The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) recently welcomed Dr. Nguyen as a guest researcher, and we were happy to engage in interesting discussions and host a seminar on her research project. Dr. Nguyen is the Deputy Director at the Institute of State and Law, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.
Her research on “An analysis of Perspective for a National Human Rights Institution in Vietnam” is highly relevant at this time, as Vietnam recently was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for 2023-2025 at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in October 2022.
NHRI in a Vietnamese context
In academic meetings at the NCHR, Dr. Nguyen introduced several recent issues - concerning which model would be appropriate for Vietnam, what function the NHRI should have, and what the challenges to building an NHRI are in the current context of Vietnam. She also offered some thoughts on what an NHRI model could look like, and some ways in which one could build such an institution in the close future.
During Dr. Nguyen's research visit to the Centre, she accessed a wide range of resources at the at the library of the Faculty of Law, focusing on human rights in general and NHRIs in particular. She had a meeting with Petter Wille, Special Advisor of Norway's National Human Rights Institution, as well as a discussion with Gustav Haver, the head of department at the Norwegian Parliamentary Ombud.
The three-week period has enlarged her knowledge on subject of National Human Right Institutions (NHRI) and the Ombud of Norway. She believes that her Institute will also benefit from this visit, as the knowledge she obtained will be shared with her colleagues and students.