LATEST NEWS
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The United States and United Nations on Friday criticized Vietnam's detention of members of an environmental group including its founder, saying such actions were part of a broader trend toward curbing free speech.
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We are deeply troubled by the detention of prominent environmental human rights defender Hoang Thi
Minh Hong in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, on Wednesday this week.
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Vietnam has arrested well-known environmentalist Hoang Thi Minh Hong for tax evasion, a government official said Thursday in the latest example of the Vietnamese government’s routine use of financial charges to imprison green activists.
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A church outlawed in Vietnam has reappeared in the country’s northern Thanh Hoa province after many years with no presence or activities in the area, Vietnamese police said Tuesday.
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Bui Tuan Lam, 39, a long-time pro-democracy activist who runs a beef noodle stall in the central city of Danang, was convicted yesterday under Article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code, an elastic provision that has been used to sentence dozens of dissidents to lengthy prison terms.
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Vietnam is set to get billions of dollars from wealthy countries and investors over the next few years to help it move from coal to renewable energy. The goal is to fight climate change while boosting the country's economic development.
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Climate Justice and human rights organizations from around the globe are rallying around prominent Vietnamese environmental lawyer, Mr. Dang Dinh Bach, on the two-year anniversary of his arrest with the launch of the#StandwithBach hunger strike.
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A political prisoner serving an 11-year sentence at a jail in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province has accused staffers of contaminating the drinking water in the prison canteen after he fell ill with abdominal pain and diarrhea.
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Religious leaders in Vietnam have asked the U.S. government to punish Vietnamese officials involved in religious persecution activities, calling for use of the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction those involved in human rights violations.
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More than 20 human rights organizations have urged the United Nations to pressure Vietnam to release bloggers Duong Van Thai and Truong Duy Nhat and to take action to protect Vietnamese asylum seekers in Thailand from being forcibly returned to authorities in their home country.
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A U.N. working group of independent human rights experts has called on Vietnam to immediately release a detained climate activist serving a five-year prison term for tax evasion, saying he had been arrested arbitrarily and tried unfairly.
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Chinese authorities say 11 people were killed in a road accident Friday along the China-Vietnam border, including nine Vietnamese citizens. Chinese authorities said the road incident was linked to human smuggling.
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The Vietnamese government has denied allegations from United Nations experts that it represses the Khmer Krom minority living in the Mekong Delta region.
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An independent U.S. government commission charged with monitoring religious freedom abroad has released its annual report documenting violations that took place in 2022. A statement made by U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Nury Turkel framed commissioners’ dour mood.
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One of Vietnam’s leading environmental activists has been freed from prison five months before the end of her sentence.
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A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Friday sentenced war veteran and democracy activist Tran Van Bang to eight years in prison and three years probation for Facebook posts that were deemed to be anti-state propaganda in a trial that lasted less than three hours.
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Social media users in Vietnam must soon verify their identities, in what the government says is a bid to crack down on online scams.
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A U.N. Human Rights Council working group has issued an opinion on the case of a Vietnamese activist arrested in 2021 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “anti-state propaganda,” saying that his detention was arbitrary.
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More than 70 international entities have signed a letter to the Biden administration urging it to address the Vietnam government’s persecution of Christians and religious minorities.
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Ticket in hand, Vietnamese scholar Nguyen Quang A stepped up to the immigration counter at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport.
He planned to catch a flight to Thailand, and continue onward to the European Union, where he had planned to tour several countries.
But he was stopped by police and prevented from boarding the plane.
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A government commission tasked with monitoring religious freedom abroad has recommended the State Department designate five new countries as “Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs)” because of their engagement in, or toleration of, “particularly severe” religious freedom violations, including against Christians.
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The images on the 38-second video show only a knocked-over traffic cone, a parked car and some concrete paving – but the bursts of high-pitched screams from just off-camera are believed to have come from abducted Vietnamese blogger Thai Van Duong.
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The defense lawyer for ‘Onion Leaf Bae,” an activist whose online video mimicked a Turkish chef in apparent mockery of a senior government official, said he was kept from seeing his client this week.
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The maximum nine-day temporary custody period for a missing Vietnamese blogger ended Sunday without any information from police about his status – whether he would be detained pending trial or whether he would be released – as required by law.
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Swinging batons and bashing villagers, Vietnamese police dispersed dozens of members of the Ede ethnic group who were attempting to interfere with a drainage project they fear will discharge wastewater into a lake they depend on, sources told Radio Free Asia.
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The human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday accused Vietnam of kidnapping a blogger in Thailand critical of the Vietnamese regime and living under refugee status.
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The 14 Vietnamese migrant workers illegally crossed the border into China, then traveled to Fujian province. There they bought a used fishing boat and embarked on the final leg of their journey: the 160-kilometer (99-mile) voyage across the Taiwan Strait.
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Case of UNHCR-recognized refugee prompts concerns over a cross-border crackdown on political dissidents.
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The IPI global network condemns the Vietnamese government’s decision to sentence journalist Nguyen Lan Thang to six years in prison. Judicial authorities must immediately release Nguyen Lan Thang and ensure Vietnamese courts are not used to stifle press freedom.
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A Vietnamese blogger who is believed to have been abducted from Thailand by secret agents last week has turned up in police custody in his native country.
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Authorities in Vietnam have sent a second summons to at least two lawyers who defended a Buddhist organization in a case last year, asking the lawyers once again to appear for questioning regarding their public discussion of the case.
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Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Lan Thang goes to court Wednesday, accused of “conducting anti-state propaganda.” He’s been charged under the controversial Article 117 of the Criminal Code, often used by the authorities to suppress free speech on social media and Thang believes he won’t even have the opportunity to defend himself in court, according to his lawyer.
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On another note, the delegation expressed great concern over the worsening human rights situation in Vietnam, and in particular as regards the shrinking space for civil society, abuse of the vague provisions of the criminal code to supress critical voices, the harassment of activists, repression of the freedom of expression, notably in the online space, and of freedom of religion and belief.
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From 4 to 6 April, members of the European Parliament will travel to Vietnam to examine the human rights situation in the country following the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
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Australia’s Governor-General David Hurley will visit Hanoi this week to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the governments of Australia and Vietnam.
Hurley should publicly and privately raise a number of serious human rights concerns with the Vietnamese leadership.
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Vietnamese police have been harassing a former prisoner of conscience released from jail in December 2022 after serving most of a five-year sentence on charges of distributing materials against the state and participating in protests against the government.
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Vietnam granted early release to two prisoners of conscience, each serving a five-year sentence following separate arrests and convictions in 2019 under a law frequently used by authorities to stifle dissent, activists with knowledge of the situation said.
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A Vietnamese man who livestreamed YouTube videos deemed critical of the government and leaders and his spouse lost their appeals trial on Wednesday for prison sentences they received for “abusing democratic freedoms.”
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The Decent Work Country Programme Vietnam 2022-2026 was signed between representatives of the Vietnamese Government, workers, and employers and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Hanoi yesterday, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
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A land rights activist accused of giving interviews to foreign media and storing illegally printed books was sentenced to six years in prison for “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
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Vietnamese authorities should immediately release land rights activist Truong Van Dung and drop all charges against him, Human Rights Watch said today.
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When Phan Kim Khanh, a former member of President Barack Obama’s Young Southeast Asia Leaders Initiative, was serving a six-year sentence in Vietnam, he didn’t fathom that guards would force him to work six hours a day without compensation.
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Vietnam told the United Nations that it has no information regarding the whereabouts of Chinese activist Dong Guangping, who was arrested in Hanoi in August 2022.
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Days after Hanoi released its first white book on religious policies in 16 years, Vietnamese activists are pointing to its similarities to China's policies.
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Police in Vietnam on Friday arrested a Facebook user who authorities accuse of "attempting to overthrow the state" by sharing content that defamed leaders of the ruling Communist Party, its security ministry said.
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The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has just sent an open letter to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, condemning the ongoing investigation into human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh under article 331 of the Penal Code.
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Vietnamese police have summoned two attorneys defending members of a Buddhist house church in Long An province, accusing them of violating a law that is widely used to imprison dissidents.
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The 52nd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) convened this week — with 70 percent of the membership consisting of autocracies, dictatorships, and other non-democratic nations.
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Vietnam on Thursday published a white book declaring that Hanoi respects and ensures freedom of religion, but unregistered religious groups told Radio Free Asia that they are not free to worship and that in fact the government oppresses them.
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Bleeding and apparently afflicted with uterine fibroids, Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam has been suffering in prison without adequate medical care, her family told Radio Free Asia.
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The police in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam have ordered followers of the Church of God the Mother to stop following their religion.
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Vietnamese authorities have barred relatives and legal counsel from meeting with a detained Facebook user under investigation for posting “illegal content,” prompting criticism from an international rights group, which called the move “a clear rights violation.”
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Civil groups urged the European Parliament to step up pressure on Vietnam to improve its dismal human and labor rights records during a review of the implementation of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
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After six years in prison, political activist Nguyen Van Dien has been telling Radio Free Asia about his time served in a tiny cell with no window in the scorching heat of central Vietnam.
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Police in Vietnam said they are investigating lawyers for the Peng Lei Buddhist Church, accusing them of violating the country’s penal code as part of their representation for the religious group.
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Local authorities in southern Vietnam on Wednesday blocked U.S. diplomats from entering the homes of Christian leaders to keep them from discussing religious freedom in at least two remote villages, church members and social media posts reported.
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Authorities in Vietnam arrested activist Le Minh The for allegedly posting “illegal content” on his Facebook page, in violation of a vaguely worded law routinely used to suppress independent bloggers and journalists.
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Vietnamese authorities on Thursday freed activist Do The Hoa for “good behavior” seven months before the end of his five-year sentence, but the political prisoner emerged nearly blind because he was denied medical treatment while in prison.
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The daughter of missing human rights activist Dong Guangping from China, who vanished last summer after being arrested in Vietnam, is speaking out about Vietnam’s lack of response to UN and Canadian officials about his whereabouts.
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Nguyen Duy Linh is being mentally tortured by fellow inmates at Binh Duong province’s notorious An Phuoc prison, the Facebook activist told his family.
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Vietnamese authorities on Thursday freed activist Do The Hoa for “good behavior” seven months before the end of his five-year sentence, but the political prisoner emerged nearly blind because he was denied medical treatment while in prison.
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Two U.S. lawmakers have urged the Vietnamese government to release a woman serving a 33-month sentence for spraying paint on the country’s national flag.
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Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has ordered the detention of the former director of the Southeast and North Asia Institute of Technology Research and Development following six months of house arrest.
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Hanoi police said that they completed an investigation into the case of prominent blogger Nguyen Lan Thang, who was arrested in July, and recommended he be charged with spreading anti-state information.
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A former prisoner of conscience has been summoned by police in Vietnam after accusing them of taking nearly U.S.$11,000 from her during her arrest three years ago.
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Joint Statement of a Coalition of Vietnamese Organizations at home and overseas on January 30, 2023, about Recent Suspicious Deaths in Vietnamese Prisons
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The U.S. Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission called on Vietnam on Jan. 20 to release prominent political prisoner Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who has now served 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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A group of international parliamentarians and activists has signed a letter to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urging Hanoi to release Chau Van Kham, an activist detained for four years in Vietnam.
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The United Nations has condemned Vietnam’s 2018 arrest and detention of Nguyen Ngoc Anh, a 43-year-old environmental activist and farming engineer who was charged with conducting “anti-State propaganda.”
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International NGOs are rallying around prominent environmental lawyer Dang Dinh Bach on the one-year anniversary of his five-year prison sentence in Vietnam with the launch of the standwithbach.org website and the #StandwithBach social media campaign calling for his immediate release.
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Former prisoner of conscience Dang Thi Hue plans to continue her campaign against toll booth operators who cheat motorists out of money, she told RFA.
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The Vietnamese government intensified its crackdown on both domestic and international nongovernmental organizations in Vietnam during 2022, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. The systematic suppression of freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion persisted without letup.
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In spite of taking its place on the United Nations Human Rights Council this year for a two-year term, Vietnam continues to arrest and arbitrarily detain activists, human rights defenders and journalists, according to four independent U.N. human rights experts.
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