Vietnam Challenging social prejudice In Vietnam, ethnic minorities face widespread discrimination. Minority groups make up 15 per cent of Vietnam’s population. Many minorities – the Tay, Khmer, Mong and other smaller groups – live in remote mountainous areas. Despite positive initiatives, the government has struggled to deliver health and education programmes in these areas; and the gap between ethnic minorities and the majority Kinh population continues to grow. ‘The government is aware of the fact that minorities need to further benefit from state development programmes and has thus increased its efforts over the last decade,’ said Vu Phuong Thao, a researcher at the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) working to promote minority rights based in Hanoi. ‘But the government’s efforts must be made more effective.’ Language barriers and cultural prejudices make many minorities hesitant to access health services. Ethnic minority children still struggle in schools where the primary language of education is Vietnamese. Social prejudice is a major challenge for minorities in Vietnam; mainstream society often treats them negatively. iSEE hopes to root out these prejudices by targeting the media. ‘We consider mainstream media a very effective and secure channel to do advocacy’, Thao noted. ‘We have been working closely with journalists who are interested in minorities’ issues, providing them with information and evidence from our research, equipping them with needed knowledge and techniques via training courses, connecting them with minority communities. By doing so, we reduce prejudices against minorities, which we consider the biggest obstacles to equal development of minorities in Vietnam.’ including the key recommendations and the Declaration. iSEE’s campaign has already resulted in some positive outcomes. The media – including newspapers read by policymakers in the National Assembly – has started to expose negative stereotypes and cover issues of cultural identity and language loss. But Thao is realistic about the immediate impact: ‘Although concrete actions have not been realized, with the Declaration as a supporting document, the voice of minority communities has reached top policy-makers.’ In early 2012, iSEE began a campaign to advocate for the participation and inclusion of minority groups in development planning. Translating and distributing the Declaration on Minorities and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples played a crucial role in their campaign. iSEE ran workshops to train journalists on rights-based approaches to development and combating prejudice in the media. Translations of the Declaration were given to workshop participants, distributed to academics and students, to rural communities in minority languages and posted on iSEE’s website. In 2010, the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues made an official visit to Vietnam and acknowledged that ingrained prejudices have resulted in top-down approaches that have not allowed the adequate participation of minorities. State officials and policy-makers were largely unaware of the recommendations made by the UN expert. But iSEE created and distributed policy briefs Left: An Adivasi man and his son in Kankasarpa village, Odisha state, India. Stuart Freedman/Panos. Above: A Muong woman, Sa Pa, Vietnam. Jeremy Horner/Panos. 13