Vietnam will introduce new rules from January 1, 2027, allowing war veterans with permanent injuries of 81 per cent or more to be considered for official martyr status upon death without requiring proof that their death was caused by a recurrence of their wartime injuries.
The change is set out in Ordinance No. 05/2026, which was approved by the National Assembly and will take effect on January 1, 2027.
Under the new regulations, wounded veterans and people entitled to the same policy benefits with a permanent bodily impairment of 61 per cent to 80 per cent will continue to be eligible for martyr recognition if they die as a result of recurring war-related injuries.
However, veterans with a bodily impairment of 81 per cent or more will be eligible for consideration upon their death regardless of whether a recurrence of their injuries is officially identified as the cause.
The amendment is intended to resolve long-standing difficulties in recognising severely wounded veterans as martyrs under existing regulations.
Current rules require wounded veterans or those receiving equivalent policy benefits with a bodily impairment of 61 per cent or more to prove that the primary cause of death was a recurrence of their wartime injuries. Applications must include medical records documenting treatment for the recurring injury and a hospital mortality review confirming that it was the main cause of death.
While those requirements were designed to ensure a rigorous scientific basis for determining the cause of death, lawmakers said they have often proved impractical in real-life circumstances and inconsistent with Vietnamese customs.
In many cases, families choose to bring gravely ill veterans home from hospital during their final days so they can die at home. As a result, no hospital mortality review is conducted.
The problem has been particularly acute for veterans with bodily impairments of 81 per cent or more who are cared for at specialised rehabilitation and nursing centres. Medical treatment at these facilities often does not produce the hospital records or mortality documentation required under the previous rules, making it difficult for families to compile the necessary paperwork for martyr recognition.
