{"id":1942,"date":"2012-11-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/en\/un-working-group-on-arbitrary-detention-pronounced-detention-of-vietnamese-pro-democracy-activists-a-violation-of-international-law\/"},"modified":"2020-03-30T17:54:35","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T17:54:35","slug":"wgad-pronounced-detention-of-vietnamese-pro-democracy-activists-a-violation-of-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wgad-pronounced-detention-of-vietnamese-pro-democracy-activists-a-violation-of-international-law\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention pronounced detention of Vietnamese pro-democracy activists a violation of international law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


PARIS, 8 November 2012 (VCHR) \u2013 The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention<\/strong> informed the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights by fax today that it considers the detention of four pro-democracy activists, Le Cong Dinh<\/strong>, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc<\/strong>, Nguyen Tien Trung<\/strong> and Le Thang Long<\/strong> to be a violation of international law. The UN Working Group calls on Vietnam to release the four men and grant them compensation in accordance with the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam acceded in 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/strong> submitted the case of the four activists to the UN Working Group in Geneva following their arbitrary condemnation in January 2010 at an unfair trial in Ho Chi Minh City to sentences ranging from five to sixteen years in prison followed by 3-5 years house arrest on charges of \u201csubversion\u201d<\/em> (article 79 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code). The defendants, whose \u201ccrime\u201d was to call peacefully for political reforms, all appealed against their sentence, except Nguyen Tien Trung (condemned to 7 years in prison). On 11 May 2010, the Ho Chi Minh City Appeals court upheld the sentences against human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh (5 years in prison) and Tran Huynh Duy Thuc (16 years in prison). The sentence of Le Thang Long was reduced from 5 to 3 \u00bd years in prison, and he was released in June 2012, six months before completing his sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tran
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Nguyen Tien Trung, Le Cong Dinh\n <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In March 2012, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights met with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other \u201cSpecial procedures\u201d at the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, including the Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Freedom of Religion or Belief and Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly to press for the release of a number of human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists detained in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following UN procedures, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention communicated this information to the Vietnamese government on 15 March 2012. In a letter dated 13 July 2012, Vietnam denied the allegations and claimed that the men were imprisoned because they had violated Vietnamese law. Meeting on 29 August to examine the case, the Working Group adopted Opinion 27\/2012 and declared that the detention of the four men was \u201carbitrary and in contravention of articles 9, 19 and 21 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a party\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Opinion 27\/2012, the UN Working Group rejected Vietnam\u2019s claim that their detention was justified, since \u201ceven if the detention is in conformity with national legislation, the Working Group must ensure that it is also consistent with the relevant provisions of international law\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Working Group condemned the broad wording of certain provisions in Vietnam\u2019s Criminal Code, such as \u201ctaking advantage of democratic freedoms and rights to abuse the interests of the State\u201d<\/em> (article 258), which is \u201cso vague that it could result in penalties being imposed not only on persons using violence for political ends, but also on persons who have merely exercised their legitimate right to freedom of opinion or expression\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group found no evidence of the men\u2019s involvement in violent activities to justify their conviction for \u201cactivities aimed at overthrowing the people\u2019s administration\u201d<\/em> (article 79 of the Criminal Code), and stressed that \u201cthe holding and expressing of opinions, including those which are not in line with official Government policy, are protected under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, the UN Working Group called on Vietnam \u201cto release Le Cong Dinh, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Nguyen Tien Trung and Le Thanh Long and to accord them compensation in accordance with article 9, paragraph 5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights welcomes Opinion 27\/2012. The Committee has consistently denounced the vaguely-worded \u201cnational security\u201d provisions in Vietnam\u2019s Criminal Code since 1994, when the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made a visit to Vietnam. The Committee reiterates the UN Working Group\u2019s call for their release, as well as that of all others detained for the peaceful expression of legitimate political opinions or religious beliefs, such as bloggers Dieu Cay<\/strong>, Ta Phong Tan<\/strong>, Phan Thanh Hai<\/strong> and songwriters Viet Khang<\/strong> and Tran Vu Anh Binh<\/strong>, and UBCV leader Thich Quang Do<\/strong> who is under arbitrary detention without any justification or charge (UN Working Group Opinion 18\/2005<\/strong><\/span><\/a>).


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS, 8 November 2012 (VCHR) \u2013 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 violation of international law. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":43850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,98,64],"tags":[289,1260,1124,1125,1126,812,815,1047],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-arbitrary-detention","tag-le-cong-dinh-2","tag-le-thanh-long","tag-nguyen-tien-trung-2","tag-tran-huynh-duy-thuc-2","tag-un-2","tag-vchr-2","tag-wgad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}