title: Adopting Freedom of Information Law and the Quest for the Right of Access to Information in Vietnam
Creators: name: Dang Trung, Ha
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Freedom of information law
subject: Right of access to information
subject: Vietnam
subject: Law on access to information
subject: Public disclosure

description: People have the right to know. More than one hundred countries have adopted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws that provide legal guarantees for protecting the right of access to information (ATI). The passage and further implementation by Vietnam of an FOI law, namely the Law on Access to Information No.104/2016/QH13 (hereinafter referred to as “the LATI 2016”), adopted in April 2016, can possibly enhance the right of ATI in that country. The LATI 2016 was passed with the purpose of providing „for the exercise of the citizens' right of access to information‟1. As such the law is expected to be a turning point for accelerating the enforcement of the right of ATI in Vietnam when it takes effect on July 1, 2018. This study examines whether or not this expectation is justified and if the requisite conditions prevail in Vietnam for implementing a system that gives people access to information. There is a growing evidence of a consensus that access to certain kinds of information needs to be considered either as a human right or in the context of rights that citizens should have to prosper in their country. This study takes a rights-based approach, and argues that it provides a useful theoretical foundation for investigating the potential impact and implication of FOI laws. The sophistication and level of compliance with FOI laws in countries can vary depending on how aligned they are with human rights ambitions. The alternative instrumentalist approach as to why FOI legislation is enacted ties the regime to pragmatic values, revealing a lack of a consolidation of a theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding and implementing FOI law, and might not go far enough in the cause of protecting the right of ATI. This study draws on the wider historical, political and economic factors influencing the adoption of the LATI 2016 by Vietnam, which give context for the scope of public disclosure endorsed by the new law and the likely effect of its implementation. It argues that the legal text on its own is overambitious and should not be presumed to create sudden and major institutional changes aimed at securing the right of ATI. The enactment of the LATI 2016 demonstrates a positive transformation in the willingness and the capacity of both suppliers (the state) and demanders (the people) to improve the mechanisms for exercising ATI as a fundamental right of citizens. However, this progress has also been influenced by not only the country‟s economic context but also by the political regime. For the purpose of promoting the right of ATI in Vietnam, the study highlights the need for bottom-up reform, stemming from civil and social demands, rather than a top-down process as has been undertaken over the period of drafting of the LATI 2016. The human rights-based approach taken to ATI in this work indicates that Vietnam is making progress towards deeply reforming their legal framework but much work needs to be done in terms of creating a robust implementation regime.