{"id":41070,"date":"2019-03-11T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=41070"},"modified":"2025-07-02T08:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:56:11","slug":"vchr-denounces-gross-violations-of-civil-and-political-rights-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/vchr-denounces-gross-violations-of-civil-and-political-rights-in-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"VCHR denounces gross Violations of Civil and Political Rights in Vietnam before top UN Human Rights body"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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GENEVA, 11 March 2019 (VCHR): As the UN Human Rights Committee meets at its 125th<\/sup> Session in Geneva to examine the periodic report of Vietnam on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), one of the UN\u2019s most important human rights instruments, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) presented a \u201cShadow Report\u201d<\/a> documenting Vietnam\u2019s systematic violations of fundamental freedoms and lack of compliance with its engagements to respect the civil and political liberties defined in the ICCPR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although\nVietnam acceeded to the ICCPR in 1982 and has a binding obligation to submit\nregular reports to the UN Human Rights Committee, this is only the third time\nit has reported to the UN  in 37 years.\nThe first time was in 1989 and the second in 2002. The current report, which\ncovers the period 2002-2017, is 14 years overdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy delaying its\nreports over decades, Vietnam is not only failing to comply with UN reporting\nobligations, but also seriously undermining opportunities to strengthen\nprotection of its citizens\u2019 civil and political rights,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> said VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. \u201cMuch\nof the information in the report is obsolete. Moreover, it denies glaring evidence\nof the government\u2019s brutal assault on civil society, escalation of arbitrary\narrests and long prison sentences for all those who simply advocate the rights\nenshrined in the ICCPR\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testifying before the 18-member UN Committee of experts this morning, V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i presented VCHR\u2019s report<\/a> and made a number of key recommendations for reform. The Vietnamese government\u2019s report was presented by Vice-Minister of Justice Nguy\u1ec5n Kh\u00e1nh Ng\u1ecdc and a delegation of 24 officials from Vietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil and\npolitical rights are massively and systematically violated in Vietnam. V\u00f5 V\u0103n\n\u00c1i expressed particular concern on the use of broadly-defined \u201cnational\nsecurity\u201d provisions in the Criminal Code to implement political repression. \u201cThese\nvague, catch-all provisions are in fact a legal veneer to suppress human rights<\/em>\u201d,<\/strong>\nhe told the Committee. \u201cThey make no distinction between violent\nacts and the legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression, and\ntransform peaceful human rights advocates into criminals\u201d.<\/em><\/strong>Virtually all domestic legislation, such\nas the 2015 Criminal Code, the Law on Religion and Belief, the Press Law,\nCybersecurity Law, Law on Access to Information etc. contain clauses\nrestricting human rights on the grounds of \u201c<\/em> undermining\nnational security\u201d or \u201c<\/em>threatening\nthe interests of the state,\u201d in gross violation of the ICCPR.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

National\nsecurity provisions are routinely invoked to arrest, prosecute and imprison human\nrights defenders, bloggers, religious followers, civil society activists and\nall those who criticize the government or the Communist Party. In an\nunprecedently fierce crack-down on freedom of expression between January 2017\nand February 2019, 117 civil society\nactivists, including 23 women,<\/strong> were condemned to prison terms, several\nranging from 13 to<\/strong> 20 years. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most disturbingly, convictions of pro-democracy activists and government critics under Article 109 <\/strong>of the 2015 Criminal Codeon \u201cactions aimed at overthrowing the people\u2019s government\u201d <\/em>(which carries the death penalty) have \u201cliterally exploded\u201d, <\/em>said V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i.<\/em> In 2018, 15 persons were sentenced under Article 109 and five others are awaiting trial,<\/strong> compared to six convictions in 2017 and two in 2016. In April 2018, six members of the \u201cBrotherhood for Democracy\u201d were sentenced to nine to 15 years in prison under Article 109 on charges of seeking to \u201cbuild a regime of pluralism, multiparty and the separation of powers\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the government\u2019s\nview, advocating pluralism is synonymous with subversion, for it threatens the\nauthority of the one-Party State\u201d,<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>said V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. “In Vietnam, the survival of\nthe Communist Party takes precedence over human rights.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfair\ntrials, systematic denial of legal defense, degrading detention conditions and\nill-treatment of prisoners are routine in Vietnam, in violation of Article 14\nof the ICCPR. The 2015 Criminal Procedures Code permits virtually unlimited\npre-trial detention, prolonged incommunicado\n<\/em>incarceration and secret trials for suspected \u201cnational security\u201d\noffenders. Article 19 of the Criminal Code obliges lawyers to denounce their\nown clients if they are suspected of breaching national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatings,\nphysical assaults, threats and intimidation, often by plain-clothed security\nofficers or government-hired gangs and thugs, are widespread. Activists also\nface restrictions such as travel bans, confiscation of passports, denial or\ndelays in passport applications, police surveillance, house arrest and the\ndenial of citizenship rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right\nto freedom of religion or belief is gravely violated. Under the Law on Belief\nand Religion, registration is mandatory, and no legal status is provided for\ngroups not recognized by the state. Members of\nnon-registered religious groups and communities such as the Unified Buddhist\nChurch of Vietnam (UBCV), Khmer Krom Buddhists, Protestant house churches, Hoa\nHao, and Cao Dai have suffered increasing repression since the law came into effect in January 2018. UBCV\nleader Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 remains under effective house arrest, deprived of access\nto communications. In August 2018, the Ministry of Defence called for increased\nPolice surveillance of religious groups such as Falun Gong, and ordered \u201cForce\n47\u201d, its brigade of cyber warriors, to post articles on the Internet denouncing\ntheir activities and warning people not to join them.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VCHR\u2019s\nreport also documented a whole range of abuses including restrictions on freedom\nof the press and Internet, notably the restrictive new Cybersecurity Law;\nviolations of the right to freedom of association and assembly; escalation in\nthe use of the death penalty; use of anti-demonstration regulations to quell\nprotests on special economic zones in June 2018, in which at least 118\nprotesters were convicted; and abuses of the rights of ethnic and religious\nminorities..  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith no independent\nmedia, no free trade unions, no independent civil society, victims of human\nrights abuses have no mechanisms to express their\ngrievances or protect their rights. 37 years after Vietnam\u2019s accession to the\nICCPR, <\/em><\/strong>its citizens are still deprived of their fundamental civil and political\nrights”, <\/em><\/strong>said\nV\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact :<\/em><\/strong> Penelope\nFaulkner : + 33 6 11 89 86 81<\/strong> or Vo\nTran Nhat : + 33 6 62 17 42 29<\/strong><\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA, 11 March 2019 (VCHR): As the UN Human Rights Committee meets at its 125th Session in Geneva to examine the periodic report of Vietnam on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), one of the UN\u2019s most important human rights instruments, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) presented …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":41094,"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":[312,792,222],"class_list":["post-41070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-death-penalty","tag-human-rights-committee","tag-iccpr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41070","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=41070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}