Vietnam attends the High-Level Session of the UN Human Rights Council

The High-Level Meeting of the 28th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council opened with the participation of high-level delegations from more than 90 countries and international organizations. The Vietnamese delegation, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong, attended the High-Level Meeting and Session in Geneva, Switzerland.

A United Nations session. Illustrative photo. (Source: THX/TTXVN)

The United Nations Secretary-General, President of the United Nations General Assembly, President of the Human Rights Council and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights delivered opening statements, highlighting challenges to the protection and promotion of human rights around the world, especially armed violence, inequality, discrimination, etc., and highlighting the role of the Human Rights Council and the United Nations in addressing those challenges.

The opening remarks also expressed a common message calling on countries to strengthen cooperation and act on recommendations of the Human Rights Council and other human rights mechanisms of the United Nations.

The High-Level Session (March 2-5, 2015) is the opening activity for the 28th Session (March 2-27, 2015), as well as the official activities of the Human Rights Council in 2015. Along with the High-Level Session, during the opening week, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold High-Level Working Sessions on topics including: promoting human rights issues in the activities of the United Nations, climate change and human rights, and discussing the death penalty.

In the coming weeks, the Human Rights Council is expected to consider nearly 90 reports from UN human rights mechanisms, hold five thematic working sessions on children's rights, people with disabilities, anti-racism, national policy development and technical cooperation. The Human Rights Council will also hold nearly 20 dialogues with UN human rights mechanisms on issues such as freedom of religion or belief, cultural rights, environment, foreign debt, right to food, right to housing... the human rights situation in some countries such as Iran, North Korea, Eritrea, Myanmar and provide technical assistance to some other countries.

It is expected that at the 28th Session, about 40 draft resolutions on various issues related to human rights will be introduced by countries and considered, discussed and approved by the Human Rights Council. Currently, Vietnam is a member of the Human Rights Council for the 2014-2016 term, and has just been re-elected by ASEAN countries as ASEAN Co-Coordinator at this agency.

According to Vietnam+