Human trafficking is a crime and a grave violation of human rights. Vietnam has been working closely with the international community to escalate the fight against human trafficking and improve human rights in general.

As part of the ongoing 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Vietnam has collaborated with the Philippines, Indonesia, China, the US, Costa Rica, Australia, Germany, and the World Migration Organization (WMO) to organize an international seminar on educating women and girls about human trafficking. This is one of Vietnam’s initiatives following a review of a decade of implementing the UN resolution on human rights education.

Vietnam’s initiative

Women and girls are the primary victims of human trafficking. Assistant to the Vietnamese Foreign Minister Duong Chi Dung says education is the key to helping women and girls by equipping them with the means to protect themselves and the skills to be financially independent.  

Dung said Vietnam has joined international conventions including the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), the ASEAN Declaration against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children, the Bali Process, and the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT), and has established laws and national programs on preventing and fighting human trafficking.

Dung spotlighted models and initiatives generated by the Vietnam Women’s Union to combat human trafficking, including the House of Peace model, which provides shelter, physical and psychological care, and support to rescued victims to help them resume a normal life as soon as possible.

Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, the WTO, and other international organizations in Geneva, said at a discussion in Geneva marking five years since the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training that Vietnam acknowledges the importance of human rights education. Vietnam has introduced human rights education into curriculums, media channels, and community activities. Earlier, Vietnam proposed a resolution on climate change and children’s rights which was approved at the UNHRC meeting in June.

Vietnam strives to fight human trafficking

Preventing and combating human trafficking has been an important part of Vietnam’s fight against crime in recent years.

Vietnam has established a permanent agency tasked with preventing and combating human trafficking and has intensified its prosecuting and punishing of human trafficking crimes.

Vietnam has also strengthened its cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies and police forces, mainly through Interpol and ASEANAPOL.

Provinces nationwide have responded to the Prime Minister’s action plan to prevent and combat human trafficking in the 2011–2015 period by increasing communications and education on the issue, using mass media to increase public awareness of female trafficking.

Social organizations and local communities have gotten actively involved in helping victims and combining the assistance with other activities, such as fighting social evils, vocational training, poverty reduction, and job creation. 

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