Hanoi, 5 Dec (EFE).-the special UN rapporteur for the right to health, Anand Grover, today urged the Viet Nam Government to close all forced prostitutes and drug addicts rehabilitation centres because they are “ineffective and counter-productive”.
Grover told reporters in Hanoi, at the end of a ten day visit to Viet Nam, these centres refuse to internees the right to have an opinion on the treatment given and the right to refuse to meet him.
“Centers and forced treatments violated the rights of drug users,” said Grover, according to a release from press.
The UN Rapporteur was of the view that the budget allocated to these centres would be better spent in treatments of methadone and training career of drug addicts.
Grover added that the alternatives proposed “are cheaper and more effective in reducing drug addiction and the reinstatement of the drug addict to society”.
Viet Nam has admitted to such centres 150,000 drug addicts and 30,000 prostitutes, according to official data from 2010.
On the other hand, the UN rapporteur congratulated the Vietnamese authorities for his work in the past two decades to reduce poverty and improve the system of health care in the country.
“I have been informed that the Government is studying increase subsidization of basic health services for the poor of 50 to 70 percent, as well as travel and food subsidies”, praised Grover.
The Special Rapporteur of the United Nations for the right to health arrived at Viet Nam on 25 November and ended his visit today.
