The Rights of Victims in Viet Nam

Abstract

This article examines the rights of victims of crime in the Vietnamese criminal justice system. It aims to evaluate how crime victims are treated by looking at both legal regulations on crime victims’ rights protection and victims’ personal experiences of rights. This article will answer two questions: (i) what rights do crime victims have under Vietnamese Law; and (ii) how do they exercise their rights in practice? Data related to victims’ rights experiences is collected from 312 court judgments, three court observations, three victim interviews and three other interviews from 2008 to 2013. The research found that the Vietnamese criminal justice system provides weak legal protection of crime victims’ rights and victims’ rights that have tended to be neglected in criminal proceedings. The author proposes some suggestions to better amend the system of criminal procedure law and promote victims’ rights in practice.