Farida Shaheed - One of the key issues for Viet Nam today is the space available for debate and the expression of a plurality of voices. One striking example of this, which is of concern to me, relates to history teaching, as only one history textbook is in use in schools. As stated in my thematic report on the writing and teaching of history submitted this year the General Assembly (A/68/296), history teaching should promote critical thought, analytic learning and debate, enabling a comparative and multi-perspective approach rather than moulding children into a unidimensional perspective. This entails in particular the use of a wide array of teaching materials, including textbooks from a range of publishers. I encourage relevant actors in Viet Nam to look at my report...
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Hanoi, 29 November 2013.
Members of the press, ladies and
gentlemen,
I am very pleased to share with you my
preliminary observations at the end of my 12-day official visit as
the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.
Let me begin by warmly thanking the
Government of Viet Nam for inviting me and for their extensive work
in facilitating a comprehensive and interesting programme of work.
I wish to stress how important this
invitation is. Ensuring the enjoyment of cultural rights by all is a
complex issue and not an easy task to accomplish. This was
demonstrated by various topics I have addressed during my visit: the
right to enjoy the arts and to freedom of artistic expression and
creativity, the right of people to manifest their cultural identity
and to access and enjoy their own cultural heritage as well as that
of others, history teaching in schools, and the impact of tourism on
the enjoyment of cultural rights.
During my stay in Viet Nam, I visited
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An and Sa Pa, as well as a few villages
in the Da Nang, Quang Nam and Lao Cai Provinces. I had the
opportunity to hold meetings with numerous Government officials at
the national and local levels, responsible in the areas of culture
and tourism, education, information and communication, ethnic
minorities, as well as various officials of People’s committees,
the Central Commission for Propaganda and Education of the Party’s
Central Committee, representatives of the National Assembly and
Unions. I also met with artists, academics, directors and staff
working in research institutes or cultural institutions,
representatives of civil society, members of ethnic communities,
people involved in the tourism industry and UN agencies. I would like
to thank them all for their time, warm hospitality, and, above all,
the wealth of information they shared with me.
I wish to clarify that I am an
independent expert who reports to the UN General Assembly and the UN
Human Rights Council, to which Viet Nam was elected this month.
Although appointed by the Human Rights Council, I am not employed by
the United Nations and the position I hold is honorary.
My independent status is crucial and
enables me to fulfil my functions impartially.
Today, I will confine myself to a few
preliminary remarks and considerations. I will develop my assessment
in a written report, in which I will also formulate recommendations.
I will present this report at the 25th session of the Human Rights
Council in March 2014 in Geneva.
Ladies and gentlemen,
At present, Viet Nam finds itself at an
important juncture. Enormous progress has been achieved in the area
of economic development, the reduction of poverty including in remote
and rural areas, and the efforts towards the fulfilment of the
Millennium Development Goals have been impressive. I can testify that
in the rural villages I visited, roads had been or were being built,
schools established, and housing facilitated or repaired.
I believe that such programmes would
have been even more efficient had the participation of local
communities and the use of their knowledge, including their
traditional knowledge, been ensured. Rigidity in programming and
implementation and top-down approaches negatively impact
effectiveness. For example, in villages regularly flooded by water,
traditional houses are more appropriate than those promoted under
governmental schemes. I appreciate that traditional architecture has
been promoted in building communal houses in the Central Highlands.
However, I encourage the Government, when extending support for
housing, to offer people real choices regarding the architecture,
whether traditional or modern, they want for their own individual
houses. More generally, I encourage the Government to ensure greater
flexibility in policies and meaningful consultations with concerned
communities when developing programmes. A practice needs to be
developed whereby people have the space to contribute to the design
of programmes that significantly impact their way of life.
I believe that the Government, as well
as multiple actors in the Vietnamese society, have taken note of
possible detrimental impacts of development programmes on the
people’s cultural rights, in particular the rights of ethnic
minorities. The Government should significantly increase its efforts
to map and to mitigate such negative effects so that the country can
fully benefit from the strength of the varied cultures of its peoples
to promote sustainable development.
This is particularly relevant with
respect to tourism. By using culture as a resource for development,
Viet Nam attracts a steadily rising number of international visitors
as well as internal tourists. Multiple programmes have been developed
to help people of ethnic communities to sell their crafts and access
the markets, as well as to showcase their traditional cultures
through various festivals and performances. This has allowed
communities to participate in the economic development of their
region, and has also enabled the Government to promote a more
multi-cultural image of the country.
Many challenges remain, however. As you
know, I visited Sa Pa and its surrounding villages. And there, I
could note that, although tourism has provided a supplementary source
of livelihood to local people, unfortunately they are not the primary
beneficiaries of the revenue generated. Measures are needed to ensure
that the people whose cultural heritage is being used to promote
tourism are empowered to manage these activities to their best
advantage.
In addition, I am particularly,
concerned by situations where people are asked to perform rather than
live their own cultures, either to retain artificially specific
aspects of their culture to satisfy the tourists’ demands, or,
conversely, to modify certain aspects of their culture to satisfy
those demands such as modifications of food or accommodation
patterns, or the foreshortening of customs or having tickets for
participation. I am talking for example of the Khmer’s traditional
sport of Bay Nui bull race, in some provinces of Southern Vietnam.
Another example relates to the Cong
drum, which is played by many communities in the central highlands
and is included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.
The Cong is considered as a sacred and precious musical instrument,
to be used only on very specific occasions. However, today it is also
being played on demand for tourists in some places, thus clearly
losing its original cultural significance. I strongly believe that in
all such cases, the concerned communities must be consulted on
whether, how, when and where to perform and share aspects of their
cultural heritage.
Of course, it is not possible, or
desirable, to prevent the evolution of cultural practices that
inevitably occurs when groups interact with each other. This can also
be quite positive. However, it is the responsibility of the
Government to ensure that tourism does not lead to the mere
folklorization of its peoples’ cultures, meaning reducing people to
certain manifestations of their culture and not acknowledging their
humanity.
It is therefore particularly important
to enable communities to freely develop their cultures, including
outside of touristic areas. The Government should not only support
cultural performances and crafts for tourists, but also develop
programmes in cooperation with the concerned communities including
for continuing cultural practices should this be their wish.
I am also concerned by cases of local
or minority communities whose ways of life and culture have been
completely disrupted by development programmes. For instance, I was
informed that the people of the Con Dau Parish near Da Nang
underwent, and are still undergoing, forced evictions from the land
they had traditionally tilled to make way for the development of a
mega private housing scheme. I hope the Government will intervene in
a timely manner to resolve this particular case. More generally, I
encourage the Government to ensure that the collective ownership of
land is recognized for communities wishing to retain and develop
their traditional ways of life, most often based on agriculture,
forest husbandry or fishing.
Another issue I have discussed at
length with governmental officials relates to the definition of what
constitutes bad practices or customs as well as “superstition”.
My understanding is that such terms need to be clarified as practices
contradicting human rights or undermining human dignity. I also
encourage the authorities to identify such practices through
discussions with the concerned communities.
I would like to welcome positive
initiatives put in place by the Government. These include the work of
the Institute of Linguistic to document and preserve ethnic languages
and develop scripts, as well as the pilot research project conducted
with UNICEF to promote bilingual education for the Hmong, J’rai and
Khmer, three of the largest minority groups, at the pre-school and
primary school levels. As research demonstrates, students benefiting
from such programmes have done very well. I strongly encourage the
Government to support the bilingual education project and extend this
to other groups, regions and grades. At the same time, some of my
interlocutors expressed concern regarding the script that is being
used for some groups. Here, again, a positive way forward to address
such concerns is to include in the decision-making process
researchers and academics belonging to these communities.
Ladies and gentlemen,
One of the key issues for Viet Nam
today is the space available for debate and the expression of a
plurality of voices. One striking example of this, which is of
concern to me, relates to history teaching, as only one history
textbook is in use in schools. As stated in my thematic report on the
writing and teaching of history submitted this year the General
Assembly (A/68/296), history teaching should promote critical
thought, analytic learning and debate, enabling a comparative and
multi-perspective approach rather than moulding children into a
unidimensional perspective. This entails in particular the use of a
wide array of teaching materials, including textbooks from a range of
publishers. I encourage relevant actors in Viet Nam to look at my
report.
I am encouraged that the Government and
civil society are currently trying to re-define the contours of the
space available for a diversity of voices to be articulated. I
strongly encourage the Government to widen that space, in accordance
with its own constitution and international standards. The political
and governmental structure in Viet Nam, together with various Unions,
which act mainly as vehicles for transmitting the government’s
decisions, currently leaves little space for civil society to express
itself, in particular when it comes to academics, artists and others
who may be critical of the Government’s policies.
It is time for Viet Nam to ensure
greater freedom of artistic expression as well as academic freedoms,
and to allow a multi voice narrative to find its place. The absence
of private publishing houses greatly reduces the scope for
independent voices to be heard. The constitution provides for
fundamental rights but it is often very difficult to enjoy these due
to multiple regulations and the lack of clearly defined
specifications of what is acceptable or not acceptable. It is
unfortunate that judicial processes have not helped to clarify the
parameters of specific laws.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Artists may entertain people, but they
also contribute to social debates, sometimes bringing
counter-discourses. While I am happy to note that a number of
interlocutors stated they had noticed an increased space for
self-expression, I am deeply concerned that a number of artists have
been under surveillance, harassed, or detained. In my discussions
with the authorities for example, I have raised the case of some
artists who have been convicted under article 88 of the Criminal Code
for “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Viet
Nam”. I would like to emphasize that artistic expressions are an
integral part of cultural life and are at the heart of vibrant
cultures and the functioning of democratic societies. Therefore, I
sincerely hope that the Government will review its policy to ensure
greater freedom of artistic expression and creativity, in accordance
with international standards.
I am extremely grateful to the
Government of Viet Nam for inviting me to visit, enabling me to
deepen my understanding of these very sensitive but important issues.
The Government’s invitation confirms how seriously it is taking
issues relating to the enjoyment of cultural rights. I know how
difficult this is, in particular when the challenge is for the
Government to ensure that the “unity” it promotes is based on the
diverse opinions, expressions and cultures of the people.
Farida Shaheed
Farida Shaheed
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