According to the information received from the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, on May 11, 2007, two lawyers, Mr. Nguyen Van Dai, founder of the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam, and Ms. Le Thi Cong Nhan, a spokesperson for the Progression Party, were sentenced to harsh prison sentences by the Ha Noi People’s Court. Mr. Nguyen van Dai was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 4 years house arrest and Ms. Le Thi Cong Nhan to 4 years prison and 3 years house arrest, for “spreading propaganda against the State” (Article 88 of the Vietnamese Penal Code).
These sentences add to the condemnations of three other activists on May 10, 2007. Messrs. Le Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Bac Truyen and Huynh Nguyen Dao, three leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), were respectively sentenced to 5, 4 and 3 years in prison, followed by 2 years house arrest under Article 88 of the Vietnamese Penal Code. The three men were charged with “conducting propaganda” against the state for taking part in setting up the party, communicating online with a government critic abroad, and spreading leaflets critical of the government. Their trial, reportedly closed to international observers, lasted around four hours.
FIDH and OMCT consider their detentions to be arbitrary as they aim at sanctioning their legitimate right to freedom of expression and association. These facts contradicts international instruments ratified by Vietnam in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Vietnamese Constitution.
FIDH and OMCT are deeply worried about the detention and sentencing of these human rights defenders and political opponents. These condemnations seem to confirm the new strengthening of the repressive policy by Vietnamese authorities who have again increased their crackdown on civil society after they obtained positive signs from the international community, i.e. the removal from the US State Department’s blacklist of “Countries of Particular Concern” for religious freedom violations, membership of the World Trade Organisation, favoured trading status with the US and recognition of its international legitimacy at the APEC Summit in Hanoi in November 2006.
FIDH and OMCT already denounced the situation of systematic harassment of any critical voice in a report released within their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and titled Twelve human rights defenders have the floor (April 2007 - http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=4207 or: http://www.omct.org/pdf/Observatory/2007/mission_report_vietnam_04_2007_eng.pdf). In this report, the Observatory met in particular with Thich Quang Do, who has remained under house arrest since 1998, in reason of his involvement for religious freedoms and democracy in Vietnam.
Decisive steps are necessary in order to foster an environment conducive to human rights and the rule of law. In particular, the Vietnamese authorities should notably:
– Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Messrs. Nguyen van Dai, Thi Cong Nhan, Le Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Bac Truyen, Huynh Nguyen Dao and Thich Quang Do, in any circumstances;
– Immediately and unconditionally release them as their detention is arbitrary, all human rights defenders, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience detained for having legitimately and peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of information and freedom of religion and belief;
– Cease all forms of repression, including judicial and administrative harassment, against those who exercise their rights to freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and belief and freedom of association and assembly in accordance with international human rights standards;
– More generally, fully respect the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1 and its Articles 12.1 and 12.2.
Moreover, FIDH and OMCT reiterate their call to the European Union to implement Article 1 of the 1995 EU-Vietnam Co-operation Agreement, which founds cooperation on the respect of democratic principles and human rights and establish, on this basis, specific benchmarks for human rights improvements in the EU human rights dialogue with Vietnam. The EU should grant particular attention to the protection of human rights defenders in accordance with the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.
For more information, please contact:
FIDH: + 33 1 43 55 25 18
OMCT: + 41 22 809 49 39