Human Rights Council adopts resolution drafted by Vietnam

The resolution was approved by consensus and duly co-sponsored by 98 states as of the end of the afternoon of April 3 (Geneva time), including the 14 co-authors Vietnam, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Fiji, India, Panama, Romania, South Africa, and Spain.

This marks a highlight for the nation in its first HRC session as an HRC member in the 2023 to 2025 tenure.
At a high-level meeting opening the HRC’s 52nd regular session in Geneva on February 27, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang put forth an initiative relating to the commemoration of the UDHR’s 75th anniversary and the VDPA’s 30th anniversary. This included a resolution of the council to reaffirm and augment efforts and actions to achieve major and inclusive targets and values of the two declarations, as well as the international community’s common commitments relating to human rights for all.

The resolution focuses on the importance of the UDHR and the VDPA while repeating their fundamental principles on human rights. It also serves to reflect countries’ broad attention to the commemoration of the two declarations and to the improvement of the stature, role, and efficiency of the HRC and UN human rights mechanisms as a whole. It stresses the leading role played by countries in ensuring human rights, the recognition of women’s participation, the role of international co-operation and solidarity, as well as the respect for diversity and inclusiveness as part of efforts promoting and protecting human rights and in taking part in HRC activities.
         
The resolution also asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to carry out activities aimed at marking the UDHR and VDPA’s anniversaries, including a UN high-level event on human rights in December and a report on the celebrations to be submitted to the HRC’s 56th session in early 2024.

The UDHR, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948, is not an international legal document, but instead serves as the foundation for building the international human rights law, documents on human rights of regional mechanisms, and laws of countries. It represents one of the most important documents of the 20th century, with the date December 10 later being designated as the Human Rights Day.

Meanwhile, the VDPA was adopted by UN member states at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, reaffirming the UDHR’s values and clarifying that the protection and promotion of human rights must be the top priority of each country and the international community moving forward.