{"id":41222,"date":"2019-03-29T11:19:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T11:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=41222"},"modified":"2019-03-29T11:34:54","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T11:34:54","slug":"un-ccpr125-highlights-gross-violations-of-iccpr-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/un-ccpr125-highlights-gross-violations-of-iccpr-in-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Human Rights Committee highlights gross violations of civil and political rights in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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PARIS, 29 March 2019 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) welcomes the \u201cConcluding Observations\u201d<\/a> published today by the UN Human Rights Committee on Vietnam\u2019s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The report reveals grave and systematic violations of civil and political rights in Vietnam. VCHR urges Vietnam to take urgent steps to implement the Committee\u2019s recommendations, cease political repression and uphold its citizens\u2019 fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe UN Committee gives\na stark but utterly realistic assessment of the policies and practices used by Vietnam\nto suppress civil and political rights and reinforce the Communist Party\u2019s\nabsolute control\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\nsaid VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. \u201cThe international community should take heed\nof the UN experts\u2019 conclusions and impress upon Vietnam that \u201cbusiness as\nusual\u201d cannot continue unless the Vietnamese government commits to substantive legislative\nand political reforms\u201d<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cConcluding Observations\u201d are the outcome of the UN Human Rights Committee\u2019s review of Vietnam\u2019s third periodic report on implementation of the ICCPR which it examined at its 125th<\/sup> session on 11-12 March 2019 in Geneva. Mr. V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i, who spoke at the session<\/a>, said the Concluding Observations widely echoed the issues raised by VCHR in its \u201cShadow Report\u201d<\/a> to the UN and in a List of Issues<\/a> submitted jointly with FIDH ahead of the review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nObservations raised grave concerns on a wide range of human rights issues. The\n18-member panel of UN experts highlighted 26 areas of particular concern, and made\n44 recommendations for reform. Before 29 March 2021, Vietnam must report to the\nCommittee on its implementation of their recommendations concerning three\npriority issues – the death penalty, freedom of expression and human rights\ndefenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConcretely, the UN experts recommend that Vietnam ensures political pluralism, holds transparent and genuine elections, promotes media freedom and respects the right to form independent trade unions and NGOs in order to fully implement the ICCPR\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, said V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. \u201cThe only way this can happen is for Vietnam to abolish article 4 of the Constitution on the political monopoly of the Communist Party, as its citizens insistently demanded during the Constitutional reform<\/a> in 2013\u201d<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are\nsome of the UN Human Rights Committee\u2019s key concerns and recommendations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implementing the ICCPR in Vietnam: <\/strong>The Committee noted the \u201cincompatibility\u201d<\/em> between the ICCPR and domestic\nlegislation. The Vietnamese Constitution does not incorporate all rights\nenshrined in the ICCPR and many laws restrict their exercise, notably \u201con the basis of national security\u201d. <\/em>No\ncourt decisions in Vietnam refer to the ICCPR, and Vietnamese citizens are ill-informed\nof their rights. They urged Vietnam to swiftly review its legal framework to ensure\nthat all ICCPR rights are protected in domestic law;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB): <\/strong>The UN experts observed that the\n2016 Law on Belief and Religion unduly restricts the right to FoRB by imposing\na mandatory registration and recognition process and restricting religious\nactivities on \u201cnational security\u201d grounds; that members of religious\ncommunities, especially non-registered groups, face surveillance, harassment,\ndetention, property seizure, are forced to recant their faith, pressured to\njoin a competing sect or subjected to physical assaults that sometimes lead to\ndeath. It called on Vietnam to bring the Law into line with Article 18 of the\nICCPR and take into account the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on\nFoRB to ensure that registration is optional, not mandatory, and take swift\nmeasures to prevent acts of interference with freedom of religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN experts echoed VCHR\u2019s concerns about the \u201ch\u1ed9 kh\u1ea9u\u201d<\/a><\/em>, or household registration permit, which is widely used as a tool to discriminate against religious and ethnic communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom of Expression:<\/strong> The Committee regretted \u201csevere restrictions\u201d<\/em> on freedom of opinion and expression in Vietnam, including the use of articles 109, 116, 117 and 331 of the Criminal Code and other \u201cnational security\u201d provisions to criminalize legitimate acts of freedom of expression; State control of the media and restrictions, including in the 2016 Press Law, that prohibit any criticism of the government; the 2018 Law on Cyber Security and other regulations prohibiting the use of the Internet to oppose or criticize the State, and the establishment of Cyber Force 47; arbitrary arrest, detention, unfair trials and criminal convictions of bloggers, human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers for criticizing State authorities or policies. The Committee urged Vietnam to take urgent steps to revise restrictive legislation, end violations of freedom of expression offline and online, and \u201cpromote a pluralistic media that can operate free from undue State interference\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly:<\/strong> The UN body expressed concern on reports\nof excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests to suppress demonstrations\nconcerning issues such as land and labour rights, or the Formosa steel plant\necological disaster. It also regretted restrictions on the establishment of\nassociations and the right to form independent trade unions. They called on Vietnam\nto respect individuals\u2019 right to form or join a trade union or association of\ntheir choice, including human rights associations, and ensure that regulations\non foreign funding do not impede the ability to receive such funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participation in Public Affairs: <\/strong>The Committee regretted that\npolitical parties other than the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) were not\npermitted, and that citizens did not have the right to freely vote or stand for\nelection, in violation of Article 25 of the ICCPR. It urged Vietnam to ensure \u201cfully transparent and genuine elections and\na pluralistic political order\u201d<\/em>, and refrain from using criminal law as a\npretext to exclude opposition candidates from the electoral process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human Rights Defenders (HRDs):<\/strong> The experts noted \u201cincreased security crackdowns on human rights defenders and civil\nsociety actors, who face threats, intimidation, and physical attacks to\ndiscourage them from carrying out their legitimate activities\u201d. They also cited\narbitrary restrictions such as travel bans, confiscating or refusing to issue\npassports, or forcing HRDs into exile. In its \u201cShadow Report\u201d, VCHR noted that\nat least eight high-profile religious and political HRDs had been forced into\nexile after being given early release from prison since Vietnam\u2019s last UPR in\n2014. Vietnam should refrain from imposing travel bans, cease forcing citizens\ninto exile and respect their rights to freedom of movement and residence, as\nguaranteed by ICCPR Article 12 (4), the experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nDeath Penalty:<\/strong> The UN body expressed serious\nconcerns on the high number of death sentences and executions in Vietnam, the\nnumber of capital offences which do not meet the ICCPR\u2019s threshold of \u201cmost\nserious crimes\u201d, unfair trials leading to the death penalty and the absence of relevant\nofficial data. It urged Vietnam to amend the Criminal Code to reduce the number\nof crimes punishable by death, consider a moratorium on the application of\ncapital punishment, and promptly \u201cpublish\nofficial figures regarding death sentences and executions, disaggregated by\nsex, age, ethnicity, religion and crime\u201d.<\/em> \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many issues raised by the experts concerned\nthe poor detention conditions of prisoners of conscience and human rights\ndefenders, including shackling, prolonged solitary confinement, ill-treatment,\ntorture, denial of medical care, abuse by fellow prisoners at the instigation\nof prison officials, punitive transfer of prisoners to detention centres far\nfrom their homes and families, and discriminatory treatment between regular\nprisoners and prisoners of conscience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the review, despite extensive evidence provided by civil society, and disregarding Circular 37 issued by the Ministry of Public Security in 2011 which authorizes virtually unlimited \u201cseparate detention\u201d for national security offenders, the Vietnamese delegation responded with a blanket denial: \u201cThere is no discriminatory treatment between prisoners charged under national security provisions and other prisoners. There is no such thing as solitary confinement; it doesn\u2019t exist in Vietnamese law. There is no such thing as transfer of prisoners far from their homes and families. Prisoners in Vietnam enjoy the full rights provided by law. There is no such thing as obstruction or restrictions on the rights of families to visit prisoners\u201d.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFortunately, the UN experts base their concerns and recommendations on facts, not on the empty rhetoric of the Vietnamese delegation\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, said V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. \u201cThe Concluding Observations of the UN Human Rights Committee are a precious tool for all those who wish to understand the human rights situation and work towards concrete improvements in Vietnam\u201d<\/em><\/strong>. —\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n




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PARIS, 29 March 2019 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) welcomes the \u201cConcluding Observations\u201d published today by the UN Human Rights Committee on Vietnam\u2019s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The report reveals grave and systematic violations of civil and political rights in Vietnam. VCHR urges Vietnam …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":41225,"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":[312,343,296,792,222],"class_list":["post-41222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-death-penalty","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-hrd","tag-human-rights-committee","tag-iccpr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41222","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=41222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}