Lawmakers underlined the need to ensure human rights for those undertemporary detention or arrest at a debate on the draft law on temporarydetention and arrest on February 27, the last working day of the 35 thsession of the National Assembly Standing Committee.

The NA Judicial Committee agreed with the need to have the law toensure that temporary detention or arrest is carried out in line withthe 2013 Constitution and address shortcomings that were revealed overthe past time, including incidents of torture and violation of humanrights, even deaths of those under temporary detention.

Chairman of the NA Council of Ethnic Affairs Ksor Phuoc and Chairmanof the NA Law Committee Phan Trung Ly recommended clarifying thedifference between temporary detention and temporary arrest in order toensure the rights of each specific subject.

Sharingthis viewpoint, Deputy Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court NguyenVan Thuan suggested building separate detention houses for detainedpersons who are homosexual and juvenile.

Accordingto the 2013 Constitution, people who are under temporary detention orarrest are not considered to be guilty and thus certain civil rights ofthem must be ensured, including the rights to life safety, health care,information access and meeting lawyers and relatives, the NA JudicialCommittee said.

The committee requested theinclusion of detailed stipulations on the rights and obligations ofthose under temporary detention and arrest.

ViceChairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong said it is importantto review the whole contents of the draft law and compare them withinternational treaties that Vietnam is signatory to ensure that thelaw is compatible with those treaties.-VNA