 2 million others may fall into disadvantaged backgrounds. 

To support those children, Vietnam has overhauled legal regulations on child protection and set up 31 provincial social work centres nationwide, along with 158 district-level advisory offices and thousands of community- and school-based consultation centres. 

Nguyen Thi Nga, Deputy Director of the MoLISA’s Child Care and Protection Department, her ministry has carried out a programme to develop the social support system which aims to assist 90 percent of the children from special backgrounds. The programme also looks to curb the increase in children abuse and support all abuse-prone children. 

To this goal, many schools nationwide have taught soft skills to their students while State agencies and social organisations have facilitated underprivileged children’s access to social help, health care and education, she added. 

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Hoang Vinh Bao said agencies should be proactive in providing information to the media in order to enhance the media’s role in reflecting the true situation of human rights in the country.

VNA