Vietnam
Freedom of expression and political accountability did
not improve in Vietnam in 2010. While
the National Assembly played a more prominent role in holding the government to
account, the authorities in this one-party state continued to target
individuals who criticised the Communist Party and its policies. Freedom of expression and access to
information were suppressed through a combination of stringent legislation,
tight control of the state-run media, internet restrictions and the arrest and
imprisonment of bloggers and political activists. These restrictions have tightened over the
past year.
In the area of social and economic rights, Vietnam’s
performance was noticeably better. Vietnam’s impressive record of socio-economic
development was underscored by the country meeting or exceeding a number of the
2015 UN Millennium Development Goal targets in 2010, including alleviating
extreme poverty and hunger.
Modest advances were made in freedom of religion, with
the government continuing to promote compliance with its legal framework on
freedom of religion, although concerns remained over implementation in some
areas.
We were able to engage constructively with Vietnam in
some areas during 2010. Our efforts
focused on promoting political accountability and transparency, developing the
media sector, and encouraging the application of international human rights
standards in law enforcement. We
successfully implemented a number of human rights projects in cooperation with
the Vietnamese government and other agencies. At the same time we continued a frank and
constructive dialogue with the government on issues of concern, both
bilaterally and with EU partners, including through the biannual EU–Vietnam
Human Rights Dialogue. Foreign Secretary
William Hague, Minister of State Jeremy Browne and Minister of State for the
Department for International Development Alan Duncan all raised human rights
concerns during bilateral discussions with their Vietnamese counterparts. The UK–Vietnam Strategic Partnership, signed
in September, included a commitment from both sides to uphold human rights. Human rights remained a key pillar of our
annual bilateral discussions with the Vietnamese government under the
Development Partnership Arrangement led by the Department for International
Development (DFID).
As chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in April, Vietnam oversaw the inauguration of the ASEAN Commission on
the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children. Vietnam also chaired the ASEAN
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, which approved its first five-year
work plan, to be taken forward under the Indonesian chairmanship of ASEAN in
2011. The establishment of the
Commission is a welcome development and we hope that this body will, in time,
establish powers to investigate and hold human rights violators to account.
In January 2011, the Communist Party will hold its 11th
five-yearly Party Congress. This will
elect new leaders to some of the Party’s most senior posts. However, there is no indication that there
will be a significant shift in approach to civil and political rights. The Communist Party is likely to continue to
increase international engagement to promote economic growth and regional
stability, but its priority will continue to be the maintenance of its own
power. The space for open debate and
discussion is unlikely to expand significantly in the short term.
National Assembly elections will be held in May 2011 and
there will be a new intake of deputies. Given the role the National Assembly is
developing in holding the government to account, we will continue to provide
capacity-building support. We will
continue to work with other key institutions, including the State Audit Office
of Vietnam, the government inspectorate and the media, to help promote
political accountability and fight corruption. We will also continue to focus on the
development of the media sector, working with media practitioners and policy-makers
through our memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Information and
Communications.
We will continue to work with our EU partners in Vietnam
to raise issues of concern and to encourage the Vietnamese government to allow
EU diplomats to attend trials and appeal hearings and to visit prisoners. Human rights will remain a key pillar of our
annual bilateral discussion under the DFID-led Development Partnership
Arrangement. We will raise human rights
in bilateral exchanges under the UK-Vietnam Strategic Partnership. We will also agree a plan of action under the
Strategic Partnership, of which concrete action on human rights will be a key
element.
Access to justice
The Vietnamese authorities recognise the need to overhaul
their judicial system, which lacks independence from the Communist Party and
the government. However, progress on
implementing the Communist Party’s Judicial Reform Strategy to 2020 has been
slow, and we continue to have concerns about political interference in the
judiciary and the failure of the authorities to respect citizens’ legal rights.
The judiciary faces a number of
challenges, including a lack of trained court officials and the frequent
turnover of politically appointed judges. There also remains a serious shortage of
qualified lawyers.
This year the European Commission selected the British
Council to manage a five- year capacity-building programme of support for the
Ministry of Justice, Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuracy, as
part of the Justice Partnership Programme.
Rule of law
Corruption remains a considerable problem in Vietnam. Transparency International's Global Corruption
Barometer, published in December, found that urban Vietnamese perceived
corruption to be on the increase. The
report also found that institutional and political limitations prevented
ordinary citizens from becoming involved in anti-corruption efforts. The government struggled to implement a legal
framework on anti-corruption but reviewed the effectiveness of existing
measures, guided by the UN Convention against Corruption, which Vietnam
ratified in 2009.
We pro-actively supported the strengthening of institutions
such as the National Assembly and the State Audit Office of Vietnam, which can
play a role in holding the government to account. The National Assembly developed a growing
willingness to challenge government policy and in June National Assembly
deputies took the unprecedented step of refusing to approve a government-backed
proposal for a high speed rail link between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. However, the Communist Party’s influence on
the National Assembly remains considerable; 90% of Deputies are also party
members.
In 2010, we continued to support the National Assembly’s
efforts to engage directly with constituents through the on-line platform,
Yoosk. We also provided support to
Transparency International and to the Integrity and Transparency in Business
Initiative, which helps Vietnamese and foreign businesses operating in Vietnam
to work together to promote sustainable improvements in this field.
Death penalty
Figures on the death penalty remain a state secret in
Vietnam, although the government claims that all death sentences are reported
in the media. By December,
state-controlled media sources had reported that at least 110 people had been
sentenced to death in 2010, although the actual numbers may have been much
higher. The overwhelming majority were
convicted of murder or drug trafficking.
From January, the number of capital offences was reduced from 29 to 21,
with crimes such as smuggling, hijacking of aircraft and ships, and bribery no
longer carrying the death penalty. In
May, the National Assembly approved a change in the method of execution from
firing squad to lethal injection. This
comes into effect in July 2011.
The Vietnamese authorities maintain that public opinion
is against the complete abolition of the death penalty. In November, the Vietnamese government
abstained in the UN General Assembly vote recommending all countries establish
a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
In 2010 the UK and our EU partners regularly urged the
Vietnamese government to introduce a moratorium on the use of the death penalty
and, in the meantime, to adopt a more open and transparent approach to its
application.
Torture and other ill treatment
In 2010, the Vietnamese government reported that it was
preparing to sign the UN Convention against Torture. This was one of the commitments made by the
government in its 2009 report for the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal
Periodic Review of Vietnam. In
September, Human Rights Watch published a disturbing report outlining 19
incidents of police brutality in the previous 12 months. The report was based on information gathered
from the state-controlled press. There
were also reports of detainees and prisoners being tortured to extract
confessions or as punishment.
Through the EU, we raised our concerns about the
treatment of detainees and prisoners with the Vietnamese government. We also continued to encourage them to ratify
the convention and implement it effectively.
In 2010, the FCO’s Strategic Programme Fund continued to
support the Danish Institute for Human Rights’ work with the People’s Police
Academy to promote human rights in law enforcement. This project will result in enhanced training
methods for trainee and serving police officers on the application of
international human rights standards in criminal investigations.
Prisons and detention issues
Prisons in Vietnam remain overcrowded. Inmates often share cells with up to 40 others
and have limited access to recreational facilities. Inmates are forced to work and are punished if
they refuse. Food rations are basic and
prisoners rely on supplies brought in by family members to supplement their
diet. There is no independent
inspectorate of prisons. Any reported
abuses are dealt with internally by the Ministry of Public Security.
In 2010, staff from our Embassy in Hanoi visited Hoang
Tien prison in Hai Duong province with EU colleagues to monitor prison
conditions. Separately, our consular
staff visited two British prisoners being held at Thanh Xuan prison on the
outskirts of Hanoi. Along with our EU
partners, we continued to press the authorities to grant us access to prisoners
included on the EU’s list of persons and detainees of concern.
In September, 17,520 prisoners were released under a
National Day amnesty, including 27 foreign nationals and 20 Vietnamese
prisoners charged under national security laws. To be granted amnesty, prisoners had to meet
criteria set down by the government, including paying an additional fine and
expressing remorse for their crimes.
Human rights defenders
Over the course of the year, more than 20 peaceful
activists, including bloggers, political campaigners and lawyers, were
arrested, held in pre-trial detention or imprisoned following their trials. In most cases the individuals were charged
under national security laws.
The EU maintains a list of persons and detainees of
concern, which we share with the Vietnamese authorities in order to seek
information about the welfare of the detainees. As of December, there were 44 detainees on the
list. Throughout 2010, we and our EU
partners continued to urge the Vietnamese authorities to allow EU diplomats to
visit the listed detainees in prison. All
our requests were refused.
In January, well-known human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh
and three other activists, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Nguyen Tien Trung and Le Thang
Long, were convicted of attempting to overthrow the government and sentenced to
between five and 16 years in prison. Immediately
after their trial, we and our EU partners made strong representations to the
Vietnamese government about the grounds for their conviction and the severity
of the sentences. The EU was
subsequently denied permission to attend the appeal hearings of three of the
four activists in May. The appeal court
upheld the five-year sentence of Le Cong Dinh and the 16 years for Tran Huynh
Duy Thuc while Le Thang Long's sentence was reduced by 18 months to
three-and-a- half years.
All four activists feature in the EU’s list of persons
and detainees of concern. The list also includes
bloggers Pham Minh Hoang, charged in September with attempting to overthrow the
government and being a member of a terrorist organisation for his alleged
association with Viet Tan, an exiled political party critical of the
government, and Cu Huy Ha Vu, who was charged with disseminating anti-state
propaganda in December.
In March, the eight-year prison sentence of Father Ly, a
Catholic priest and political activist, for disseminating anti-state propaganda
was temporarily suspended for one year on medical grounds. He continues to be included on the EU’s list
of persons and detainees of concern.
Freedom of expression
The Vietnamese government does not tolerate political
dissent or criticism of the Communist Party’s role. Opposition political parties are illegal and
dissidents expressing opinions about multi-party democracy risk imprisonment. In 2010, print and electronic media remained
tightly controlled across Vietnam. Reporters
Without Borders ranked Vietnam 165 out of 175 countries in their 2010 Press
Freedom Index and classified Vietnam as one of 12 “Enemies of the Internet”. The authorities used tight controls to censor
online news, information and social networking sites and to monitor internet
use and access. BBC Vietnamese was
regularly targeted. At the end of 2010,
Facebook remained blocked, preventing its Vietnamese users from establishing
on-line groups. We and the EU continue
to raise our concerns with the Vietnamese government about this censorship,
pointing out that freedom of expression underpins the development of a
knowledge-based economy and that it is therefore vital to Vietnam’s future
prosperity.
The drafting of a revised press law and a new access to
information law were delayed in 2010, and neither were submitted to the National
Assembly for consideration. This was
disappointing, as both laws remain potentially important tools for promoting
freedom of expression and in the fight against corruption.
In March, our Embassy and
the Vietnamese Academy of Journalism and Communications ran a conference on
defamation and libel in the media. This
exposed representatives from the Vietnam Journalists’ Association, lawyers,
editors and journalists to international experience in this field. In October, Vice Minister for Information and
Communications Do Quy Doan visited the UK to learn about how media is managed
in the UK. His visit included meetings
with the BBC, Reuters, the Press Complaints Commission and Minister of State
Jeremy Browne. During his visit Mr Doan
announced that permission would be granted for Reuters to open a bureau in Ho
Chi Minh City, which we welcomed. Also
in October, the UK and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding to
strengthen bilateral cooperation in the areas of information and
communications, including within the media sector. This has already delivered results in the form
of a spokespersons’ training programme in November, which gave Vietnamese
officials the opportunity to learn about international experience of
encouraging transparency and enhancing communications between government
officials and the media. Further
activity is planned under this memorandum of understanding, including a press
complaints workshop that will be held in Vietnam in February 2011. In November, the Financial Times opened a bureau in Vietnam.
We continued to support the
British Council’s MediaPro project which aims to enhance the teaching programme
for Vietnamese university undergraduates studying journalism and to develop an
ethics handbook for journalists.
Freedom of religion and belief
In 2010 the government continued to implement a
legislative framework to protect freedom of religion. However, there were reports of harassment of
religious groups by local government officials, as well as delays in approving
the registration of religious groups. We
and the EU continued to urge the government to ensure that religious freedoms
were respected consistently across the country and to ensure that central
government policy was understood and implemented appropriately by provincial
and local authorities. We continued to
encourage the Vietnamese government to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on
freedom of religion or belief to visit the country.
Women’s rights
The first-ever national study on domestic violence in
Vietnam was completed in 2010. It
reported that almost 35% of women who took part in the survey had experienced
physical or sexual violence by their husbands and more than 50% reported emotional
abuse. Although a Law on Prevention and
Control of Domestic Violence was passed in 2007, implementation remained patchy.
Children’s rights
Human trafficking from Vietnam is a growing concern. The Child Exploitation and On-line Protection
Centre’s 2010 report “Strategic Threat Assessment – Child Trafficking in the
UK” identified Vietnam as the number-one source country for potential victims
of child trafficking into the UK, and the trafficking of Vietnamese children
into and within the UK as the largest and most significant trend during their
reporting period. Vietnamese nationals,
including children, are trafficked primarily for labour exploitation in
cannabis-growing operations, but also for sexual exploitation and other crimes.
We continued to urge the Vietnamese
government to expedite the passage of new human trafficking legislation, which
the National Assembly failed to pass in 2010.
Minorities and other discriminated groups
The Vietnamese government acknowledges that it needs to
do more to close the gap in living standards between ethnic minorities and the
Kinh majority. In July, the UN
Independent Expert on Minority Rights visited Vietnam. The UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and
Extreme Poverty visited in August. Both
commended government initiatives to improve the socio-economic wellbeing of
minorities in Vietnam, but highlighted that minority groups remained the
poorest in society. The Independent
Expert on Minority Rights underscored the importance of ethnic minorities
having the right to participate fully and effectively in decision-making that
affected their communities, including economic development projects and land
re-settlement issues. The Independent
Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty urged the government
to strengthen and implement effective and accessible mechanisms for complaints
and to guarantee access to information for citizens.
We played the lead bilateral role during the discussion
on ethnic minority rights at the annual World Bank Consultative Group Meeting
between the government of Vietnam, led by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem
and international donors.
