Press Release

JOINT OPEN LETTER
The Observatory & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights

  Attn: President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong   January 30, 2013 Re: Arbitrary internment of Le Anh Hung in “Social Support Centre No 2” Ung Hoa, Hanoi, January 24, 2013   Your Excellencies, The Observatory for the Protection of …

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Vietnamese Blogger Le Anh Hung arrested and interned in a mental institution in Hanoi

PARIS, 26 January 2013 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights strongly denounces the virtual kidnapping of Vietnamese blogger Lê Anh Hung and his internment in a mental institution in Hanoi. At 10.15am on Thursday 24 January, six secret security agents came to the company in Hung Yen where …

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URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY (Le Quoc Quan)

VNM 001 / 0113 / OBS 001 Incommunicado detention / Judicial harassment Viet Nam January 4, 2013 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the …

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The Most Venerable Thich Ho Giac has passed away

PARIS, 30.11.2012 (IBIB) – The International Buddhist Information Bureau is sad to announce that the Most Venerable Thich Ho Giac, Deputy Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) died at the Phap Luan Temple in Houston, Texas at 6.19am on Wednesday 5 December 2012 at the end of …

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The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam holds Assembly in Saigon

  PARIS, 4 December 2012 (IBIB) – Leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) gathered at the Giac Hoa Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) from 30 November to 1 December 2012 for a special assembly to report on activities and discuss strategies for the coming year. …

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Australian Ambassador Hugh Borrowman visits Buddhist Patriarch Thich Quang Do

PARIS, 30 November 2012 (IBIB) – H.E. Hugh Borrowman, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam paid a visit on Thursday 29 November to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam’s Supreme Patriarch Thich Quang Do, 84, at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where the UBCV leader and …

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Government Decree 92 tightens controls on religions in Vietnam

PARIS, 29 November 2012 (IBIB) –The International Buddhist Information Bureau is deeply disturbed by a new government decree that increases state control of religions and further undermines religious freedom in Vietnam. Decree 92 (full reference 92/2012/ND-CP) on “Directives and measures for implementing the Ordinance on beliefs and religion”, issued by …

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Vietnam Committee joins civil society in rejecting flawed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration

PARIS, 19 November 2012 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights is one of 55 civil society organizations endorsing a statement to reject the flawed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) adopted on 18 November by 10 ASEAN nations at the 21st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (see full …

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Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Nguyen Tien Trung, Le Cong Dinh

UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention pronounced detention of Vietnamese pro-democracy activists a violation of international law

PARIS, 8 November 2012 (VCHR) – The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention informed the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights by fax today that it considers the detention of four pro-democracy activists, Le Cong Dinh, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Nguyen Tien Trung and Le Thang Long to be a …

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Imprisonment of musicians a new low for freedom of expression

PARIS-BANGKOK, 2 November 2012 (FIDH & VCHR) – The trial and harsh sentencing of two musicians on charges of “anti-State propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code is the latest example of Vietnam’s escalating assault on freedom of expression and its blatant violation of international human rights law, said …

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