{"id":45110,"date":"2021-02-01T09:31:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T09:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=45110"},"modified":"2021-02-01T09:49:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T09:49:42","slug":"cpv-congress-cements-repressive-rule-rewards-rights-abusive-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/cpv-congress-cements-repressive-rule-rewards-rights-abusive-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam: Party Congress cements repressive rule, rewards rights-abusive leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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PARIS, 1 February 2021\n(FIDH & VCHR) – The meeting of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) cements\nauthoritarian rule and ushers in five more years of repression and human rights\nabuses, FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights\n(VCHR) said today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPV\u2019s 13th National Congress,\nwhich began on 25 January in Hanoi and ended today, picked the one-party\nstate\u2019s leaders for the next five years. Vietnam\u2019s President Nguyen Phu Trong won\nhis third consecutive term as CPV General Secretary and second term as\nPresident. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc retained his post for a second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the international\ncommunity has praised the Vietnamese government over its response to the\npandemic, it has utterly failed to condemn it over the harshest crackdown on\npeaceful dissent in recent years. The international community\u2019s muted reaction\nto the repression of peaceful dissent has emboldened the Communist Party of\nVietnam to reward the country\u2019s authoritarian leaders,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said FIDH Secretary-General\nAdilur Rahman Khan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, amid the novel\ncoronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, authorities detained at least 33 individuals\nfor the peaceful and legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of opinion\nand expression. During the same period, at least 23 individuals were sentenced\nto prison terms of up to 12 years. Those deprived of their liberty included\nhuman rights defenders, activists, journalists, and government critics. Nearly\nall of those detained or imprisoned in 2020 were charged under Articles 117\n(\u201cconducting anti-state propaganda\u201d) or 331 (“abusing democratic\nfreedoms”) of the Criminal Code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, at least five\nmembers of unregistered religious groups were detained on charges under Article\n116 (\u201cundermining the unity policy\u201d), and 11 ethnic minority Hmong were\nsentenced to prison terms ranging from eight years to life on charges under\nArticle 109 (\u201csubversion\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This repressive trend continued in the lead-up to the CPV Congress, with the imprisonment of four more individuals in the month of January 2021 alone. They include independent journalists Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan, who were sentenced to prison terms of up to 15 years<\/a> on 5 January, and aquaculture expert Dinh Thi Thu Tuy, sentenced to seven years in prison for \u201cridiculing\u201d party and state leaders on her social media account on 20 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to arbitrary\narrests and detentions, authorities subjected human rights defenders and\ngovernment critics to systematic acts of harassment, including surveillance and\nphysical attacks. For example, on 8 May 2020, police in Ho Chi Minh City\ninterrogated and severely beat Phung Thuy, aka Thuy Tuat, for delivering books\nfor the independent Liberal Publishing House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Communist Party\u2019s 13th National Congress\nis a non-event. Its only purpose is to show that Vietnam will continue to\nviolate human rights on a massive scale and stifle the democratic aspirations\nof its people. The \u2018new\u2019 leaders are the same men who have supervised the\nsystematic repression of citizens who dared to assert their constitutional\nrights,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said VCHR President\nVo Van Ai.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vietnam holds at least 200 political\nprisoners. Many of them remain subjected to abusive and discriminatory\ntreatment in prison, often amounting to torture. In\nNovember 2020, blogger Nguyen\nVan Hoa and religious freedom\nactivist Nguyen Bac Truyen, serving prison sentences of seven and 11 years respectively,\nstaged a hunger strike in An Diem Prison, Quang Nam Province, to denounce violations\nof prisoners\u2019 rights, including beatings, solitary confinement, denial of\nmedical care, and other acts of ill treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such treatment is in breach\nof Vietnam\u2019s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and\nPolitical Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman\nor Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Vietnam is a state party to both\ntreaties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIDH and VCHR reiterate\ntheir calls for: the immediate and unconditional release of all political\nprisoners in Vietnam; the repeal of all provisions of the Criminal Code that\nare inconsistent with the country\u2019s obligations under international law; and an\nend to all acts of harassment against activists, human rights defenders, and\ngovernment critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press contacts:<\/strong>
FIDH: Ms. Eva Canan (French, English) – Tel: +33 648059157 (Paris)
VCHR: Ms. Penelope Faulkner (Vietnamese, English, French) – Tel: +33 611898681 (Paris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS, 1 February 2021 (FIDH & VCHR) – The meeting of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) cements authoritarian rule and ushers in five more years of repression and human rights abuses, FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said today. The CPV\u2019s 13th National Congress, which began on 25 January …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":39640,"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":[137,113,125,98,65,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-others","category-press-release","category-resources","category-vchr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45110","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=45110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}