Ethnic minority’s human rights protected

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, of which the Kinh constitute the majority of the population. Most groups often reside in remote and disadvantaged areas with lower socio-economic development.

Many Party and State programs have helped improve the living conditions of ethnic groups in the north-western region

The Party and State have maintained a consistent policy of solidarity, equality, and respect between ethnic groups. Many national target programs have been launched to assist the minority population, such as program 134 on housing and farm land, program 135 on socio-economic development in remote areas and Resolution 30a on poverty reduction in the 62 poorest districts nationwide.

H’Black, a Bana ethnic resident in the Central Highland province of Dac Lak, says Party and State programs for water and electricity supplies, roads, schools, and clinics have given the province a complete facelift. Local residents are learning how to apply technological advances to agricultural production.

Now, 100 percent of the communes in remote, mountainous areas have medical clinics and primary schools. Ethnic minority languages are taught at more than 7,000 schools. The State has built boarding schools, providing free education and meals for thousands of ethnic people.

Electricity and postal services are now available in all districts. Radio coverage reaches more than 90 percent of the country’s inhabited land with daily designated broadcasts in many ethnic minority languages.

In an interview granted to VOV recently, Dang Dung Chi, Deputy Head of the Human Rights Research Institute of the Ho Chi Minh National Politics Academy, said in Vietnam, human rights are protected in all fields including politics, socio-economy and culture.

“The State has constantly improved its apparatus to implement laws on this issue. It has also developed many national target programs to ensure that human rights are protected for every Vietnamese, including the most vulnerable," said Chi.

Guaranteeing ethnic minority people’s rights, especially development rights, is Vietnam’s top priority as shown in the country’s laws, policies, poverty reduction achievements, education, health care, employment, and the preservation of ethnic culture and language.

Many international human rights experts have spoken highly of Vietnam’s achievements on this issue. Ugo Caruso, a European human rights expert, has said he feels optimistic about the Vietnamese government’s implementation of human rights policies.

However, Vietnam needs to take further steps to assure rights for ethnic minority people. According to Le Quang Binh, Head of the Environment and Socio-economic Research Institute, an overall plan should be taken into consideration.

"We should continue distributing land and forests for ethnic minority people to improve their livelihood, while pouring more investment into education and training. In addition, discrimination against ethnic minorities should be eliminated," says Binh.