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Vietnam Questions 12 Activists After Training Stint in the Philippines
RFA Oct 10, 2013 Authorities in Vietnam detained for questioning a dozen young activists on their return from a training stint with a civil society organization in the Philippines amid suspicion in Hanoi that they might be involved in anti-government activities, according to friends and family. The 12 youths had attended the two-week 2013 Civil…
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POLICE USE VIOLENCE AGAINST BLOGGERS AT HUMAN RIGHTS PICNICS
May 8, 2013 Bloggers and netizens who took part in “picnics to discuss human rights” in public places in several Vietnamese cities on 5 May were violently attacked by police and many were briefly detained. “We firmly condemn this deliberate police violence against news providers and we are very disturbed to see that such unacceptable…
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Impatience in Viet Nam
By Jonathan London, Guest Contributor – 18 March 2013 An outpouring of unrestrained political speech was most certainly not the original intent. But what started as campaign by Viet Nam’s ruling Communist Party to bolster its subjective legitimacy through a precooked public consultation on constitutional reform morphed into an unprecedented assault on the principle of…
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Asean meet strengthens AHRD rules – HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENT REVISED
Published: 18/11/2012 at 12:00 AM PHNOM PENH : The Asean Human Rights Declaration was revised during the Asean Ministerial Meeting yesterday to smooth the way for its adoption by leaders of the grouping today. Ministers at the meeting also reviewed the Joint Statement on the 10th anniversary of the Asean-China Declaration on Conduct of Parties…
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Despite criticism, ASEAN set to adopt rights declaration
Yohanna Ririhena and Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Sat, November 17 2012, 7:31 AM Paper Edition | Page: 12 Despite criticism from civil society and the United Nations rights chief, ASEAN leaders are set to take a momentous step in the association’s 45-year-old history by adopting the first-ever ASEAN human…
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Activists slam Cambodia obstruction
Published: 15/11/2012 at 08:12 PM Phnom Penh: Southeast Asian activists on Thursday cried foul over attempts by Cambodian authorities to derail their meetings just as the government prepares to host the Asean summit. Their regional meeting in the Cambodian capital under the banner of the Asean Civil Society Conference and Asean People Forum was disrupted…
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Prominent dissident to Secretary Clinton on eve of Vietnam visit: Do not downplay democracy
In an open letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que calls on the US government to promote the democratization of Vietnam. A former prisoner of conscience who remains under house arrest, Dr. Que is well recognized both inside and outside the country. Since 2007, Vietnam’s communist government has waged a brutal crackdown against dissidents, sending over a hundred of…
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An Arab Spring for Southeast Asia?
By Mong Palatino, in The Diplomat July 2, 2012 Malaysia’s electoral reform movement, known as Bersih (clean), succeeded in mobilizing tens of thousands of people in the streets last April. According to organizers, this year’s Bersih was the biggest political rally in the modern history of Malaysia. The government has disputed this claim, but the…
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ASEAN’s road to nowhere? Subverting standards within the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
“Significant swathes of the draft focus on limiting rights, rather than promoting and protecting them, with some particularly odious amendments being proposed by persistent human rights abusers Laos and Vietnam.” By Phil Robertson Publihed in Strategic Review In July, the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh will receive one of the most important documents…
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