Constitutional Debate and Development on Human Rights in Vietnam

Abstract This article analyzes the constitutional debate on and development of human rights in Vietnam throughout five constitutions from 1946 to 2013, as well as the prospects and challenges in promoting human rights in Vietnam during and after the development of its 2013 Constitution. It begins with an investigation and discussion of the human rights provisions from the 1946 Constitution to the 1992 Constitution – a period where the socialist human rights tradition was established in Vietnam. It follows with an analysis of the debates on the new human rights and citizens’ rights provisions in the 1992 Constitution, where a new concept of natural human rights emerged. The article continues to explore how the struggle and debates surrounding the competing conception of rights – socialist and positivist on one hand and natural law-based on the other – come into play in shaping the 2013 Constitution. It then proceeds to evaluate the potential challenges involved in the implementation of these rights in the coming years. The authors argue that the development of constitutional human rights in Vietnam is still limited by ideological barriers. It also faces substantial practical challenges owing to, inter alia, the absence of provisions for the immediate implementation of such rights as well as legal mechanisms for the protection of constitutional rights, such as a constitutional review system.