"All good things are three". The Norwegian saying has never been more true than it was at Vietnam National University (VNU) on 9 December. The VNU School of Law had invited the Norwegian Embassy and other partners to celebrate the following:
1) The start-up of the first Master's degree in Human Rights in Vietnam, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo.
2) The setting up of both a physical and an electronic resource base for human rights: the Human Rights Resource Center and the Human Rights Database Portal, supported by Danish, Swiss and Norwegian partners.
3) The United Nation's Human Rights Day 2011 (on 10 December 2011).
Academics from Vietnam, Denmark and Switzerland spoke about Human Rights and the link to academia, a connection also the Norwegian Deputy Head of Mission, Ms. Ragnhild Dybdahl, picked up on in her speech.
Deputy Head of Mission Ms. Ragnhild Dybdahl delivered a speech during the ceremony. Photo: Balder Vestad- Thank you for inviting us to such an inspiring atmosphere. What you are doing here at VNU - providing education in human rights - is key to spreading knowledge about and thus protecting human rights, Ms. Dybdahl said.
She also emphasized the positive aspects of the joint involvement from Denmark, Switzerland and Norway as international development partners engaged on human rights issues in Vietnam.
- Academic partnerships within the field of human rights are important. Academia carries important values in itself, with its core values of autonomy and disagreement and discussion as the basis for the exchange of ideas, she continued, before encouraging the academic partners to embark on a cooperation “less polite” than other types of cooperation, with an emphasis on debate and discussion.
Several students also provided input on the topics, ranging from their impression of the master program so far to what human rights means in practice. Some called for further engagement on human rights in Vietnam from Norway and other international cooperation partners.
Norway is proud to be part of the newly established master program on human rights in Vietnam, and the Embassy looks forward to more opportunities to meet with the students and the professors involved in this innovative academic approach in the future.
For more information about the Master Program, see here.
For more information about the UN’s International Human Rights Day, see here.
Photo: Balder Vestad