\u201cThe Vietnamese government’s ongoing attack on civil\nand political rights undermines its capacity to be a sustainable economic\npartner of the EU. It is in the EU’s interests to press Hanoi to end the\ncrackdown on civil society and enact urgent legal and institutional reforms,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> said FIDH Secretary-General Debbie Stothard.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 2018, brutal physical attacks and other\nacts of harassment and intimidation against human rights defenders, activists,\nbloggers, and members of religious groups continued across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least 150 political prisoners remain\nbehind bars across Vietnam. Since the previous EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue\nin December 2017, the ongoing crackdown on government critics, bloggers,\nactivists, and human rights defenders has intensified. Between December 2017\nand February 2019, at least 40 individuals, including eight women, were\narbitrarily arrested for the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression\nor freedom of peaceful assembly. In addition, 60 individuals, including 14\nwomen, were sentenced to prison terms – with eight receiving particularly harsh\nsentences, ranging from 13 to 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly all of the government critics,\nbloggers, activists, and human rights defenders who were arbitrarily detained\nor imprisoned were charged under frequently-used repressive provisions of\nVietnam\u2019s Criminal Code that are inconsistent with international standards\nrelated to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including under the\nInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Vietnam\nis a state party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other recently passed laws have restricted\nfreedoms. The Cybersecurity Law, which was adopted in June 2018 and came into\nforce in January 2019, dealt a severe blow to internet freedom. The Law on\nBelief and Religion, which came into force in January 2018, marks a hardening\nof Vietnam\u2019s policies on freedom of religion or belief. Immediately after the\nlaw came into force, and throughout 2018 and in 2019, every major religious\ncommunity, including Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Buddhists,\nCatholics, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao Buddhists, Protestants, Muslims,\nand Falun Gong practitioners, reported being targeted by the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe adoption and use of new repressive laws and the\nunprecedented concentration of power assumed by the leader of the Communist\nParty of Vietnam signal that the crackdown on peaceful dissent may intensify.\nIt\u2019s time for the EU to demand\nthe Vietnamese government stop its assault in civil society, release all\npolitical prisoners, and enact reforms,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> said\nVCHR President Vo Van Ai.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe right to freedom of peaceful assembly also\nremained severely restricted. Repressive anti-demonstration regulations were\nwidely invoked in 2018 to quell massive protests against a controversial draft\nlaw on Special Economic Zones and the draft Cybersecurity Law. In June 2018, hundreds\nof protesters were arrested nationwide and at least 118 protesters were subsequently\nsentenced to prison terms in connection with the demonstrations on charges of\ndisrupting public order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With regard to the death penalty, the\nnumber of death sentences increased dramatically in 2018, with 122 more cases\ncompared to the previous year. The government also reported that at least 85\nexecutions had been carried out in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Press contacts:
<\/strong>FIDH: Mr. Andrea Giorgetta (English) – Tel: +66886117722 (Bangkok)
FIDH: Ms. Eva Canan (French, English) – Tel: +33648059157 (Paris)
VCHR: Ms. Penelope Faulkner (Vietnamese, English, French) – Tel: +33611898681 (Paris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS, 4 March 2019 (FIDH & VCHR) – The European Union (EU) must urge the Vietnamese government to end its ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent, repeal its repressive laws, and immediately release all political prisoners, FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said today. The two organizations made the call on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":41060,"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":[137,113,98,64],"tags":[312,539,788,343,789],"class_list":["post-41055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-death-penalty","tag-dialogue","tag-eu-2","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-human-rights-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41055","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\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}