The EU mandatory human rights due diligence legislations and FTA in Vietnam context – A useful toolbox or a set of decorative items

Abstract: The EU is establishing its leadership in setting global rules and standards for sustainable development over the world through legal instruments with transformational effects on third countries. On the one hand, the EU is the leading region in the development of mHRDD legislations which has been hardened for the last decades and is now evolving to become CSDD, generating extraterritorial effects for human rights enjoyments through global value chains. On the other hand, FTAs are used to implement value-based trade policies to promote democracy, respect for human rights and rule of law. These instruments together creating a legal framework generate external forces for changes in third countries like Vietnam. The human rights governance gaps with respect to business-related human rights adverse impacts exist persistently, making systematic challenges which will hinder the EU legal framework. Through examining the development of the EU legal framework, this thesis points out its potential and shortcomings. Then the risk of a prospect of cosmetic compliance of the EU legal framework is predictable when the instruments facing the systematic governance gaps in Vietnam serve as a set of decorative items for relevant actors to make excuses. However, the bright side needs not to be ignored as the EU legal framework, as a useful toolbox, could make systematic responses to bridge the governance gaps and transform the landscape of business-related human rights abuses in Vietnam. The risk must be seen but the hope must be kept.