This is one of the legal grounds affirming the commitment to protect and implement the rights of people with disabilities in Vietnam.
On 9 October in Hanoi, the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), organised a workshop on the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This is an activity within the framework of cooperation between MOLISA and VNAH, aimed at improving and ensuring the implementation of laws and policies on people with disabilities. From 2007 to the present, VNAH and USAID have actively cooperated with and supported MOLISA and relevant ministries and sectors in building and improving legal research reports, comparative review reports and proposals for ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Delegates at the workshop
At the workshop, delegates focused on discussing important issues such as the content of the Convention and the need to ratify it, the compatibility of the Convention with Vietnam’s legal and policy system, the impact of ratifying the Convention, the responsibilities of the state when ratifying the Convention, and the roles of relevant ministries and sectors and of organisations of people with disabilities in implementing the Convention.
Delegates agreed on the need to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as Vietnam integrates ever more deeply into the international community. Ratifying the Convention helps raise Vietnam’s standing and role as a responsible member of the UN, and affirms the State’s sound policy towards people with disabilities. At the same time, ratifying the Convention is an important legal basis for improving the legal system and ensuring the implementation of policies for people with disabilities in Vietnam.
Ha Dinh Bon, Director of the Department of Legal Affairs, MOLISA, said that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 December 2006. It is one of the important international human rights treaties, addressing the lawful rights and interests of people with disabilities as well as the obligations of member states in protecting and promoting the implementation of these rights. With 50 articles, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities aims to promote, protect and ensure that people with disabilities enjoy fully and equally all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
As of September 2014, 158 countries around the world had signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and 150 countries had ratified it. Within ASEAN, 8 countries have now ratified the Convention, and 2 countries have signed it but not yet ratified it: Vietnam and Brunei.
Vietnam signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 22 November 2007. Ratifying the Convention is one of the important legal grounds affirming the commitment to protect and implement the rights of people with disabilities in Vietnam, expressing the thinking on respecting and protecting the lawful rights and interests of people with disabilities as set out in the Constitution and in many legal documents issued by the National Assembly and the Government./.
Lai Thin/VOV.VN