Annually since 1997 to date, the U.S Department of State publishes their Human Rights Report containing absurdities. Notably, their recent report claims that Vietnam “does not respect the integrity of the person". This is so ridiculous when the U.S itself is still deeply immersed in the problems of gun violence, racism, police brutality, etc. This absurdity should be exposed and countered.

In recent years, some developed capitalist countries, including the U.S government, have thoroughly taken advantage of human rights as a tool to interfere in domestic affairs of other nations, especially those that are ideologically opposed, or not within their sphere of influence, in order to force these countries to follow their "world order". Along with spreading the doctrines and values of democracy, bourgeois human rights, upholding the supremacy of freedom, personal interests, "human rights above sovereignty" or above the law and public interest, they also intensify distortion about the human rights situation of other countries. They endow themselves the right to stand above international law to make reports and assess the human rights of other sovereign nations. Therefore, it is not surprising that for a long time, hostile forces have always considered "democracy" and "human rights" as a spearhead against Vietnamese revolution, and issue reports on Vietnam human rights situation on a regular basis. It can be said that the contents included in these reports are totally absurd, notably the right to life or "respect for the integrity of the person".

We all know that human rights are, first and foremost, the right to life of every person, which is protected by international law and by every country and nation as a necessity. In Vietnam, along with the country's miraculous development in many fields, the legal system on human rights is being perfected. The whole political system, socio-political organisations, social organisations, and the media are constantly striving for the people to fully enjoy human rights and fundamental rights of citizens. After becoming a member of the United Nations in 1977, Vietnam has acceded to most of the international conventions on human rights. Vietnam's law on human rights has also seen continuous developments. With 36 articles out of a total of 120 articles regulating human rights, basic rights and obligations of citizens, Vietnam’s 2013 Constitution has affirmed the consistency of the content of human rights and citizens' rights as stipulated in the 1946, 1959, 1980, and 1992 Constitutions, and deeply and comprehensively institutionalised the Party's awareness and views on human rights, fundamental rights and obligations of citizens, in line with the reality of Vietnam and international human rights standards to which Vietnam has acceded.

In order to affirm the legality of the rights recognised, respected and protected by the Constitution, Vietnam's system of legal documents on human rights is being increasingly synchronised and perfected. The implementation of the Constitution and laws on human rights are of particular concern to our Party and State. The Government, ministries, branches and local authorities at all levels regularly guide and inspect the enforcement of law; promptly prevent and handle violations of human rights and citizens' rights. In recent years, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the complicated situation of natural disasters, with the goal of "people's health and life first and foremost", the Government has always combined economic development promotion with social security assurance; persisted on the "dual goals" to bring happiness and well-being to the people. According to the assessment of the United Nations, Vietnam's happiness index is constantly improving and becomes among the fastest ones among developing countries.

Given that fact, the right to life or "respect the integrity of the person" is, of course, protected and fully enforced by Vietnam law, and applied strictly and equally to all Vietnamese citizens and expatriates in Vietnam. In particular, to ensure people's safety, Vietnam law prohibits individual ownership of guns (including military guns, shotguns, sports guns), except for authorised persons that are specified in Clause 1, Article 55 of the Law on Management and Use of Weapons, Explosives and Supporting Tools (2017). These mainly include those who are tasked with protecting and maintaining social order and safety, preventing and fighting crime, etc., accompanied by strict conditions, such as: health, moral qualities, training and licence. All illegal acts of infringing upon human dignity, torture, assault, and deprivation of human life shall be subject to strict punnishment.

However, the U.S Department of State’s human rights reports on Vietnam still make unbiased comments, based on unverified, one-sided information about "respecting the integrity of the persons" in Vietnam. They deliberately pick up odd and rare facts that have not been verified and then try to exaggerate and distort the problem. Their ultimate goal is to smear Vietnam's human rights situation as much as possible. To make the matter worse, individuals and groups operating under the guise of "democracy", "human rights" at home and abroad all try to condemn Vietnam for violating "democracy", "human rights"; thereby, accusing, slandering, and lowering the reputation of Vietnamese law enforcement agencies. More seriously, they blame that this is because our Party exercises dictatorship and totalitarianism.

What absurd is that, while deliberately condemning others for unverified facts, "human rights" issues, rulings on "guaranteeing the integrity of the persons", the U.S government deliberately ignores the hard-to-heal "holes" on this issue right in the heart of the United States. The issue of gun violence, racism, police brutality, etc. still casts a dark shadow that haunts American people, and causes deep divisions within the United States. In the U.S, in 2020, more than 45,000 people died from gun violence, an increase of 35% from the previous year. According to statistics from the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the number of targeted shootings in the country in 2021 increased by more than 50% compared to 2020. In 2022, gun violence recurs with a series of horrific shootings in New York, Texas and many other states. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, as of June 2022, gun violence has killed more than 19,300 people and during the holiday period from July 1 to 4, 2022, more than 500 shootings happened in almost all states of the United States. In fact, in the U.S, medicine, clean water for people, infant formula can be very scarce at times, but guns are always abundant, openly sold and can be bought by any one if they need. This creates an easy access for those who want to use guns to resolve conflicts, or simply kill people just to express their personal view of freedom. Recently, facing the severe consequences caused by gun violence, there was a time when the U.S government wanted to exert strict control on gun use, but they are still deeply divided by group interests. The number of guns sold is still increasing corresponding to the instability of American society.  According to Forbes, nearly 20 million guns were sold in the U.S in 2021, which means that 6 out of 100 Americans bought a gun; the percentage of U.S adults using guns has increased to 46%. With a population of more than 330 million people, more than 393 million individual guns have been registered in the U.S, which means that each person owns more than 1 gun. This is, perhaps, the leading reason why the U.S is the most affected country by gun violence in the world.

What’s more, based only on unverified facts, the U.S human rights reports still condemn Vietnamese law enforcement forces for harming the health and dignity of the people. However, U.S police brutality against black people is an indisputable fact in this country. According to statistics of the U.S press, more than 1,000 people were killed by police in the U.S in 2021. Despite calling for "democracy" and "human rights", the U.S and the West are constantly conducting war and armed intervention in many countries. The "colour revolutions" and "humanitarian interventions" conducted by the U.S and the West in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. have wreaked insurmountable havoc and suffering to the people of these countries, but brought about huge profits for weapon producers. More than anyone else, Vietnamese people understand the true colour behind America's veil of "human rights". During the war of aggression in Vietnam, to protect its "democracy" minions in the South, the U.S poured more than 45.5 kg of bombs and bullets on each Vietnamese person, and conducted hundreds of thousands of raids, terrors and killings. More cruelly, they sprayed more than 80 million litres of toxic chemicals containing dioxin throughout Vietnam, causing death to nearly 05 million Vietnamese people, disabilities and sequelae for next generations. More than 40,000 Vietnamese people were killed and 60,000 others were injured due to post-war unexploded devices. Thus, even without calling by name, everyone knows that those who loudly criticise other countries for not "guaranteeing the integrity of the person" are the most serious violators of this, both in history and at present. That fact proves the absurdity of the so-called "respect for human integrity" in the U.S Department of State’s human rights reports.

Human rights, in essence, is the guarantee of the rights to life, freedom, and equality for everyone in a certain social regime. How well these values are enforced in practice speaks volumes about the nature of a social regime. Implementing the good and progressive nature of the socialist democracy - a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people, Vietnam has always put people at the centre of all development policies in order to bring free, prosperous and happy life to its people. That is the consistent view of the Communist Party and State of Vietnam.

DUC THINH and PHAN NGOC PHUC*

* - Political Department, Military Region 5