Press release from the Vietnam Path Movement on the issue of the Vietnamese government prevented its citizens from attending discussions on Human Rights.

Vietnam Path Movement | 1/8/2014

On June 20, 2014, at the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva which concludes the Vietnam’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, the government of Vietnam accepted 182 of the 227 recommendations from other countries. Among those recommendations that have been accepted by Vietnam was one that made by Australia, which states: “Give space to non-state media, and that make Criminal Code Articles 79, 88 and 258 more specific and consistent with international human rights obligations on freedom of expression.”

In response, the Australian government and the European Union, the embassies of Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland have jointly organized the seminar: Non-state media in Vietnam right now on July 30, 2014 at the Embassy of Australia in Hanoi, Vietnam.

During this same time, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, was invited by the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to conduct a country visit from July 21, 2014 to July 31, 2013. The purpose of the country visit was to study more about the protection and support of the people’s freedom of religion or belief and if there were any obstacles to these basic rights in Vietnam.

Both of the above-listed events were open to the public, and they offered an opportunity for the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to prove to the international community that Vietnam readily accept the responsibilities and commitments of a member of the Human Rights Council.

However, instead of providing an accessible environment as it has officially promised the other countries, the Vietnamese government once again used tactics to surround, harass, threaten, and arbitrary restraint in order to prevent and isolated Vietnamese citizens from participating in these events. Specifically, the following bloggers, independent reporters, and other civil dissidents, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que; former prisoner of conscience, Pham Ba Hai; Mrs. Duong Thi Tan; Mr. Pham Chi Dung, Pastor Nguyen Manh Hung; Pastor Nguyen Hoang Hoa; Chairman of the Hoa Hao Buddhism, Le Quang Liem; Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh; Ms. Tran Thi Nga; Ms. Huynh Phuong Ngoc; Ms. Pham Thanh Nghien, etc. were being harassed by the government before and after their participation in these events.

In his press statement on the visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam issued on July 31, 2014, Mr. Heiner Bielefeldt stated: “The planned visits to An Giang, Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces were unfortunately interrupted from 28 to 30 July. I received credible information that some individuals whom I wanted to meet with had been either under heavy surveillance, warned, intimidated, harassed or prevented from travelling by the police. Even those who successfully met with me were not free from a certain degree of police surveillance or questioning. Moreover, I was closely monitored of my whereabouts by undeclared “security or police agents”, while the privacy and confidentiality of some meetings could have been compromised. All these incidents are in clear violation of the terms of reference of any country visit.”

Vietnam is at a historical crossroad where appropriate decisions are necessary in both its foreign policy as well as internal policy making to unite and reassure its people and to receive international support to overcome the current crisis of the economy as well as the national security in regard to its seawaters. The government’s action in the two above-referenced events has truly disappointed the public.

Clearly, the determination to prevent Vietnamese citizens from participating in these seminars and discussions in regard to Human Rights not only does not help the Vietnamese government improves its image in the international community. Quite the contrary, it allows everyone to believe that the allegations of human rights violations in Vietnam have now been substantiated. Therefore, only a sincere effort to realistically improve human rights conditions would be able to help the government to gain its people trust at this time.

Being confronted with these events, the Vietnam Path Movement announces:
We strongly object the negative, untrustworthy, and nontransparent tactics utilized by the Vietnamese government at every single level to infringe upon the basic human rights of its citizens. Such conducts clearly disregard the law, violate Vietnam’s own constitution, go against all the international treaties Vietnam has ratified and approved, and they are not the conducts of a responsible member of the United Nations, especially a member of its Human Rights Council’s 47 states for the term of 2014-2016 who has the duty of promoting and protect human rights in the world.

We demand that the Vietnamese government immediately cease all of its repeating harassment in all forms which has been used by them against its people over the years and instead begin to hold dialogues with citizens even with the dissidents, and not to act arbitrarily to silence them by arrest and imprisonment without cause which only brings immediate, negative and limited consequences, causing its people to lose faith in the judicial system and to put the government in a position that lacks authority.

We call on all Vietnamese citizens to lay down their fear when confronted with oppression and continue to exercise their human rights with courage and as the people of a member state of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council that has the responsibility to share and protect the sacred and universal human rights of the progressive humankind.

On behalf of the Vietnam Path Movement
Le Quoc Tuan, Spokesperson