Ambassador Mai Phan Dung, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation in Geneva (center) and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Van Hoi (right) and members of the Vietnamese delegation attended the session to defend the report of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 6.

The Vietnamese interdisciplinary delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Van Hoi, along with representatives from the Government Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Home Affairs and Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee. Also attending the defense session was Ambassador Mai Phan Dung, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation in Geneva.

In his opening speech, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Van Hoi affirmed that the Party and State of Vietnam pay great attention to the work of people with disabilities. Over the years, Vietnam has issued a system of support policies to create opportunities, encourage and facilitate people with disabilities to exercise their political, economic, cultural and social rights equally and to develop their abilities to stabilize their lives and integrate into the community, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Vietnam is a member.

Realizing the Constitution and international commitments, the Vietnamese National Assembly has promulgated the 2010 Law on Persons with Disabilities and the Labor Code, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, the Law on Health Insurance, the Law on Education, the Law on Vocational Education, the Law on Construction, the Law on Road Traffic, the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order, the Law on Legal Aid, stipulating specific policies to support people with disabilities.

At the same time, the Central Party Secretariat issued a Directive to strengthen the Party's leadership in assisting people with disabilities. The Government has issued and implemented many programs and policies to protect, care for, and assist people with disabilities to integrate into the community. These include the Poverty Reduction Program, the Socio-Economic Development Program for Ethnic Minority Areas, the Program to Support People with Disabilities, the CRPD Implementation Plan, ensuring full and comprehensive implementation of human rights and the rights of people with disabilities in all areas. In particular, special programs and policies ensure the implementation of political, economic, civil, cultural, and social security rights; ensure that children with disabilities can go to school, people with disabilities can learn a trade, have jobs, earn a living, receive preferential loans, support housing, health care, access to information, transportation, etc.

In particular, the Vietnamese Government has established the National Committee for Persons with Disabilities in Vietnam to assist the Prime Minister in directing the resolution of issues related to work for persons with disabilities. Thereby, Vietnam has been recognized by the international community as a bright spot in poverty reduction and achieving sustainable development goals. The multidimensional poverty reduction rate has rapidly decreased from 60% in the 1990s to 13.5% in 2014 and to about 5% by 2023. The social security system has continuously expanded its coverage and improved the quality of policies for persons with disabilities: over 1.6 million people with severe disabilities receive monthly social allowances, 96% of people with disabilities have health insurance cards, and all central, provincial and district general hospitals have rehabilitation departments.

Children with disabilities are supported to study in educational institutions. Children who are unable to study or integrate will be supported in specialized educational institutions. Vietnam has also unified sign language and Braille nationwide. The entire workforce of people with disabilities, nearly 4 million people, are supported to learn a trade, create jobs, earn a living or get loans at preferential interest rates to solve employment problems.

At the multilateral level, Vietnam has always participated responsibly and made active contributions to the Human Rights Council, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the UNESCO Executive Board and other forums related to human rights of the United Nations.

Vietnam also actively contributes to discussions at regional and inter-regional forums, promotes multilateral and bilateral cooperation on people with disabilities, especially has many initiatives in developing and implementing the Regional Action Plan on human rights, promoting and protecting the rights of people with disabilities, women and children, and preventing and combating human trafficking.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Hoi noted that despite achievements in implementing the rights of people with disabilities, Vietnam is still a low-income country, so the work of assisting people with disabilities still has many difficulties in health care, employment, access to construction works, transportation, sports, and culture; people with disabilities still have difficulty competing in the labor market.

Therefore, Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Hoi expressed his hope that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and international organizations and UN member countries will continue to support the Vietnamese Government in the process of implementing the Convention, providing resources and technical support in resolving issues of persons with disabilities; sharing initiatives and good lessons for Vietnam in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, so that no person with disabilities is left behind in the process of economic and social development of the country.