Ensuring human rights in the law on sanctioning violations in the field of the water environment in Vietnam

Resumo

This study examines whether Vietnam's law on administrative sanctions for water-environment violations operates as an effective human-rights safeguard rather than solely as a regulatory enforcement mechanism. It combines normative legal analysis of the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection and Decree No. 45/2022/ND-CP with a stakeholder survey of 198 respondents from regulatory agencies, legal and academic institutions, businesses, affected communities, and social organizations. Using a five-point Likert scale, the survey assessed perceived deterrence, proportionality, access to environmental information, remedial effectiveness, procedural fairness, and community participation. The findings suggest that stronger penalties have increased the perceived deterrent effect of the legal framework, but important gaps remain between formal sanctioning and substantive rights protection. Respondents expressed particular concern about access to local monitoring data, restoration of polluted water environments, support for affected communities, and protection for persons reporting violations. The study therefore argues for a more integrated enforcement model in which sanctions are linked to disclosure duties, enforceable remediation, accessible complaint procedures, and institutional accountability. These findings contribute to the literature by connecting environmental rule of law, administrative sanctions, and the practical realization of environmental rights in Vietnam.