On Sept. 29, the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs and the Tay Ninh Provincial People’s Committee jointly held a conference to review two years of implementing Decision No. 1567/QD-TTg, which aims to strengthen implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and follow up on recommendations from the CERD Committee.

Opening the conference, Deputy Minister of Ethnic and Religious Affairs Y Thong said Vietnam is a unified country of 54 ethnic groups and that the consistent policy of the Party and State is to uphold equality, solidarity, respect and mutual support for development.

According to Y Thong, Vietnam joined CERD in 1982 and has gradually improved its laws, policies and implementation mechanisms to safeguard equality and the legitimate rights and interests of its people, while carrying out a range of socioeconomic development programs.

CERD was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 21, 1965, and entered into force in 1969. It aims to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination and ensure equality for all. Vietnam acceded to the convention in 1982 and submits periodic reports under Article 9.

Following dialogue with and recommendations from the CERD Committee, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1567/QD-TTg on Dec. 12, 2024, approving a plan to strengthen implementation of the convention.

Y Thong said the decision translates Vietnam’s commitments into action and provides a coordination framework for improving policies and laws, raising awareness and safeguarding rights.

Federica Dispenza, Assistant Resident Representative of UNDP in Vietnam, praised Vietnam’s consistent efforts to implement CERD.

She noted the country’s progress in developing national action plans and preparing periodic reports for international treaty bodies.

Looking ahead, Dispenza said Vietnam should continue narrowing socioeconomic development gaps, preserving cultural identities and strengthening the meaningful participation of ethnic minorities in policymaking.

Better data to strengthen protection of rights

Presenting a report at the conference, Tran Thi Minh Thu, head of the General Affairs Division at the Government Committee for Religious Affairs under the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, said the ministry organized 10 professional training conferences for more than 1,000 central- and provincial-level officials in 2025 and 2026.

More than 30 conferences were also held to disseminate legal information to religious dignitaries, officials and followers.

Vietnam currently has more than 3 million religious followers from ethnic minority groups, accounting for 11.41% of the country’s religious population and 21.84% of its ethnic minority population.

Despite the progress, the report identified several limitations, including insufficient conditions for comprehensively compiling statistics on beliefs and religions among ethnic minorities, limited communication materials in ethnic minority languages, and a lack of dedicated funding for CERD implementation, with most resources incorporated into regular budgets.

The ministry plans to study the development of a set of monitoring indicators and strengthen data connectivity and sharing between ethnic affairs and belief and religious affairs.

At the conference, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thu Huyen, a representative of the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Foreign Relations, said police processed residence registration and management procedures for 81,845 ethnic minority people in northwestern provinces and neighboring areas during the first six months of 2026.

The Ministry of Public Security is also studying and drafting amendments to the Penal Code, including a proposal to abolish the death penalty for six offenses and retain it for only four.

The ministry’s representative also highlighted language barriers faced by some foreign and ethnic minority prisoners, detainees and students, which can complicate investigation and management.

Localities adjust approaches to improve policy effectiveness

Reporting on policies supporting ethnic minorities in Tay Ninh, Truong Thi Phuong Thao, director of the provincial Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, said the province is home to 17 ethnic minority groups with 35,589 people, representing around 1.12% of its population.

Between 2024 and 2026, Tay Ninh organized more than 50 training courses on human rights and CERD for more than 3,500 grassroots officials, village elders, respected community members and residents.

In response to the CERD Committee’s recommendation to improve data systems, Tay Ninh is developing a digital platform for ethnic minorities and digitizing household-level information on age, employment, income, education and healthcare.

The data is intended to be “accurate, sufficient, clean and live,” while contributing to the national data system.

The province has also proposed support for equipment and digital infrastructure, more training in collecting and analyzing data through a human rights-based approach, and increased exchanges with provinces sharing a border with Cambodia.

In Dak Lak, Le Ngoc Vinh, deputy director of the provincial Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, said the province has supported more than 6,600 households and groups of households in developing livelihoods.

As a result, the poverty rate in ethnic minority and mountainous areas fell from 27.49% at the end of 2021 to 12.44% at the end of 2025.

For 2026-2030, the province plans to support 481 projects involving 7,278 households and groups of households, develop 20 model communes and seek to reduce ethnic minority poverty by at least 3% annually.

Drawing on its experience, Dak Lak proposed shifting from a “livelihood support” approach toward building a broader “livelihood ecosystem,” with greater emphasis on knowledge, skills and people’s ability to become self-reliant.

The province also proposed evaluating policy effectiveness based on income growth, the ability to achieve sustainable poverty reduction, and whether successful models can be maintained and replicated, rather than relying solely on the pace of funding disbursement.

Participants also discussed improving data systems, strengthening policy implementation capacity, expanding ethnic minorities’ access to rights and reinforcing coordination among government agencies.

The measures are intended to support implementation of Decision No. 1567/QD-TTg and preparation of Vietnam’s national report on its implementation of CERD.

Phuoc Sang