International human rights issues

Europe’s medicines regulator said on Thursday it had started a rolling review of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, an important display of confidence in the shot that paves the way for its potential approval across the 27-nation bloc. Hungary became the first EU country to grant the Russian vaccine emergency national approval in January, Slovakia has ordered shipments, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has said his country could move to use Sputnik V. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement it would review data from ongoing trials of the vaccine until there was enough evidence for a formal marketing authorisation application. EMA’s ‘rolling reviews’ are aimed at speeding up the approval process by allowing researchers to submit findings in real-time before final trial data is ready. “While EMA cannot predict the overall timelines, it should take less time than normal to evaluate an eventual application because of the work done during the rolling review,” it said. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF sovereign wealth fund that is promoting Sputnik V internationally, hailed the start of EMA’s rolling review as an important moment for Russia which he said showed its application had been a strong one. “Sputnik V can act as a bridge between Russia and Europe, but its roll out should not get bogged down in politics,” Dmitriev told Reuters, praising Germany, France, Italy and Austria for what he called their pragmatic approach to Sputnik V. The shot’s efficacy was initially greeted with scepticism by some Western scientists after Russia approved it in August last year without waiting for the results of full clinical trials. However, scientists said it was almost 92% effective in fighting COVID-19, based on peer-reviewed late-stage trial results published in The Lancet medical journal last month. The two-shot vaccine uses two different weakened common cold viruses to deliver immune-building protein to the human body. Dmitriev said …

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According to the Government Inspectorate, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has yet to pay due attention to the legitimate rights and interests of people employed abroad and come up with suitable measures to help reduce worker costs. "For a long period of time, the ministry has not been able to manage or control official and brokerage fees of businesses running the service, which had caused workers (who in fact are all poor) to pay a large amount of money even when the policy of receiving markets (Japan and Taiwan) does not require them to pay." The conclusion of the inspectorate was announced at a Thursday meeting by its deputy head Tran Ngoc Liem. Government inspectors had looked into what had been achieved and what had been done wrong in sending workers abroad under contracts from six provinces in northern and central regions, including Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Nghe An and Ha Tinh, in the 2013-2018 period. They pointed out fee regulations applied to Vietnamese workers in Japan are not in line with Japanese policies or the agreement signed between the two countries, which had affected laborers. Due to the loose management of the ministry’s Overseas Labor Management Department, workers had been made to pay a "very high fee of $7,000-8,000 per month," the inspectorate stated. In many cases, the high fee had forced many Vietnamese to remain abroad after their contracts and visas had expired to recover their costs, it noted. As for the six provinces, the inspectors said authorities there had also failed to fulfill their duties, while companies providing "study abroad" consultancies in fact feeded the foreign labor market. Inspectors also discovered laborers that had voluntarily, or through a broker, gone abroad to "travel, visit relatives or get married", then stayed behind to work illegally. In most cases, destinations include Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Angola and Eastern European countries. In 2019, as …

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Deputy PM Minh briefed his counterpart on Vietnam's current situation and the outstanding results achieved by the 13th National Party Congress, and the response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and efforts to ensure further socio-economic development and continued social security. The nation supports the efforts of the constitutional government of Venezuela to promote a political dialogue on the basis of respect for the Venezuelan Constitution and the aspirations of its citizens. Indeed, this can help to deal with difficulties in terms of greater socio-economic development in the current complicated context, he added. In response, Minister Arreaza told the Deputy PM that Venezuela always attaches great importance to and wishes to further strengthen the comprehensive partnership between the two countries. He also offered congratulations on the success of the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), and expressed his great appreciation for Vietnam's efforts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with maintaining economic growth. The two diplomats also agreed to maintain mechanisms aimed at bolstering co-operation between both sides, especially the Vietnam-Venezuela Intergovernmental Joint Committee and the political consultation between the two foreign ministries. This will be done whilst intensifying exchanges between each countries’ ministries and sectors along with enhancing various business connections. The pair also consented to promote trade and investment co-operation in areas of shared concern, such as agriculture, oil and gas, health, trade, culture, and sports and tourism, in addition to stepping up friendly associations' activities and people-to-people exchanges. They were also in agreement on increasing exchanges with regard to international and regional issues that are of mutual concern and regular co-operation at multilateral forums to which both nations are members. …

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