{"id":49971,"date":"2024-07-24T13:21:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T13:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=49971"},"modified":"2024-07-25T12:56:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T12:56:37","slug":"josep-borrell-should-call-for-the-immediate-release-of-environmental-rights-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/josep-borrell-should-call-for-the-immediate-release-of-environmental-rights-defenders\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell should call for the immediate release of environmental rights defenders in his visit to Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong>Joint open letter from Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) and FIDH, ahead of the visit of Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) to Vietnam.<\/strong><br>       <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PARIS, 24 July 2024 (VCHR &amp; FIDH) \u2013 From 29-31 July, Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) will visit Vietnam to discuss reinforcing EU-Vietnam cooperation on issues of security, sustainable development and climate policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visit\ntakes place as Vietnam is set to receive $15.5 billion in funding from the EU\nand G7 nations under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a mechanism\naimed at supporting energy transitions to boost renewables and reduce reliance\non fossil fuels. Vietnam,\nwhich is heavily reliant on coal, has pledged to reduce carbon emissions to net\nzero and engage to mitigate climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At\nthe same time as it makes these commitments, however, Vietnam is launching an unprecedented\ncrack-down on environmental rights defenders and civil society organizations all\nover the country. Since mid-2021, at least six prominent climate leaders have\nbeen arrested and imprisoned under false charges, and their organizations\nforcibly closed down. They were all working on Vietnam\u2019s shift away from coal\nat the time of their arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They include lawyer <strong>\u0110\u1eb7ng \u0110\u00ecnh B\u00e1ch<\/strong>, sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 and detained under extremely harsh conditions in the notorious Prison No. 6 in the province of Nghe An; <strong>Hoang Th\u1ecb Minh H\u1ed3ng<\/strong>, Obama Foundation scholar and founder of non-profit CHANGE Vietnam, sentenced to three years in prison in 2023; environmental expert and consultant <strong>Ng\u00f4 Th\u1ecb T\u1ed1 Nhi\u00ean, <\/strong>Executive Director of the think tank Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise (VIETSE), arrested in 2023 and  reportedly sentenced to 3 1\/2 years in prison at a closed trial in Hanoi on 27 June 2024 . She was working on the implementation plan for Vietnam\u2019s JETP at the time of her arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We believe there can be no sustainable development in Vietnam without the participation of civil society, and no just energy transition whilst climate leaders are behind bars. During his talks with the Vietnamese authorities, we call upon Mr. Borrell to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Secure\nthe immediate release of <strong>\u0110\u1eb7ng \u0110\u00ecnh B\u00e1ch, Ho\u00e0ng Th\u1ecb Minh H\u1ed3ng, Ng\u00f4 Th\u1ecb T\u1ed1\nLi\u00ean<\/strong> and all environmental rights and climate defenders arbitrarily\ndetained in Vietnam;<\/li><li>Call\non Vietnam to respect its commitment to uphold human rights as an essential\nelement of its relations with the EU, including the EU-Vietnam Free Trade\nAgreement (EVFTA), and release all persons detained in Vietnam for the peaceful\nexercise of their fundamental human rights.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/strong><br><strong>* VCHR <\/strong>is a member of the<strong> Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition<\/strong>, a group of over 30 international and regional environmental, climate justice, and human rights organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information see <strong>Stand with Bach<\/strong> <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.standwithbach.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.standwithbach.org\/<\/a>; International Rivers Report &#8211; <strong>The Missing \u201cJUST\u201d in Vietnam\u2019s Just Energy Transition Partnership, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.internationalrivers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2024\/06\/Vietnam-JETP-Report-English.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.internationalrivers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2024\/06\/Vietnam-JETP-Report-English.pdf<\/a>; VCHR-FIDH Joint Submission to the Fourth Universal Periodic Review of Vietnam&nbsp; <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/queme.org\/app\/uploads\/2023\/10\/VCHR_FIDH_Joint-Submission_UPR_october_2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/queme.org\/app\/uploads\/2023\/10\/VCHR_FIDH_Joint-Submission_UPR_october_2023.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joint open letter from Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) and FIDH, ahead of the visit of Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) to Vietnam. PARIS, 24 July 2024 (VCHR &amp; FIDH) \u2013 From 29-31 July, Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":49995,"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":[1441,634,1744,1743,1705],"class_list":["post-49971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-dang-dinh-bach","tag-evfta","tag-jetp","tag-josepp-borrell","tag-ngo-thi-to-nhien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49971","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=49971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}