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Vietnam announced on Dec. 12 it was standing as a candidate for re-election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for 2026-2028. It had a seat on the U.N. body in its 2014-2016 and 2023-2025 terms.
Vietnam’s desire to remain on the Human Rights Council, or HRC, comes in spite of criticism from international groups such as Human Rights Watch, which describes its record on rights as “dire in virtually all areas.”
“Basic rights are severely restricted, including freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion. Rights activists and bloggers face police intimidation, harassment, restricted movement, arbitrary arrest, and detention,” the group says on its Vietnam country page.
Western governments have also criticized Vietnam, with the U.S. State Department noting “arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and punishment by government agents,” among a long list of criticisms.
Why does Vietnam want to remain on the UNHRC?
Nguyen Dinh Thang, director of Vietnam human rights group BPSOS, told Radio Free Asia that Vietnam’s bid was aimed at proving to its people that it had a good reputation on the international stage.
“Secondly, they have a permanent platform at the UNHRC to push back against criticism and condemnation from the governments, U.N. human rights institutions, as well as human rights defenders,” he said.
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Activist Nguyen Tien Trung said human rights have historically been a barrier to closer ties with the U.S. and other democratic countries. He told RFA a third term on the UNHRC would improve Vietnam’s chances of building closer economic and trade ties with the West.
What are Vietnam’s responsibilities?
As a member of the HRC Vietnam must listen and respond to reports of human rights violations by the U.N.’s special rapporteurs. According to BPSOS’s Thang, activists also have a better case for pushing the international community to increase pressure on Hanoi to live up to the commitments it made on becoming an HRC member.
As a UNHRC member, Vietnam must adhere to all responsibilities outlined in the UN’s Resolution 60/251. It mandates that members uphold the highest standards in promoting and protecting human rights, both domestically and internationally. During both their candidacy and tenure, members are required to make and fulfill commitments to improve the human rights situation in their countries.
In addition, members must cooperate with the UNHRC, including in facilitating special procedures, responding to investigation requests and providing necessary information. They must also participate in a Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, for evaluation and commit to fully implementing its recommendations.
How has Vietnam performed as a member of the UNHRC?
In September, speaking at the UNHRC session to adopt the Universal Periodic Review Outcomes, Human Rights Watch said Vietnam’s commitments were empty promises.
“We are gravely disappointed that among the 49 recommendations not accepted by Vietnam, many of them are directly related to human rights defenders, including several calling for the release of human rights defenders imprisoned for exercising their fundamental rights,” the group said.
“As of September 2024, Vietnam had at least 171 political prisoners and at least 21 political detainees pending trial—all of whom were prosecuted for the peaceful exercise of their civil and political rights.”
Since it became a UNHRC member for the second term in 2023, Vietnam has consistently been listed among countries with the poorest performance in international human rights rankings. Freedom House ranked it “not free,” scoring only 22/100 in its internet freedom index over the past five years.
The CIVICUS alliance rates Vietnam’s civic space “closed” with its unwavering crackdown on social activists.
Vietnam also remains on the U.S. State Department’s Special Watch List which covers countries where the government engages in or tolerates “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
Why was Vietnam re-elected?
Despite its poor human rights record, Vietnam was re-elected to the UNHRC with the backing of 145 out of 189 U.N. members, beginning its second three-year term on Jan. 1, 2023.
It is not the only country on the body with serious rights violations. China and Cuba are both members until 2026. Russia was a member but was suspended in April 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine and later withdrew from the council.
Experts told RFA the HRC’s election mechanism is the reason for Vietnam’s two successful elections since self-nominating states do not have to list their human rights achievements.
The election mechanism is based on geographical allocation. The UNHCR’s 47 seats are distributed among five regions: Africa, 13 seats; Latin America and the Caribbean, eight seats; Western Europe, seven seats; Eastern Europe, six seats, and Asia-Pacific with 13 seats.
Geographical allocation aims to prevent membership concentration in regions and countries and ensure equal opportunities for all countries. However, it is often criticized as a loophole allowing countries with poor human rights records to secure a UNHRC seat.
BPSOS’s Thang pointed out that when a region has few candidates, the chances of self-nominated countries winning are almost guaranteed.
During the UNHRC election for 14 seats in November 2022, the Asia-Pacific had four vacancies but only six candidates. With Vietnam the sole candidate from Southeast Asia, there was little competition.
Secondly, the closed voting mechanism enables authoritarian countries to support one another despite pressure from human rights organizations or the international community.
“The majority of Asian countries are authoritarian and the authoritarian regimes often vote for each other,” explained Nguyen Tien Trung.
“This explains why, despite a poor, if not the worst, human rights record in almost all categories, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always won in the race to the Human Rights Council.”
Vietnam is making full use of the election mechanism during its candidacy for the 2026-28 tenure.
“Vietnam will not need to do much to be re-elected as a member of the UNHRC,” said Thang. “They only need to negotiate with other countries and call on them to vote for Vietnam.”
Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Mike Firn.