Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Geneva (VNA) – Vietnam strongly opposes a press release on20 March by several UN human rights experts, said Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, head of Vietnam's Permanent Mission to the UN, theWTO and other international organisations in Geneva.
Talking to the press on March 28, Dung stressed "The Press Releaseshows these human rights experts' unprofessional manner, their lack of goodwill and impartiality, and their failure to comply with the Code of Conduct andthe Manual of Operations of the Special Procedures Mandate Holders as it relieson non-credible information, raised unfounded concerns and makes pre-emptivejudgment on the exchange between authorities and relevant individuals on aparticular issue".
He affirmed dialogues between Governments and concerned individuals and organisationsas well as those between Governments and human rights mechanisms arefundamental in the promotion and protection of human rights, saying that theVietnamese Government regrets the lack of constructive attitude of theseexperts.
Ambassador Dung reiterated thatthe Vietnamese Government always does its utmost to promote and protect humanrights and has consistently demonstrated its good will and willingness indialogue and cooperation with UN human rights mechanisms.
Previously, two non-governmentalorganisations, the Research Centre for Gender, Family, andEnvironment in Development (CGFED) in Hanoi and Sweden-based IPEN,released a document in November 2017 stating that female labourers working in Samsungfactories in Vietnam suffered adverse health impacts associated withinappropriate working conditions.
Samsung refuted the document'scontent, which was based on interviews with 45 out of more than 100,000 Samsungworkers, while raising concerns about its objectivity and unscientificmethodology.
After the release of thedocument, the management board of industrial parks in Vietnam’s Bac Ninhprovince in November 2017 invited representatives of Bac Ninh-based SamsungElectronics Vietnam and CGFED, IPEN twice to a meeting to exchange informationconcerning this document. The two NGOs refused to attend the meeting.
Last year, the Vietnamese Ministryof Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, in coordination with the VietnamGeneral Confederation of Labour and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce andIndustry, conducted on-site inspections of 216 enterprises in electronicssector, including Samsung factories in Bac Ninh (September 2017) and those in ThaiNguyen (July 2017). The inspection results have been reported on the massmedia.
A report on the result of workingenvironment monitoring published in October 2017 by the Hanoi-based ServiceCentre of Science and Technology for Health and Environment indicates that indicatorsof working condition at Samsung factories in Bac Ninh are within thepermissible limits, and recommends measures to improve working conditions andtransparency.
Samsung is one of the world'slargest manufacturers of mobile phones and tablets with many fiercecompetitors, with the most notable being Apple.-VNA
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