Vietnam: Rights Dialogue Should Produce Concrete Steps
Time for Government to Begin
Delivering on Human Rights
Human
Rights Watch
April
9, 2013
(Washington, DC) – The
Vietnamese government should use the opportunity of the upcoming US-Vietnam
Human Rights Dialogue to release political prisoners and make commitments to end
the persecution of bloggers, land rights activists, and other peaceful critics,
Human Rights Watch said today. The 17th US-Vietnam Human Rights
dialogue will take place in Hanoi beginning on April 12, 2013.
“The Vietnamese government has produced an avalanche of political show trials as
it tries to keep a lid on growing dissent,” said
Brad Adams , Asia director of Human
Rights Watch. “The US should use this opportunity to make it clear that Vietnam
needs to engage in serious reforms to improve the rights situation, or there
will be severe consequences, including damage to relations with the US.”
According to the United States, the purpose of human rights dialogues is to
produce concrete results to narrow the differences between international human
rights standards and human rights policies and practices in
Vietnam . Human Rights Watch said
that the US should make clear that if Vietnam wants to be considered a
responsible international partner, it should make strong advances in meeting its
international human rights obligations immediately.
Vietnam
is bidding for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council and will inevitably face
greater scrutiny of its record at the Council’s Universal Periodic Review
process.
Human Rights Watch
pointed to the large and growing number of criminal convictions of peaceful
protesters by Vietnam. In 2012, at least 40 people are known to have been
convicted and sentenced to prison in trials that did not meet international due
process and fair trials standards. Alarmingly, at least 40 more people were
convicted in political trials in just the first six weeks of 2013.
“Last year was a terrible year for dissidents, who were imprisoned in large
numbers,” Adams said. “Yet just as many activists were imprisoned after
political trials in the first two months of 2013 than in the entire year of
2012. The Vietnamese government needs to realize it cannot solve the country’s
huge social and political problems by throwing all its critics in jail.”
In recent months there has been an official campaign to suppress critical
comments about the process of amending Vietnam’s constitution. This campaign
appears to have been a factor in the arrest on December 27, 2012, of human
rights-defending lawyer Le Quoc Quan and in official harassment and intimidation
during February and March 2013 against critics like the journalist Nguyen Dac
Kien, and Buddhist activist Le Cong Cau. Anonymous thugs threw rotten fish heads
and fish intestines at the house of 2012 Hellman/Hammett prize winner, writer
Huynh Ngoc Tuan. On April 8 and April 9, bloggers Bui Thi Minh Hang and Nguyen
Chi Duc were attacked while police failed to intervene.
Vietnam
has held some political prisoners for decades. In some instances these prisoners
have been denied proper medical care for deteriorating health conditions. One of
these is 66-year-old Nguyen Huu Cau, first detained in 1975, then rearrested in
1982 and held ever since. His health has reportedly deteriorated recently.
As a first urgent and humanitarian step, Human Rights Watch urged Vietnam to
grant medical parole to all political prisoners and detainees who, like Nguyen
Huu Cau, have serious health problems, followed by expeditious independent and
impartial review of their cases to ascertain those who should be unconditionally
and permanently released because they have been held solely for peaceful
exercise of their fundamental human rights.
Those who appear to be in that category include:Nguyen Huu Cau,Tran Huynh Duy
Thuc, Ho Duc Hoa,Dang Xuan Dieu, Le Van Son, Nguyen Van Hai, Mai Thi Dung,
Nguyen Cong Chinh, Pham Thi Phuong,Ta Phong Tan,Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, Nguyen
Van Ly,Nguyen Dang Minh Man, Tran Thi Thuy,Phung Lam, Do Thi Minh Hanh, Doan Huy
Chuong, Cu Huy Ha Vu,Nguyen Tien Trung, Pham Van Thong, Nguyen Ngoc Cuong,Dinh
Dang Dinh, Nguyen Xuan Nghia, Tran Vu Anh Binh, Nguyen Kim Nhan, Ho Thi Bich
Khuong, Le Thanh Tung,Phan Ngoc Tuan, Vi Duc Hoi, Nguyen Van Lia, Vo Minh Tri,
Le Quoc Quan – and many others.
Human Rights Watch called on the Vietnamese government to use the current
process of amending the constitution to initiate an urgent program of legal
reform aimed at:
· Amending or
repealing legal provisions that effectively criminalize peaceful dissent,
freedom of expression, and labor organizing;
· Removing all
legal hindrances toindependent religious organizations to freely conduct
peaceful religious activities;
· Dropping plans
for implementing the current “Decree on the Management, Provision, and Use of
Internet Services and Information on the Network” and removing filtering,
surveillance, and other restrictions on internet usage;
· Abolishing all
legal justifications for forced labor and detention without trial for so-called
“labor therapy” in cases of drug use or other purposes; and
· Dropping all
provisions that make possible land confiscation without due process, just
compensation,and independent and impartial means of review.
“For far too long,
Vietnam’s government has been given an easy ride on human rights, with the
result that the Vietnamese people have suffered increasing abuses,” said Adams.
“The roadmap to reform is obvious, but it requires the Vietnamese Communist
Party to tolerate dissent and accept the right of people to advocate different
views.
Source URL:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/09/vietnam-rights-dialogue-should-produce-concrete-steps