International Conference: “Human rights research and education in Vietnam – Opportunities and Challenges”

Mrs. Charlotte Laursen – Ambassador of Denmark in Vietnam and Mr. David Devine – Ambassador of Canada in Vietnam have attended in the conference. There are also the participation of international representatives and scholars of Denmark Institute of Human Rights, Norway Center of Human rights, Oslo University (Norway), University of Luceme (Switzerland), University of Mahidol (Thailand) as well as many representatives of some international organization and embassies in Hanoi.

Vietnam’s side has the participation of Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh – Vice President of VASS, Associate Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc – Vice President of VASS, Associate Prof, Dr, Ho Trong Ngu – Deputy Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Defense and Security, Major General – Associate Prof. Dr. Dinh Trong Ngoc - Political commissar, Vietnam Academy of Border Defence Force, and many other scholars and representatives of units, universities who are joining in the Project and working on the human rights research and education network in Hanoi and other provinces. 

At the opening sessions, Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh – Vice President of VASS as well as Project Director has stressed on the significant achievements of Vietnam after 30 years of renewals. Among of these achievements, those big achievements, which are related to human rights, are even recognized in the Constitution (amended in 2013) as well as current legal document of Vietnam. Human rights are always received the special attention of Communist Party and Vietnamese Government and Vietnam has become a member of human rights committee of United Nation. Human rights research and education in Vietnam have received many remarkable achievements, for example, human rights major is now educated in universities and there is even post – graduate education for this subject…

In the opening speech, Mrs. Charlotte Laursen – Denmark Ambassador in Vietnam shared her thoughts on the conference. For her, the conference is a forum for scientists to discuss about the results on human rights research and education in Vietnam. The conference will provide the suggestions for Vietnam to make policies and build law system in order to improve the human rights education and protection, as well as information for social organizations on human and others. As a result, it will improve the academic ability of students, especially law students in universities. The project has positive impacts on the human rights research and education in Vietnam with great results but still need to improve more in the future.  

Dr. Thomas Gammeltoft Hansen – Director of DIHR strengthened that those who joined in the Project’s research and education are important accretion to the training of high quality human resources on human rights research and education in Vietnam. In the past 8 years, DIHR has worked with VASS, Hochiminh University of Law and the Law of faculty of Hanoi National University. They actually obtained some remarkable achievements but the human rights still require further research and studies. It is not the end yet but just a start.

The conference focused on the four following contents:

1^st session: The human rights research and education in Vietnam: 4 working papers presented, including (1) Human rights research and education in presented by Associate Prof. Dr. Bui Nguyen Khanh – Institute of Social Sciences, VASS; (2) Human rights research and education in universities which have specialized faculty of law in Vietnam (Associate Prof. Dr. Vu Cong Giao – Law of faculty - VNU); (3) Human rights education in other universities in Vietnam (Dr.  Phan Hong Duong – Institute of Education Management); (4) Prospect Management – The practice of 4 years implementing the human rights education in an university (Mr. Gisle Kvanvig,  Norway Center of Human rights)

3^rd session: International experiences in human rights research and education. 5 working papers presented by international scholars, including: (1) Human rights research and education in Denmark: Experiences for Vietnam (Dr. Thomas Gammeloft Hansen, Denmark Human rights Academy); (2) Human rights education in Norway: Some experiences for Vietnam (Dr. Bard Andreassen, Norway Center of human Rights, University of Oslo); (3) Human rights research and education in Switzerland: Some experiences and recommendations for Vietnam (Dr. Martina Caroni, University of Lucerne, Switzerland); (4) Human rights research: Exploring new foundation and improving the ability for a better education and human rights protection (Dr. Stephanie Lagoute, Denmark Institute of Human Rights); (5) The reality of human rights education in South East Asia  (Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, University of Mahidol, Thailand)

4^th session: Human rights research and education in Vietnam: Opportunities and Challenges: 2 working papers presented, including: (1) Human rights research and education in new period (Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dang Dung – Law of Faculty – VNU); (2) Collaboration Opportunities in the field of human rights research and education in universities (Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoa – Hochimih University of Law)

Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh has made a conclusion for 2 days of conference. There are 14 working papers presented. The conference has received total 38 discussions and exchanges in which there are 3 major contents talked about as followed: (1) Human rights research and education have had a significant improvement in all fields, for example: the breakthrough in policy advisory, many published research works have created a network of research and education across the country; (2) Through the conference, Vietnamese and international researchers have shared about experiences of countries, regions on human rights research and education; (3) In the aspect of challenges and opportunities, human rights is a long term issues which is closely linked with the social growth and this could not be able to solved in a short time. It depends on each certain growth period of humanity. Human rights issue is a sensitive issue which is related to politics, culture, society, philosophy and gender so on. We, however, cannot avoid it but we should put the human rights in a specific circumstance so that we could figure out solutions. In the future, we should improve the ability to do human rights research and education in Vietnam.

Prof. Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh expects that Vietnam will receive further support and collaboration of international organizations, nations and foreign scientists so that Vietnam could build more programs on human rights research and education in Vietnam  in a diversified and crossed – industry pathway.  Also, they will do research on new issues and improve the ability of researchers at not only university and post graduate but also at all levels of education.  The final purpose is to suggest Vietnamese government to build up national policies and strategies on human rights education in Vietnam.

The conference has become a forum for scholars and researchers to exchange and summarize experiences and research results on human rights education in Vietnam in the period of 2012 to 2015. Also, the conference is also useful to clarify opportunities and challenges in next periods. 

Having speech at the end of conference, Mr. Christian Brix Muller, Deputy Head of Department at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark expressed his appreciation to VASS, VNU and Hochiminh University of Law as well Denmark Institute of Human rights because of their efforts to make the conference successful. The conference pointed out big issues related to human rights in Vietnam. Denmark Embassy would make more effort to find our more support to keep collaborating with Vietnam in the future./.

Nguyen Thu Ha