DEMARCHES ON COUNTRY-SPECIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTIONS

UNCLAS HANOI 002842 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM UNHCR UN VM SUBJECT: DEMARCHES ON COUNTRY-SPECIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTIONS DELIVERED REF: A) State 182267 B) State 184178 (SBU) On November 9, Poloff met with MFA International Organizations Department Assistant to the Director Pham Vinh Quang and Desk Officer Nguyen Thi Thu Trang to discuss reftel points on country-specific human rights resolutions. Poloff also delivered a letter from the Ambassador to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem urging the GVN to support the country-specific resolutions listed in Ref A. Quang replied that they are familiar with the country-specific resolutions, both from the experience of previous years and from approaches made by the Canadians and the Iranians. The GVN position is that individual states have the competence and should be the primary source to address internal human rights issues. The international community should support respect for human rights through active engagement and cooperative dialogue. The GVN does not want to see countries bring "bilateral issues" to the Third Committee in the form of resolutions in a "tit for tat" manner. According to Quang, country-specific resolutions are not a good way to address human rights issues and, therefore, the GVN opposes them in general. MARINE