Vietnam highly values Russia and Cuba’s efforts to ensure human rights and contributions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.

Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh, Head of the Vietnamese diplomatic mission to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and other international organisations, made the statement at the 16 th session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group in Geneva from April 22 to May 3.

Vietnam acknowledges the Russian Government’s efforts in human rights protection and highly values concrete measures that have been implemented in Russia to ensure human rights such as building constitution, reforming laws and promoting regional and international cooperation in this field, Thanh said.

Vietnam also acknowledges that fundamental freedoms of Russian people have been upheld, he said, adding that Vietnam encourages Russia to continue its consistent policy of consolidating the law-governed federal state, improving social welfare, and providing more care and support for the vulnerable groups.

At the May 1 working session, Thanh praised the sense of responsibility and positive contributions made by Cuba to the UPR process.

After hearing a national report highlighting Cuba ’s all-round achievements as well as the country’s improvement in implementing fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms in the face of economic and trade embargo, Thanh expressed his hope that the nation will continue its national construction and development.

He suggested Cuba pay more attention to protecting children, enhancing women’s role, promoting gender equality and maintaining policies to ensure the rights to religious and belief freedom.

During the two-week session, Thanh also applauded efforts made by Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tuvalu, Germany, and Canada in ensuring and promoting human rights.

The Ambassador offered suggestions to each state in order to realise the common goal of better ensuring human rights on the basis of the UPR mechanism.-VNA