In its report released on Jan 23, 2013, Dublin-based Front Line Defenders lists Vietnam as a country in focus in the section on Asia, highlighting increased violations of human rights in that communist country.
Country in Focus: Vietnam
The space for human rights activism in Vietnam remains very limited, and those engaged in human rights
work do so at great personal risk. Throughout 2012, there were reports of intimidation, threats, surveillance,
interrogation, harassment, arbitrary detention, travel restrictions, and ill-treatment in prison. A number of
HRDs remain in detention serving lengthy sentences. Human rights lawyers, bloggers and citizen journalists
were also particularly targeted. As a result of the restrictive environment, many HRDs try to maintain a low
profile to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities.
The authorities frequently depict human rights defenders as troublemakers and ‘enemies of the State’. State
officials publicly accused HRDs of being ‘foreign spies’, ‘traitors’ or ‘violators of public order and peace’,
and government media were employed to propagate this image. HRDs working on transparency and democratic
reforms were particularly targeted; numerous cases of surveillance and intimidation were reported.
The authorities also actively hinder access by Vietnamese HRDs to regional and international NGOs by preventing
their travel and monitoring their communications.
17 human rights defenders, bloggers and citizen journalists were held in pre-trial detention for over a year.
In many of these cases, the place of detention was not disclosed and family members lacked information on
their whereabouts and well-being. Detained HRDs were routinely denied access to lawyers and bail. Lawyers
providing legal assistance to detained HRDs or to victims of human rights violations were in turn harassed
and at times disbarred from the legal profession.
Human rights defender Mr Pham Van Troi, detained from September 2008 to September 2012 under Article
88 of the Penal Code for ‘propaganda against the state’, was held in solitary confinement for three months for
advocating for the rights of other prisoners while in detention.
Read more: www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21376
