Echoing the concerns expressed and the information provided by FIDH and its member organisation, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), the European Parliament (EP), in its latest resolution of 15 November 2018 on Vietnam, strongly condemned « the continuing violations of human rights in Vietnam, including the sentencing, political intimidation, surveillance, harassment, assaults and unfair trials of political activists, journalists, bloggers, dissidents and human rights defenders for exercising their freedom of expression either online or offline. »
Moreover, the EP resolution calls for « the Vietnamese Government and the EU, to commit to improving respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country » notably « in view of the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and of the EU-Vietnam Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). » Linking trade policies and human rights is highly relevant when envisaging to ratify trade and investment agreements as we recalled in the latest letter sent to the EU on 7 November 2018.