Posts Tagged ‘Vietnam’
April 1, 2015
Casey Hynes reports on 26 March that human rights defenders are preparing to bring up strongly the case of their missing Laotian colleague Sombath Somphone at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum that convenes in Kuala Lumpur on 21-24 April 2015. Sombath was kidnapped in Vientiane, Laos, in 2013 [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/laos-un-experts-on-two-year-old-disappearance-of-human-rights-defender-sombath-somphone/].
The ACSC/APF allows civil society activists from all the ASEAN countries to voice their concerns about rights violations in their countries, and become empowered by the strength in numbers there. In countries such as Laos and Vietnam, dissent is often suppressed with jail time or enforced disappearances, which makes it extremely dangerous for activists to speak out. Jerald Joseph, chair of the APF’s Regional Steering Committee, said that by coming to the forum, activists who face risks in their home countries find a safer space to voice their concerns.
ACSC/APF organizers recently condemned the crackdown on protesters in Burma, where 100 people were arrested for speaking out against a new education law. They also pointed to a spate of political arrests in Malaysia and the murder of Indonesian farmer and lands rights activist Indra Pelani, who was allegedly shot to death by “security guards of a subsidiary company of Asia Pulp and Paper”.
“There are numerous cases where human rights defenders have just disappeared. Somchai Neelapaijit in Thailand, Sombath Somphone in Laos, and Jonas Burgos in the Philippines—where are they?” said Mugiyanto, a member of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development.
The Laos government is notorious for restricting civil society activism, and for routinely committing human rights abuses. However, Laos is set to take over the ASEAN chairmanship in 2016, and Joseph said they’ll have to answer for some of their abuses when that happens. Already, civil society actors have been discussing the rights situation in Laos with activists and government officials there. “The conversation has started, and the pressure is up already,” he said in a phone interview.
Participating organizations sent a letter on behalf of the ACSC/APF to all the ASEAN member governments in January, highlighting their priorities for “reclaiming the ASEAN community for the people.”
The letter stated:
While ASEAN governments are heading towards developing the ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision, the people of ASEAN continue to suffer from authoritarian and military regimes, increased militarisation, violence and armed conflicts, unlawful foreign interference, lack of fundamental freedoms and human rights violations, undemocratic processes, corruption and poor governance, development injustice, discrimination, inequality, and religious extremism and intolerance. …
The failure of ASEAN to meaningfully address the people’s issues is deeply rooted in the organisation’s continued adherence to a neo-liberal model that prioritizes corporate interests and elite groups, including state-owned enterprises, over the interests of the people. Our engagement with the ASEAN process is therefore anchored on a critique and rejection of deregulation, privatisation, government and corporate-led trade and investment policies that breed greater inequalities, accelerate marginalization and exploitation, and inhibit peace, democracy, development, and social progress in the region.
The authors identified four priorities for ASEAN governments to focus on: development justice; democratic processes, governance, and fundamental rights and freedoms; peace and security; and discrimination and inequality.
ASEAN rights activists demand change ahead of People’s Forum | Asian Correspondent.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: ASEAN, ASEAN Civil Society Conference, ASEAN People’s Forum, Burma, Casey Hynes, civil society activists, disappearances, Indonesia, Jerald Joseph, Jonas Burgos, Kuala Lumpur, Laos, Malaysia, Mugiyanto, Sombath Somphone, Somchai Neelapaijit, South-east asia, Vietnam
December 5, 2014
Radio Free Asia reported on 27 November that Vietnamese human rights defenders and foreign diplomats went ahead with a planned human rights conference in Hanoi on Wednesday, defying efforts by police to harass and intimidate. The conference, titled “U.N. Protection Mechanisms for Human Rights Defenders in Vietnam,” was held at the Thai Ha church in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, and was attended by over 70 members of civil society groups, together with representatives of the United Nations and embassies of Australia, the U.S., the UK, and the European Union.After being warned by police that the rare gathering was considered “illegal” by authorities, event organizer Nguyen Quang A was repeatedly blocked in his efforts to arrive at the church, he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Wednesday. It took him 4 hours to reach the meeting place after having been blocked several times from taking public transport.
Vietnam Rights Conference Goes Ahead Despite Police Harassment.
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Tags: conference, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, Hanoi, harassment, human rights conference, Human Rights Defenders, intimidation, land rights, Nguyen Quang, Radio Free Asia, RFA, Vietnam
November 11, 2013
Authoritarian Vietnam has stepped up an alarming crackdown on domestic dissent even as it seeks a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International says on 7 November. Vietnam is using a raft of draconian legislation to clamp down on a growing number of citizens who seek to question the party’s stranglehold on power. “Vietnam is fast turning into one of Southeast Asias largest prisons for human rights defenders and other activists” said Amnesty researcher Rupert Abbott to AFP.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AFP, Amnesty, Amnesty International, bloggers, Dieu Cay, freedom of expression, Human rights defender, human rights lawyer, internet, Le Quoc Quan, prisoners of conscience, Reporters without Borders, Rupert Abbott, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Human Rights Council, Vietnam
July 5, 2013
A network of Asean civil society organisations unveiled its review of the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights [AICHR] on 20 June reports the Bangkok Post. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AICHR, ASEAN, Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, Bangkok Post, Cambodia, Civil society, Forum Asia, Human Rights Defenders, intergovernmental system, Lao, regional mechanisms, Thailand, Vietnam
May 27, 2013
On 23 May 2013 the appeal trials of Messrs Ho Duc Hoa, Thai Van Dung, Paulus Le Son, Nguyen Xuan Anh, Tran Minh Nhat, Nguyen Dinh Cuong, Ho Van Oanh and Nguyen Van Duyet were heard in a court in the northern city of Vinh, Vietnam. International observers were not allowed access to the hearing and there was a heavy police presence outside the court. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Dong Chua Cuu, duc hoa, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, nhat nguyen, Paulus Le Son, Sentence (law), Vietnam, Vinh
March 17, 2013
Human rights group Reporters Without Borders has named and shamed five companies it claims allowed their products to be used by countries with bad human rights records and the NGO also named five countries as “enemies of the internet“. It said that five private sector companies; Gamma, Trovicor, Hacking Team, Amesys and Blue Coat are “digital era mercenaries”. The overall list of companies it believed were involved in selling products to authoritarian regimes was “not exhaustive” and will be expanded in the coming months. “They all sell products that are liable to be used by governments to violate human rights and freedom of information,” the group said.”Their products have been or are being used to commit violations of human rights and freedom of information. If these companies decided to sell to authoritarian regimes, they must have known that their products could be used to spy on journalists, dissidents and netizens.” It added that if surveillance products were sold to an authoritarian regime by an intermediary without their knowledge, “their failure to keep track of the exports of their own software means they did not care if their technology was misused and did not care about the vulnerability of those who defend human rights.” Research by Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab has established that surveillance technology used against dissidents and human rights defenders in such countries as Egypt, Bahrain and Libya came from western companies, it claimed.
The Paris-based group labelled Syria, China, Iran, Bahrain and Vietnam as“enemies of the internet” Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Bahrain, China, digital security, European Union, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, human rights group, information technology, internet, Iran, private sector companies, Reporters without Borders, RSF, security, software, spy, Syria, United States, Vietnam, Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2013
On 10 January 2013 I posted something on the largest ever trial of internet dissidents in Viet Nam. On 8 March this issue was continued in the UN:
“We call upon the Council to press Vietnam to put an end to this repression,” said Vo Van Ai, speaking on behalf of Vietnamese campaigners and the International Federation of Human Rights. In a speech to the UN body he said a total of 32 bloggers and other cyber-dissidents were behind bars in Vietnam, either sentenced or awaiting trial. They face prison terms of up to 16 years.
“Such repression does not serve to protect national security, as the Vietnamese authorities claim, but to stifle the voices of an emerging civil society speaking out on corruption, power abuse, the plight of dispossessed peasants and farmers, human rights and democratic reforms,” he said. He condemned Vietnam’s use of Ordinance 44, a 2002 ruling which authorises the detention of suspected national security offenders without due process of the law and which is increasingly deployed against bloggers, sometimes in psychiatric hospitals.
Fellow-campaigner Penelope Faulker, with the French-based group Work Together for Human Rights, noted that after a 2009 United Nations review (UPR), Hanoi had pledged to uphold freedom of information. “However, in the past year alone, scores of bloggers, online journalists and human rights defenders in Vietnam have been harassed, intimated, subjected to police abuse, or condemned to extremely harsh prison sentences simply for expressing their peaceful views on the Internet,” she told the Council. The southeast Asian country has been branded an “enemy of the Internet” by freedom of expression watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
via: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/08/human-rights-activists-push-u-n-for-action-over-vietnams-treatment-of-cyber-protesters/
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: blog, cyber activism, dissidents, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, International Federation for Human Rights, National security, Penelope Faulker, Reporters without Borders, southeast asian country, United Nations, UPR, Viet Nam, Vietnam, Vo Van Ai
January 10, 2013
ARTICLE 19 
AND VIET TAN ON 9 JANUARY REPORT ON THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF 14 ACTIVISTS IN VIETNAM
- Ho Duc Hoa (13 years in prison, 5 years house arrest)
- Dang Xuan Dieu (13 years in prison, 5 years house arrest)
- Paulus Le Son (13 years in prison, 5 years house arrest)
- Nguyen Van Duyet (6 years in prison, 4 years house arrest)
- Nguyen Van Oai (3 years in prison, 2 years house arrest)
- Ho Van Oanh (3 years in prison, 2 years house arrest)
- Nguyen Dinh Cuong (4 years in prison, 3 years house arrest)
- Nguyen Xuan Anh (5 years in prison, 3 years house arrest)
- Thai Van Dung (5 years in prison, 3 years house arrest)
- Tran Minh Nhat (4 years in prison, 3 years house arrest)
- Nong Hung Anh (5 years in prison, 3 years house arrest)
- Nguyen Dang Vinh Phuc (probation)
- Nguyen Dang Minh Man (9 years in prison, 3 years house arrest)
- Dang Ngoc Minh (3 years in prison, 2 years house arrest)
The men and women were convicted of “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” under Article 79 of the penal code. The criminal activities the group are said to have engaged in include writing commentary that is critical of the Government and distributing this on the internet, and both participating in and encouraging peaceful protest. ARTICLE 19 believes that these activities should not be considered to be criminal. The Vietnamese authorities have failed to recognise basic human rights and these convictions fail to meet international standards freedom of expression. “Thirteen people [one was given probation – ed] are now behind bars for doing nothing more than expressing legitimate political concerns. They have been locked away for sharing views about matters of public importance on the internet and for taking part in peaceful demonstrations. These are not things which should be considered criminal. It seems that the real crime here is the appalling abuse of fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of expression, by the state” said Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19.
The group, many of them bloggers and citizen journalists, were arrested between August and December 2011 and held for more than a year before standing trial.
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Tags: activism, Article 19, bloggers, Democracy, detention, freedom of expression, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, prison, Viet Nam, Viet Tan, Vietnam
January 4, 2013
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), reports the arbitrary detention of Mr. Le Quoc Quan, a human rights lawyer and blogger.
On December 27, 2012, Mr. Le Quoc Quan was arrested by the police in Hanoi while dropping off his daughter at school. The police also searched his office and home and confiscated some documents. The police told his family that he would be charged under Article 161 of the Criminal Code, which relates to tax evasion. If condemned, he risks three years in prison and a heavy fine. Mr. Le Quoc Quan, who began a hunger strike on December 28, is currently detained incommunicado in Hoa Lo Prison No. 1. Neither his lawyer nor his family have been able to visit him to date.
Mr. Le Quoc Quan’s arrest follows a recent order by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that authorities renew the fight against anyone using the Internet to “defame and spread propaganda against the State”.Mr. Le Quoc Quan has been harassed constantly since 2007 by the Vietnamese authorities because of his human rights activities. On October 3, 2012, some 50 security police and plain-clothed militia forced entry into the head office of VietNam Credit in Hanoi and its branch office in Saigon. The firm belongs to Mr. Le Quoc Quan and his two brothers. Police seized files and documents belonging to the firm, assaulted the staff and detained the brothers for interrogation. In addition, on August 18, 2012, Mr. Le Quoc Quan was brutally beaten by two unidentified men with iron bars outside his home in Hanoi.
The Observatory recalls that allegations of tax evasion have previously been levelled against human rights defenders. Blogger Nguyen Van Hai, alias Dieu Cay, founding member of the Club of Free Journalists, was initially jailed for tax evasion but then sentenced in September 2012 to 12 years in jail for spreading anti-State propaganda under Article 88 of the Criminal Code, along with two other bloggers and members of the Club of Free Journalists.
via Viet Nam: Arbitrary detention of Mr. Le Quoc Quan / January 4, 2013 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
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Tags: blogger, FIDH, harassment, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, lawyer, Le Quoc Quan, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, Viet Nam, Vietnam
June 27, 2011
The FIDH in Paris reported that Dr. Vo Van Ai, a life-long independent Vietnamese human rights defender, has been awarded the 2011 Special Prize for Freedom (Premio Speciale alla Liberta) by the Italian organisation Società Libera. The Prize was presented in Lucca on June 24, 2011. Dr. Vo is the President and founder of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), a member organization of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). The Vietnam Committee aims to monitor human rights in Vietnam, mobilise support for victims of human rights abuses and promote efforts to advance democracy in Vietnam. The Special Prize is a deserving recognition of Dr. Vo’s tireless efforts to demand greater respect and protection of human rights and to lend a strong voice to the silent majority in Viet Nam where the mere exercise of, and aspirations for, fundamental freedoms is stifled or, even worse, criminalised, the FIDH added.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, organisations | 2 Comments »
Tags: award, FIDH, Italy, Vietnam, Vo Van Ai
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 