Vietnam

August 2016: Open Debate condemned attacks on schools.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools. Article 36 had a conversation with the woman who is here from the Ministry of Education (no business card) who indicated that this issue is considered as a crisis management issue … A36 explained the humanitarian perspective. She said she would do a report after the conference and said the question of endorsement would be considered. Follow up definitely needed to push for consideration of endorsing.

May 2017: GCPEA meeting with Geneva Mission, with their DPR and another junior colleague. The DPR was very interested and recognised the utility of the process and the humanitarian spirit of the Declaration. Education is a priority for them. She will make a positive recommendation to capital but cautioned that the decision-making process could be slow. Her main concern was that they are no longer in conflict so her government might not be convinced of the relevance to them. They are more preoccupied with climate change and disaster resilience, and are working with UNESCO to build resilience of schools and emergency response plans. I pointed out that this would count as meeting some of the Declaration commitments. I also pointed out that several post-conflict societies have joined the community of endorsing states, and that they could play a role at the UN to raise awareness of the issue, as they did at the Open Debate last year, etc. She thinks they have a law that allows use of schools for shelter, distribution centres, etc in case of emergency, but that it has never been used. I said this wasn’t precluded by the Guidelines, and that the Guidelines apply specifically in conflict situations. I also said that, should this arise in a conflict situation, they could be conscious of certain issues such as the soldiers wearing uniforms, carrying weapons, etc. in the vicinity of schools. She asked why so few Asian countries have joined. I said it was partly because we haven’t concentrated our efforts there, partly because it’s not a priority for many Asian countries, and partly because Japan and RoK have not endorsed. I explained a bit about the background to the process, but explained how Canada and France had reversed their positions and that we are continuing the discussions with Japan and RoK. Since they are working closely with UNESCO, suggest to ask the country office to advocate bilaterally.

May 2017: UNESCO’s new Head of Office has just been appointed and now in the final stages of obtaining all required approvals. He expects to be in Hanoi by August. In the meantime, as soon as he has received all necessary clearances, Kerstin will accompany him to meet with the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam to UNESCO to advocate for the SDD.

June 2018: Zama met with First Secretary Huong Lien Nguyen who had heard of the SSD and seemed very interested, but didn’t have any information about why Vietnam has yet to endorse. She mentioned that given Vietnam’s history of war that they understand children suffering during armed conflict and are concerned about the fact that children aren’t only victim, but also that they are direct targets. She had recently attended an ICRC IHL event and plans to attend an event on June 19th hosted by the SRSG and the Mission of Argentina about the effects of war on children, was also briefed by SRSG on CAAC in Asia. Vietnam will make statement at the open debate and will join the Asia statement. She mentioned that the first step will be speaking at the open debate and then will see how/what other countries report at the debate and then will decide with capitol on the next steps regarding SSD.

September 2018: Ahead of the UN WPS open debate, GCPEA a letter addressed to Foreign Minister sent to the Mission in New York. The letter encourages the government to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and advocate for continued access to quality, conflict-sensitive education for women and girls.

July 2019: GCPEA Executive Director met with the First Secretary who was positive about the possibility of endorsement. He suggested that Viet Nam could announce endorsement at the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to be held on September 25, 2019, in New York. Viet Nam was the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

September 2019: GCPEA issued a letter addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, encouraging endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration at the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, held on September 25, 2019, in New York. In his speech at the commemoration event, the Ambassador referred to his country’s support for the Safe Schools Declaration. (please note that endorsement was confirmed in October).

February 2020: At the UN launched the practical guidance for mediators to protect children in situations of armed conflict, the importance of ensuring children’s access to education during wartime was emphasized by Ambassador Dang (Viet Nam).

June 2021: Apolline met with Deputy Permanent Representative, Ms. Tra Nguyen. She knew about the SSD in details and argued it was a top priority for her government. We spoke about Viet Nam’s leadership role during its tenure as a UNSC non-permanent member. She suggested they wanted to take advantage of the time left to continue to accomplish more on this agenda. She argued that she did not foresee any issues with GCPEA’s CAAC recommendations and suspected they would be able to include the majority into the national statement. She was very interested in the idea of Viet Nam playing a leading role in the region through peer-to-peer advocacy and was keen on the idea of a regional briefing. She said she would provide us with contact details for the PM in Geneva as well as the ASEAN committee as these meetings were better at the Geneva level. I followed up to request the contact details and shared the Nigeria conference save the date.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.