{"id":41971,"date":"2019-12-03T13:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=41971"},"modified":"2023-02-02T07:54:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T07:54:31","slug":"penelope-faulkner-remarks-on-evfta-ipa-3-dec-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/penelope-faulkner-remarks-on-evfta-ipa-3-dec-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement – Remarks by Penelope Faulkner, Qu\u00ea Me: Vietnam Committee on Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

3rd<\/sup> December 2019, European Parliament, Brussels, Room A5G315<\/em>
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Penelope<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

May I extend warm thanks to MEP Julie Ward\nfor hosting this meeting, and to all those attending. I would like first to\napologise for Vo Van Ai, President of VCHR, who is unable to speak here today\ndue to ill health. I will present the situation on his behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VCHR has been working on Vietnam for many\nyears. So, for us, the current EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has a\ndistinct air of d\u00e9ja vu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1995,<\/strong> when\nthe EC signed its first Cooperation Agreement with Vietnam, we were told that\nis was a breakthrough \u2013 it contained a \u201chuman rights\u201d clause which would give\nEurope leverage to obtain concrete progress. Human rights would definitely\nimprove once the agreement was in force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012,<\/strong> the\nFramework Cooperation and Partnership Agreement was signed. The Commission\nensured Parliament that this was even better. Not only did it have a \u201chuman\nrights\u201d clause, but also a \u201csuspension clause\u201d. If Vietnam committed grave\nhuman rights violations, the EU could cut off the trade deal \u2013 or at least take\nsevere economic measures to put Vietnam back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,<\/strong> as\nthe EU is about to conclude one of the most ambitious Free Trade Agreements\never signed with a third country, the Commission is repeating the same refrain\n\u2013 Vietnam will improve human rights once EVFTA is signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first agreement, we were hopeful.\nFor the second, we were doubtful. For the third, we are plainly not convinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we know now \u2013 as the Commission\nprobably knew then \u2013 that there is no precedent of the human rights clause ever\nbeing invoked in trade agreements. As for the suspension clause, as the\nCommission itself has admitted, it will only be invoked in extreme cases such\nas a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also know \u2013 and Hanoi knows too \u2013 that Vietnam\ncan continue repressing its critics both during and after ratification. Because\nthey know that, whatever they do, the Commission will cover them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As proof, we will show you testimony today\nfrom a civil society activist in Vietnam. He warns the EU that more arrests\nwill take place once the agreement is ratified. He says that those who\ncriticise EVFTA will face arrest. Ph\u1ea1m Ch\u00ed D\u0169ng\u2019s words proved tragically true,\nfor he was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City only days after sending this appeal. He\nfaces up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can the Commission defend Vietnam\u2019s\n\u201cgood will\u201d when it arrests a prominent critic only days before Parliament embarks\non this critical phase of EVFTA\/IPA negotiations ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the very start, the European Commission\nbroke all the rules concerning EVFTA. It waived the \u201chuman rights impact\nassessment\u201d, a mandatory prerequisite for all bilateral accords. Following a\ncomplaint filed by FIDH and VCHR, the Ombudsman declared this was\n\u201cmaladministration\u201d and urged the Commission to carry out the assessment\nwithout delay. Nothing was done. On the contrary, negotiations continued at\nfull pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2017, a Delegation from the\nEP\u2019s Human Rights Sub-committee, led by its President Pier-Antonio Panzeri,\nwent to Vietnam. Alarmed by what they saw, and by testimonies from civil\nsociety activists with whom they met, the delegation declared that EVFTA should\nnot be signed without significant progress in Vietnam. In 2018, the European\nParliament passed an Urgent Resolution condemning human rights abuses and\npressing for monitoring mechanisms in the Free Trade Agreement. Again, the\nCommission ignored the Parliament\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is most shocking is that EVFTA negotiations\ntake place at a time of increasing human rights violations in Vietnam. Whilst\nrights abuses have always been bad, the situation deteriorated alarmingly in\n2016, when the Communist Party appointed a new, hard-line leadership. The new\ngovernment has zero-tolerance of dissent, and embarked on a brutal, nation-wide\ncrackdown that continues unabated today. VCHR and our colleagues have reported\nregularly on these abuses at the EU-Vietnam human rights dialogues. The\nCommission cannot say they did not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past three years, the authorities\nhave harassed, assaulted and arrested bloggers, journalists, human rights\ndefenders, religious followers, advocates of worker rights, land rights,\nwomen\u2019s rights and the environment. Prison sentences have increased\ndramatically. For simple acts such as sending emails or taking part in\ndemonstrations, activists are accused of \u201cattempting to overthrow the\ngovernment\u201d<\/em> and condemned to 15 \u2013 20 years in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same, despite recommendations by the\nUN, the EP and the international community, including three cycles of the\nUniversal Periodic Review, Vietnam continues to adopt laws that restrict the\nexercise of human rights. The Law on Belief and Religion, the Press Law, Cyber\nSecurity Law, the Criminal Code, the Access to Information law \u2013 all include\nclauses condemning the \u201cabuse\u201d of freedoms to \u201cthreaten the interests of the\nstate\u201d. This loop-hole enables Vietnam to cynically claim that \u201cthere are no\npolitical prisoners in Vietnam, only people who violate the law\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A snap-shot portrait: Vietnam today has the 2nd<\/sup> highest number of political prisoners\nin Southeast Asia (at least 200, a surge of 30% in 2018 according to Amnesty\nInternational); it is amongst the top five countries for use of the death\npenalty; it is almost last in RSF\u2019s \u201cWorld Press Freedom Index\u201d (176th<\/sup>\nout of 180 countries), and the world\u2019s sixth most-censored nation according to\nCPJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This not\nonly an NGO assessment. In March 2019, the UN Human Rights Committee examined\nVietnam\u2019s report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil\nand Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee observed that, 35 years after\nVietnam\u2019s accession to the ICCPR, there remained an \u201cincompatibility between\nthe domestic legal framework and the Covenant\u201d<\/em> and \u201coverly broad restrictions on the Covenant rights, including, on the\nbasis of national security\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to conclude with two points.\nFirst, the issue of worker rights. Vietnam has just adopted an amended Labour\nCode which allows workers to set up \u201crepresentative organisations\u201d, independent\nof the State-run Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL). This has been\nhailed as a great step towards freedom of association. But these are not free\ntrade unions. To operate legally, they must obtain a licence from the\n\u201ccompetent authorities\u201d \u2013 which in Hanoi-speak, means approval from the\nCommunist Party of Vietnam. In practice, the amended Labour Code repeats the\nmodel of the Law on Belief on Religion \u2013 creating an apparent framework to\npromote freedoms whilst increasing state management and control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, there is a gulf between\nratification and implementation. Vietnam speaks of ratifying ILO Conventions 87\nand 105 in the distant future, between 2023 and 2025. But even if it does, when\nwill it implement them? Vietnam acceded to the ICCPR over 30 years ago, yet human\nrights are still systematically violated today. How can we believe that EVFTA\ncan improve this situation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Parliament should not\nratify EVFTA and IPA unless Vietnam demonstrates its commitment to human\nrights, beginning with the immediate release of Pham Chi Dung, and all those\ndetained for their advocacy of human rights and democratic freedoms in Vietnam.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

3rd December 2019, European Parliament, Brussels, Room A5G315 May I extend warm thanks to MEP Julie Ward for hosting this meeting, and to all those attending. I would like first to apologise for Vo Van Ai, President of VCHR, who is unable to speak here today due to ill health. I will present the situation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":42042,"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":[137,113,118,98,65,64],"tags":[634,772],"class_list":["post-41971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-opinions","category-press-release","category-resources","category-vchr","tag-evfta","tag-ipa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41971","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=41971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}