Protection of Human Dignity and Honor under the 2015 Vietnamese Criminal Code: Provisions and Policy Recommendations

Abstract

Protecting human rights is one of the essential requirements in the development of laws in general and criminal law in particular in Viet Nam. To optimally ensure human rights, including the right to respect for dignity and honor, and to reflect progressive values, criminal law includes specific provisions addressing crimes that infringe upon these interests. This article employed the secondary data analysis method to approach and process previous studies on protecting dignity and honor through criminal law. Based on this, the authors analyzed the provisions in the section on crimes in the 2015 Criminal Code (amended and supplemented in 2024) regarding offenses against dignity and honor, affirming that Vietnam’s criminal law has relatively clear regulations aimed at protecting human dignity and honor, while indicating that Viet Nam regards these as protected legal interests that need to be safeguarded by criminal law. However, the current legal provisions still have certain shortcomings regarding these crimes which serve as the basis for the authors to propose solutions to improve relevant legal regulations.