Human Rights Watch appreciates the opportunity to contribute to preparations for the 19th Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue, scheduled to be held in July 2024.
Government relations between Australia and Vietnam continues to grow significantly. In June 2023, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Vietnam to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In March 2024, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Australia to upgrade the countries' relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This upgrade has made Australia the seventh country with which Vietnam has such a relationship, after China, Russia, India, South Korea, the United States, and Japan.
In July 2023, Australia secured the release of its citizen Chau Van Kham, a democracy activist, after he served more than four years in a Vietnamese prison for his political beliefs. More than 160 Vietnamese are currently serving lengthy prison terms in Vietnam for peacefully exercising their basic civil and political rights.
Vietnam's government severely restricts civil and political rights in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Vietnam ratified in 1982. These include the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion and belief. It prohibits the formation and operation of any organisation or group the Vietnamese Communist Party deems threatening to its monopoly on power. Authorities block access to websites and require social media and telecommunications companies to remove content deemed to be politically sensitive. Those who criticise the one-party state, including on social media, face police harassment, restricted movement, physical assault, arbitrary arrest and detention, and prosecution. Police detain political activists for months without access to legal counsel and subject them to abusive interrogations and in some cases, torture. Party-controlled courts convict bloggers and activists on bogus national security charges and impose lengthy prison sentences.
On substantive areas of concern for the dialogue, Human Rights Watch recommends that the Australian government focus on five priority areas regarding the dire human rights situation in Vietnam: 1) political prisoners and detainees; 2) environmental activists; 3) repression of labour rights; 4) unfair legal treatment for criminal suspects and defendants; and 5) repression of the right to freely practice religion and belief.
It is unclear what specific human rights issues Australia raised in previous dialogues and whether the Australian government set up verifiable benchmarks with Vietnam during its previous annual bilateral rights dialogue.
We urge the Australian government to press for clear, concrete, and measurable benchmarks for progress in these five priority areas, laying out consequences for bilateral relations should these violations continue to go unaddressed.
Australia's failure to do so will result in this year's dialogue amounting yet again to a box-ticking exercise, in which Australia will continue to serve only as a bystander to Vietnam's intensifying repression.
1. Political Prisoners and Detainees
The Vietnamese government frequently uses vaguely worded and loosely interpreted provisions in Vietnam's penal code and other laws to prosecute and imprison peaceful, political, and religious activists. These include "making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" (article 117) and "abusing the rights to democracy and freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations, individuals" (article 331).
Vietnam currently holds more than 160 people in prison for peacefully exercising their basic civil and political rights. Since the last human rights dialogue between Australia and Vietnam in April 2023, the Vietnamese authorities convicted and sentenced to prison at least 11 people for criticizing the government, including pro-democracy campaigners Dang Dang Phuoc, Bui Tuan Lam, Tran Van Bang, Phan Tat Thanh, Duong Tuan Ngoc, Nguyen Van Lam, Phan Van Loc, Do Minh Hien, Nguyen Hoang Nam, Nguyen Minh Son, and Phan Son Tung, to between five years six months and eight years in prison, all under article 117 of the penal code. Between April 2023 and May 2024, police arrested at least eight other activists under the same article, including prominent bloggers Nguyen Vu Binh, Nguyen Chi Tuyen, and Phan Van Bach, and democracy campaigners Le Quoc Hung, Phan Dinh Sang, Hoang Viet Khanh, Tran Van Khanh, and Pham Van Cho.
Many people who voice grievances against local governments for various issues including land confiscation, corruption, and police brutality have also been arrested and sentenced to prison. Between April 2023 and June 2024, local authorities convicted and sentenced at least 25 people to many years in prison under article 331 of the penal code, including reformist activist Nguyen Son Lo and former political prisoner Le Minh The. Police also arrested at least 14 other people during the same period, all under article 331 of the penal code, including prominent journalist Huy Duc and lawyer Tran Dinh Trien.
Australia should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Immediately release all political prisoners and detainees held for exercising their basic civil and political rights;
- Amend or repeal penal code articles 117 and 331 in conformity with Vietnam's obligations under the ICCPR.
2. Environmental Activists
Despite the Vietnamese government's assurances on addressing global climate change, Vietnam has systematically arrested and prosecuted environmentalists engaged in combatting production and use of fossil fuels, especially coal. Police arrested prominent national environmental activists Hoang Thi Minh Hong in May and Ngo Thi To Nhien and her colleague Duong Duc Viet in September 2023.
The environmental campaigner Dang Dinh Bach, who was sentenced to prison in January 2022 on politically motivated tax evasion charges, remains behind bars. In August 2023, he was reportedly hit on the head from behind for trying to tell his family on a phone call how he was being treated. Dang Dinh Bach dedicated his life to protecting communities from pollution, phasing out plastic waste, and supporting the Vietnamese government's transition to clean energy.
In May 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion that the arrest and imprisonment of Dang Dinh Bach was arbitrary, and that the Vietnamese government should "release Mr. Bach immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations."
Australia should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Immediately release environmentalist activists Hoang Thi Minh Hong, Dang Dinh Bach, Ngo Thi To Nhien and Duong Duc Viet, and drop all charges against them;
- End restrictions on environmentalist organisations in violation of international law.
3. Repression of Labour Rights
Vietnam does not allow independent unions to represent workers. The Vietnam government continues to call the government-led Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) a "labor confederation" of enterprise-level "labor federations." But the VGCL is led by Vietnamese government appointees. The "unions" and "federations" that exist under the VGCL are almost all led by people appointed by management at the enterprise level. Workers or labour leaders do not choose leaders or representatives who can bargain to set wages on their behalf. In so far as the VGCL does bargain with management or at the state-wide level, it does so in the interests of the government and the Vietnamese Communist Party, not on behalf of workers and not in a representative capacity. The dynamic of state control of the VGCL has been further demonstrated by a recent directive issued by the Communist Party of Vietnam, "Directive 24," which orders enhanced scrutiny of labour groups, civil society, and foreign organisations, specifically in the context of Vietnam's implementation of new trade agreements with other countries and with the International Labour Organization.
In April, Vietnamese police arrested Nguyen Van Binh and Vu Minh Tien, senior officials in Vietnam's labour ministry and in VGCL who had advocated for more meaningful labour reforms and some independence of trade unions.
Numerous articles in state-run media reflect the Vietnam government's hostility to independent labour organisations or unions, calling them "hostile forces" that use "plots and tricks" to "oppose the Party and the State… causing social disorder and hindering the lives of laborers in our country," or arguing that the purpose of "so-called independent trade unions" is to "form a domestic oppositional political force, proceeding to carry out a 'colour revolution' or 'street revolution' to overthrow the Communist Party and eliminate the political regime in Vietnam."
Australia should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Immediately allow independent labour unions to be formed and ensure no retaliation against workers organisers outside the government-controlled mechanism;
- Ratify ILO Convention No. 87 (freedom of association), and with respect to ILO Convention No. 98 (right to organise), which Vietnam has ratified, engage with the ILO to ensure that the convention is implemented with rules and laws consistent with its goals and international standards it is meant to uphold.
4. Unfair Legal Treatment for Criminal Suspects and Defendants
The Vietnamese government uses a double standard of treating criminal suspects depending on whether the crime is considered to be political or non-political. In cases involving what the authorities consider politically motivated offenses, the government curbs the rights of suspects by denying them access to legal counsel for months, or even years; preventing visits by family members while the accused are in pre-trial detention; and blocking family members, activists, and friends from attending their trials.
In direct contrast, for some non-political criminal cases in which authorities want to send a message to communities, prosecutors and courts stage public trials to name and shame the defendants (and indirectly, their families), and "educate" the public. In many cases, the courts have already determined the defendants' guilt even before such public court spectacles began. In both political and non-political cases, the police, prosecutors, and courts violate the most central legal principle: a presumption of innocence in a fair trial before an independent court.
For politically motivated cases:
Vietnam's criminal procedure code stipulates that the procurator of the People's Supreme Procuracy can hold a person suspected of violating national security in detention until the investigation is concluded (article 173(5)), and can restrict the detainee's access to legal counsel until after the investigation is concluded (article 74). In practice, this means that those who are suspected of violating national security offenses are regularly held in police custody without access to a lawyer for as long as investigating officials deem appropriate.
For non-political cases:
Vietnam frequently carries out what they call "mobile trials" (xet xu luu dong), using makeshift courts in public spaces such as a sports stadium, local community space, schools or universities, or the headquarters of the government in a local ward, to hold trials of criminal suspects. The authorities claim that such "mobile trials" are used to "educate" people about law and set an example for the public. Such mobile trials are usually conducted in areas where the defendants live, causing public embarrassment and shame for the defendant and their family.
Between 2019 and 2023, Vietnam carried out such "mobile trials" in at least 55 different provinces (95 percent of the country's provinces) and all five main cities (Hanoi, Hai Phong, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang) in the country.
Australia should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Repeal article 74 and article 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code and allow all people detained for any alleged violations, including national security crimes, to have immediate and regular access to legal counsel upon being arrested and throughout their pre-trial detention;
- Immediately end the practice of conducting "mobile trials";
- Amend the Criminal Procedure Code to allow all suspects to have unhindered access to defence lawyers in private, for as long and as frequently as the lawyers and their clients require it, and respect lawyer-defendant confidentiality.
5. Repression of the Right to Freely Practice Religion and Belief
The Vietnamese government restricts religious practice through legislation, registration requirements, harassment, and surveillance. Religious groups are required to gain approval from and register with the government as well as operate under government-controlled management boards. While authorities allow many government-affiliated churches and pagodas to hold worship services, they regularly ban religious activities they arbitrarily deem to be contrary to the "national interest," "public order," or "national unity." The government labels Dega Protestant, Ha Mon Catholic, Falun Gong and other religious groups as ta dao ("evil religion") and harasses those who practice those beliefs.
The police monitor and sometimes violently crack down on religious groups operating outside government-controlled institutions. Unrecognised independent religious groups face constant surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, and their followers are subject to public criticism, forced renunciation of faith, detention, interrogation, torture, and imprisonment.
As of September 2021, Vietnam acknowledged that it had not officially recognised about 140 religious groups with approximately one million followers.
Between June 2023 and May 2024, authorities convicted and sentenced Y Krec Bya, Thach Cuong, To Hoang Chuong, Danh Minh Quang, Nay Y Blang, and Rlan Thih to many years in prison for being affiliated with independent religious groups that the government does not approve.
In May 2024, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom published its 2024 report in which it recommended that the US government "designate Vietnam as a 'country of particular concern,'" for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
In June 2024, Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security announced a program in which the police designed and applied software "to manage Buddhist monks, nuns and followers." The program will be piloted in Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh provinces before being applied nationwide.
Australia should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Allow all independent religious organisations to freely conduct religious activities and govern themselves. Churches and denominations that do not choose to join one of the officially authorised religious organisations with government-appointed boards should be allowed to operate independently;
- End government harassment, forced denunciations of faith, arrests, prosecutions, imprisonment, and ill-treatment of people because they are followers of disfavoured religions, and release anyone currently being held for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of religion, belief, expression, assembly and association;
- Permit outside observers, including United Nations agencies, foreign diplomats, and nongovernmental organisations to have unhindered and unaccompanied access to the Central Highlands, including specifically to communes and villages inhabited by Montagnards and other marginalised groups. Ensure there is no retribution or retaliation against anyone who speaks to or otherwise communicates with such outside observers.
