Quê Me Quê Me: Action for democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
In a joint submission made to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (CCPR) today, FIDH and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) regret that the Vietnamese government failed to take any steps towards the implementation of key recommendations made by the CCPR, after the review of the situation of civil and political rights in Vietnam on 11-12 March 2019.
In its Concluding Observations, adopted on 25 March 2019, the CCPR asked the Vietnamese government to provide information on the implementation of recommendations concerning: 1) the death penalty; 2) freedom of expression; and 3) human rights defenders.
The CCPR gave the Vietnamese government a 29 March 2021 deadline to provide such information, as part of the committee’s follow-up procedure. The Vietnamese government’s submission, received by the CCPR on 29 March 2021, contains a profusion of plans, roadmaps, studies, workshops, and reports that seem to be aimed solely at vindicating the government’s adherence to a restrictive national legislative framework that is totally incompatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In reality, the government’s submission has failed to provide any evidence of significant action taken towards the implementation of the recommendation made by the CCPR.
The FIDH-VCHR joint follow-up submission details the government’s failure to take any steps towards the implementation of the recommendations made by the CCPR on all three key priority issues. In addition, FIDH and VCHR submit that, since March 2019, the government has taken measures that are, in fact, contrary to the recommendations made by the CCPR. As a result, FIDH and VCHR recommend the CCPR give the lowest grade (E) in its assessment of the government’s implementation of the three priority recommendations.
