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EXPLAINED: What might change when Vietnam amends its constitution?

The constitution will be revised in May for the first time in 12 years.

By RFA Vietnamese
2025.03.12

Updated on March 13, 2025 at 12:45 p.m. ET

When Vietnam's National Assembly meets in May, parliamentarians will be asked to study, review and amend the Communist country's 2013 constitution at the request of the politically powerful Politburo.

Officials have not specified which articles of the constitution are under consideration, but experts expect changes to reflect and codify Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) General Secretary To Lam's plans to dissolve local governments and reorganize the council that handles ethnic minorities.

Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 there have been several amendments of the constitution. It was changed in 1980 and again in 1992. It was amended and supplemented in 2001 and most recently amended in 2013.

Deliberations on any proposed changes could reveal differences between the ruling CPV, which is usually intent on consolidating its powers, and reformers seeking a more open society.

What will be amended?

According to Carl Thayer, an Australian expert on Vietnamese politics, Lam's planned abolition of district-level government and the reorganization of the nationalities council suggest that Article 110 and Articles 75-77 will be amended.

Article 110 states that provinces are divided into counties, and centrally governed cities are divided into urban and rural counties. These references will be deleted, he said.

Articles 75-77 set out the structure, organization and tasks of the nationalities council. The council was reorganized in February and it is likely that the wording of these articles will be revised.

What is Article 4 and will amendments to it be debated?

Article 4, which enshrines the Communist Party as "the vanguard of the working class [and] the Vietnamese people," tops the list of amendment targets of human rights activists and reformers.

Although Article 4 does not prohibit people from forming other political parties, according to Human Rights Watch, the provision effectively restricts the right to participate in freely held multi-party elections.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who went into exile in Germany in 2018 after receiving 15 years in prison for activities defending human rights and promoting democratic ideals, said Article 4 needs changing or removing to achieve Lam's state goal of removing bottlenecks to modernization.

Lam's government overhaul is set to "only strengthen the party's role in Vietnam's political system," says Thayer, who believes an Article 4 amendment is unlikely to come up in May and notes it has not been mentioned by officials.

Which laws do reformists and critics want changed?

Lawyer Dai says the constitution needs radical amendments with the phrase "according to the provisions of law" removed, because this allows the party to crack down on any attempts to introduce a democratic political system.

He said there should also be a constitutional court which could annul laws and documents that are issued unconstitutionally or contain unconstitutional provisions.

Germany-based democracy activist Nguyen Tien Trung says Article 4 is in conflict Article 2, which states that "the people are the masters of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," and other articles that set out how power is distributed.

Trung said Vietnam's 2018 Cybersecurity Law, condemned during its passage as a tool to suppress expression, violates the right to freedom of speech enshrined in Article 25 of the constitution.

"The Communist Party needs to hold a referendum and let the people approve the new constitution as they have always claimed that 'the people are the masters,'" he said.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Paul Eckert.

Updated to add background and to cut length.

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