{"id":46573,"date":"2022-04-05T08:50:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T08:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=46573"},"modified":"2022-04-05T09:06:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T09:06:18","slug":"vietnam-eu-must-demand-end-to-repression-of-civil-society-respect-of-human-rights-pledges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/vietnam-eu-must-demand-end-to-repression-of-civil-society-respect-of-human-rights-pledges\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam: EU must demand end to repression of civil society, respect of human rights pledges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

BRUSSELS, PARIS, 5 April\n2022 (FIDH & VCHR): The European Union (EU) must use the upcoming human\nrights dialogue to demand the Vietnamese government end repression of civil\nsociety and fulfill its pledges stemming from the EU-Vietnam\nFree Trade Agreement (EVFTA), FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR)\nurged today. The two organizations made the call ahead of the upcoming\nEU-Vietnam human rights dialogue, which will be held on 6 April 2022 in\nBrussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Vietnamese government\u2019s pledges to uphold\ndemocratic freedoms and human rights as an essential element of the free trade\nagreement with the EU are contradicted by its ongoing repression of civil\nsociety. The EU should no longer tolerate Hanoi\u2019s empty promises and use the\nhuman rights dialogue and other tools to seek tangible improvements in the\nhuman rights situation,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said FIDH\nSecretary-General Adilur Rahman Khan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new briefing paper released today<\/a>, FIDH and VCHR detail the government\u2019s relentless crackdown on civil society. Since the last EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue, which was held in February 2020, an alarming escalation of arrests, unfair trials, harsh prison sentences, and physical violence against human rights defenders, bloggers, environmental rights leaders, and members of civil society has continued unabated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1 January and 31\nDecember 2021, at least 30 people – including three women, activists,\ngovernment critics, and human rights defenders – were arrested. During the same\nperiod, 32 (including seven women) were sentenced to prison terms of up to 15\nyears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly all of those who\nwere arbitrarily detained or imprisoned in 2021 were charged under \u201cnational\nsecurity\u201d provisions of the Criminal Code, such as Article 117 (\u201cmaking,\nstoring or disseminating information, documents, materials and items against\nthe Socialist Republic of Vietnam\u201d) and Article 331 (\u201cabusing democratic freedoms\nto harm the interests of the state\u201d). Prison sentences imposed were\nparticularly long, with women often receiving some of the harshest jail terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIDH and VCHR are particularly\nconcerned over the arrests and convictions of several prominent environmental\nrights defenders based on their involvement in promoting awareness of EVFTA and the role\nof civil society organizations (CSOs) in advancing sustainable development in\nVietnam.  Since June 2021, at least four leading environmentalists\nhave been arrested on charges of alleged \u201ctax evasion\u201d (Article 200 of the Criminal Code).  These arrests indicate an\nemerging and disturbing pattern in the use of Vietnam\u2019s tax laws to criminalize\nenvironmental leaders, and follows the broader targeting of civil society\nleaders, as well as shrinking civil society space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCivil society input is a crucial component for the\nimplementation of the EVFTA and the Vietnamese government\u2019s targeting of environmental\nrights defenders flies in the face of Hanoi\u2019s commitments under the agreement. The\nEU must demand that the Vietnamese government give civil society an unfettered\nright to monitor and document the implementation of the EVFTA without being\nsubjected to reprisals,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said VCHR\nPresident Vo Van Ai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FIDH\nand VCHR urge the EU to seriously reconsider the merits of the human rights\ndialogue, which is portrayed by the Vietnamese government as a demonstration\nthat it fully complies with the country\u2019s human rights obligations. In its\ncurrent form, the process, which is held behind closed doors and lacks\nbenchmarks, monitoring mechanisms, and follow-up procedures, does not\ncontribute to strengthening human rights in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See FIDH-VCHR Briefing paper for the 10th EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue<\/em><\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Press contacts:
\n<\/strong>FIDH: Ms. Eva Canan\n(French, English) – Tel: +33648059157 (Paris)
\nVCHR: Ms. Penelope Faulkner (Vietnamese, English, French) – Tel: +33611898681\n(Paris)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS, PARIS, 5 April 2022 (FIDH & VCHR): The European Union (EU) must use the upcoming human rights dialogue to demand the Vietnamese government end repression of civil society and fulfill its pledges stemming from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) urged today. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":46577,"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":[805,634],"class_list":["post-46573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-eu-vietnam-dialogue","tag-evfta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46573","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=46573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}