United Nations General Assembly A/HRC/16/45/Add.2 Distr.: General 24 January 2011 Original: English Human Rights Council Sixteenth session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Report of the independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall Addendum Mission to Viet Nam (5 - 15 July 2010)* Summary Viet Nam has been widely praised for its achievements in poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, the Government acknowledges that the poverty rate remains high among ethnic minorities. There is evident political will to address the sizeable socio-economic gaps that exist between disadvantaged ethnic minorities and the majority Kinh population. The Government deserves to be commended for its initiatives in this respect. Government programmes have made important progress through infrastructure projects and developments in fields such as education and health care. It is critical that Government plans for economic growth, particularly in areas populated by minority groups, be implemented in full consultation with minorities, without negatively affecting them or deepening their poverty. Minority women isolated in the most remote mountainous areas face particular challenges. Access to quality and appropriate education is a gateway to development and poverty reduction for minorities. Despite impressive progress in the provision of schools, minorities generally have poorer access to and achieve poor results in education when compared to Kinh students. Minorities lack sufficient opportunities to be taught in their own languages from the earliest years of education and struggle with being taught in Vietnamese only. The introduction of bilingual education in the regions where minorities live would help minority children to make better early progress and provide strong and culturally appropriate foundations for their future schooling. * GE.11-10382 The summary of the present report is circulated in all official languages. The report itself, contained in the annex to the summary, is circulated in the language of submission only.