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November, 21 2020
Vietnam Human Rights Award 2020 Winners Announced
Little Saigon, CA.
USA - Due to the constraints of the COVID-19 epidemic, this year, the Vietnam
Human Rights Network announced the results of the Vietnam Human Rights Award
2020 via the Internet instead of a press conference as usual. The event was held
at 8AM (California time, 5PM in Western Europe, and 11PM in Vietnam) on
Saturday, November 21, 2020, and live broadcast via Facebook and Youtube. [The event video is available here: PART 1 - PART 2]
Established in 2002, the Vietnam Human Rights Award has been bestowed to the
individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to and
have demonstrated influence on the promotion of justice and human rights
movements in Vietnam. It is also an opportunity for Vietnamese in the Diaspora
to show their solidarity with those who have engaged in the relentless fighting
for Vietnamese people’s basic rights.
This year's Vietnam Human Rights Award was presented to: prisoner of conscience
Nguyen Nang Tinh, prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Hoa, and the Vietnam
Independent Journalist Association.
The following are the brief highlights of the 2020 Vietnam Human Rights Award
winners:
NGUYỄN NĂNG TĨNH
As a teacher, he
dedicated himself to hand over to the youths not only musical skills, but also
love for their fatherland, the spirit of transcendence, and respect for human
dignity.
Although busy with
teaching, Nguyen Nang Tinh has devoted himself to several social activities and
fighting for justice and human
rights.
He was one of the
main pillars of the candlelight vigils for Justice and Peace, and prisoners of
conscience in the Vinh Diocese. He played a leading role in mobilizing people to
take to the streets to protest against the Formosa disaster, China's invasion of
the islands, and the Special Economic Zone Law.
Teacher Nguyen
Nang Tinh is the companion of nearly 30 families of prisoners of conscience in
the Vinh Diocese, most of whom are his close and like-minded friends. There was
no family of prisoners of conscience in the area that did not receive Mr. Tinh’s
support. He was always present in time to reassure and help those families
overcome troubled circumstances, panic, anxiety, and fear as soon as one of
their loved ones was arrested.
Mr. Tinh is a
friend of the poor and marginalized. He joined the Life Protection Group, Human
Development Fund, and the Catholic Communications in the Vinh Diocese.
by reason of
Tinh’s praiseworthy activities, the Communist security apparatus has harassed
and hampered him no less than 100 times by inviting him to “work” with the
authorities, or going to his school to investigate and intimidate him. The
harassments also included house watch, cutting off of electricity and water,
detention, and beatings...
Finally, on May
29, 2019, teacher Nguyen Nang Tinh was kidnapped by the Vietnamese police while
traveling with his two young children. On November 5, 2019, the People's Court
of Nghe An Province sentenced him to 11 years in prison and 5 years of house
arrest for “violating the people's administration and socialist regime for the
purpose of opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, defaming the Party and
State leaders, inciting protests against the government, posting documents with
fabricated contents, causing confusion among people, and providing fabricated
information to cause conflicts between the people and public agencies ...”
In spite of
serious threats and mistreatments during his imprisonment, teacher Nguyen Nang
Tinh boldly declared in front of the Vietnamese communist court:
“I aspire for a free and democratic country. I
worry about my country and my people’s destiny. I worry about the contaminated
living environment. I cannot be indifferent and resign myself to the risk of
losing the national sovereignty, and the threat of Chinese invasion …
“No matter how high the sentence is, be it 10
years, 20 years, even the death penalty, I won't change my mind.”
Several foreign
governments, including the United States, Canada, Norway, and
Czechoslovakia..., and human
rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International
(AI), and Reporter Without Borders (RSF) have expressed concerns about teacher
Tinh’s arrest. Currently, the Media Legal Defense Initiative (MLDI) lawyers are
representing Mr. Tinh's family to file with the United Nations Working Group on
Arbitration Investigation (UNWGAD).
Teacher Nguyen
Nang Tinh is an example of relentless pursuit of non-violent fighting for
justice, human rights, and national self-determination. He deserves to be
endowed with the 2020 Vietnam Human Rights Award.
NGUYEN VAN HOA
As an enthusiastic
youth, committed to the community, Nguyen Van Hoa has taught himself in the
field of information technology with the desire to contribute to building a
developed and democratic Vietnam. During the environmental disaster caused by
Formosa steel plant in some Central provinces in 2016, Hoa reached out to the
sites to record the environmental crimes and the sufferance of the
victims. He also assisted the victims in gathering evidence to denounce
the crimes and to bring the cases before the court.
In addition to
that, Hoa used the modern media to further spread the news of the Formosa spill
disaster to the outside world. He was the first person to use a flycam to
capture tens of thousands people protesting in front of Formosa
steel plant in October 2016. Nguyen Van Hoa is a citizen journalist
working with RFA's Vietnamese Service, and has provided videos about people’s
protests against the Formosa company in the central region of Vietnam.
Vietnamese police
arrested Hoa when he was recording people's protests before the Ky Anh district
court on January 11, 2017. On
November 27, 2017, after a brief and sneaky trial without the participation of
lawyers and the presence of relatives, the Ha Tinh Court sentenced Nguyen Van
Hoa to 7 years in prison and 3 years of probation on charges of “conducting
propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
Nguyen Van Hoa was
repeatedly beaten and held in solitary confinement by prison guards at An Diem
Detention Center in Quang Nam Province, so he went on several hunger strikes to
protest. Prison guards also used corporal punishment to compel Hoa and another
prisoner of conscience, Nguyen Viet Dung, to testify against environmental
activist Le Dinh Luong. However, at the trial of Mr. Luong, both Mr. Hoa and
Dung, recanted and, therefore, were assaulted by the prison guards for revenge.
In the face of the
unjust trial and the brutal suppression of freelance journalist Nguyen Van Hoa,
many Vietnamese and international organizations have spoken out; especially:
- On December 14,
2017, the European National Assembly passed an urgent resolution requiring the
Vietnamese communist to release young activist Nguyen Van Hoa and other
imprisoned Vietnamese citizens for voicing their own point of view.
- On August 20,
2018, the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) condemned the abuse of film
journalist Nguyen Van Hoa, and urged Vietnamese authorities to stop the beating.
and harassing journalists in prison.
- On January 18,
2019, Freedom Now announced the nomination of journalist Nguyen Van Hoa for
UNESCO's Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award.
- On May 24, 2019,
Amnesty International called the case of Nguyen Van Hoa being beaten by police
at An Diem detention center, causing injury and then being put in solitary
confinement as “extremely serious.”
- On August 15,
2019, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) called on
the Vietnamese communist authorities to release journalist Nguyen Van Hoa.
- On September 24,
2019, US Congressman Alan Lowenthal officially adopted journalist Nguyen Van Hoa
as a prisoner of conscience through the Defending Freedoms Project of the Tom
Lantos Human Rights Commission.
The Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam
IJAVN's official
organ is the online Vietnam Times newspaper, at
https://vietnamthoibao.org/.
The newspaper is the medium for its members to express their views, to voice
their opinions on social injustice, to denounce the authorities’ wrongdoings and
human rights violations, and to convey news relevant to the government
repression of human rights activists.
Since its
foundation, IJAVN has achieved several remarkable activities, including:
- Organizing and
attending discussion seminars on important societal and national issues;
- Raising timely
alerts about incidents of harassment against people and journalists;
- Networking and
cooperating with mass media domestic and international non-government
organizations;
- Making
statements to support movements for freedom of speech, freedom of politics,
environmental protection, and national heritage;
- Three members of
IJAVN, including Bui Minh Quoc in Da Lat, Nguyen Tuong Thuy in Hanoi, and Nguyen
Van Thanh in Da Nang, independently ran for the 2016 National Assembly;
- Continuing to
maintain the operation of the Vietnam Times newspaper.
Because of the
activities that the Vietnamese communist authorities deem dangerous to the
regime, IJAVN has faced severe acts of repression. In particular, several active
members have been imprisoned, including:
- Blogger Truong
Duy Nhat, sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of “abusing his position
and power while on duty.”
- Dr. Pham Chi
Dung, the IJAVN’s founding member and president, arrested on November 29, 2019.
- Journalist
Nguyen Tuong Thuy, the IJAVN’s vice president, arrested on May 24, 2020.
- Journalist Le
Huu Minh Tuan, arrested on June 12, 2020.
On November 10,
2020, the Vietnamese communist government prosecuted Dr. Pham Chi Dung,
journalist Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan on charges of “
making, Storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of
opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Clause 2, Article 117
of the Penal Code. With these allegations, all of them could face sentences of
10 to 20 years in prison.
Furthermore, at
least ten other members of the IJAVN were summoned and interrogated; its website
and Facebook page were frequently locked down, and attacked by hackers. Many
posts have been removed by Facebook.
Although having
been in service during short period, the IJAVN has built a respectable
reputation at home and abroad through sound and impressive critical voices. In
particular, the leaders of IJAVN have reacted very bravely and intelligently
when they were arrested and confronted by the police and other government
officials.
Three members of
IJAVN, President Pham Chi Dung, Vice President Le Ngoc Thanh, and blogger Truong
Duy Nhat, were named “Information Heroes” by Reporters without Borders in 2014.
For its valuable
contributions to the fight for human rights, especially the right to freedom of
speech, as well as the hardships its members have gone through, IJAVN deserves
the Vietnam Human Rights Award for the Year 2020.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |
