Board Chair, Executive Producer
Board Treasurer, Co-Director
Co-Director
Board Member, Legal Outreach and Advocacy
Board Member, Communications and Advocacy
Advocacy Officer
Senior Research Officer
Senior Editor
Vietnam is a one-party state in which the Communist Party of Vietnam has complete control over the state’s functions, social organizations, and media. The Party-State routinely uses laws, decrees, and the coercive systems of police and prisons to deprive citizens of their basic political and human rights.
Activists for human rights advocacy could become political prisoners due to unclear laws and the point of view of the communist party.
The 88 Project was created after one of our founders – Huong – was personally affected by the Vietnamese regime. It was during a political crackdown in the summer of 2009 that several of Huong’s friends were arrested and became political prisoners because of their peaceful dissent.
Her actions related to human rights advocacy pointed to their release, by working closely with their families and international human rights organizations, and it was here that she noticed a lack of information in English on many cases of activists for human rights, who are now political prisoners in Vietnam.
While in her PhD program at Indiana University, Huong reached out to the student Amnesty International group for assistance. There, she met Kaylee Uland, who at that time was an undergraduate student. The two began working together on human rights advocacy, including public outreach on
the campus and letter-writing campaigns. Around the same time, Vietnamese activists for human rights in Poland connected Huong with Ella Gancarz, a filmmaker who wanted to create a documentary about human rights in Vietnam.
In November 2012, at the confluence of these projects, The 88 Project was born with the aim to share the stories of political prisoners and human rights activists unjustly harassed and imprisoned for their peaceful dissent.
Ultimately, we hope that our human rights advocacy will strengthen the democratic movement in empowering and encouraging the activists for human rights to continue to pursue their endeavors. The democratization process will only succeed and be sustainable if there are citizens who are willing to participate as activists for human rights advocacy and make a difference in the political process.
The 88 Project takes its name from one of the repressive provisions of Vietnam’s 1999 Criminal Code, which is routinely used to persecute peaceful activist groups against the regime. Article 88, which is now article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code, makes it a crime to “propagate” against the Socialist Republic, with imprisonment sentences ranging from three to twenty years. These laws suppress free speech and civil liberties of Vietnamese people and activist groups.
There are many other articles that have been employed to imprison hundreds of peaceful activists and activist groups in Vietnam. Under article 79 of the 1999 Criminal Code (currently article 109 of the 2015 Code), those who form or join organizations “with intent to overthrow the people’s government” can face capital punishment. They are just two examples of the dozens of the criminal provisions routinely used against the free speech of critics of the regime and civil liberties of peaceful activist groups.
The Vietnamese government has been pressed many times to revise these provisions, which criminalize the legitimate exercise of human rights, yet the use of these provisions remains as extensive as ever.
The number “88”, expressed in the Project’s logo as two handcuffs, has become a symbol of all repressive Vietnamese laws. However, the slightly open handcuff in our logo symbolizes the fact that not even prison bars can hold back the ideas of hope, free speech, democracy, human rights and civil liberties.
Board Chair, Executive Producer
Ella is a London-based executive producer. She has been working in the advertising and television industry for over ten years, for a variety of agencies and brands. Beside her commercial work, she has always been passionate about promoting human rights. Therefore, after meeting Huong and Kaylee in 2012, she co-founded The 88 Project. As a film executive producer, Ella is particularly interested in gender subjects and women’s empowerment. In 2018, she ran five charity races to support female activists in Vietnam. All money raised through this campaign will be used to develop an interview series with the activists.
Board Treasurer, Co-Director
Kaylee Uland serves as Co-Director of The 88 Project and has been involved with the Project since its founding in 2012. She has long been passionate about human rights, having joined The 88 Project while a member of Amnesty International at Indiana University. Kaylee is a native of Indiana, U.S., and holds a BS in Public Affairs from Indiana University and a MA in International Studies from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She currently works as the Healthcare Case Manager for the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance in Kansas, City, MO, which serves migrant laborers working in agriculture in rural, western Missouri. Though Midwestern at heart, she is a fluent Spanish speaker and interested in a variety of global issues, especially freedom of expression, immigration, and wildlife conservation.
Board Member, Communications and Advocacy
Simone joined The 88 Project in 2018 and is responsible for the marketing, social, and communications strategy. She holds a Masters degree in Communication from VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has worked in finance, technology and lifestyle industries. Over the years, Simone has volunteered for a number of charity organisations, and after visiting Vietnam in 2015, has become increasingly passionate in contributing to the fight for equality and human rights in Vietnam.
Board Member, Legal Outreach and Advocacy
Aaron received his B.A. from Wabash College and his JD and PhD from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. His dissertation focused on designing new participatory mechanisms for use in constitutional reform processes. His fieldwork took place in Liberia and Burma, where he researched how participatory constitution-making programs would change based on the national context. His legal work focuses mostly on family law, constitutional law, and environmental law. Aaron joined The 88 Project because he wishes to help raise awareness of currently imprisoned Vietnamese political activists.
Co-Director
Ben Swanton is a researcher and international development practitioner who brings over 10 years’ of experience to The 88 Project. Much of his experience was gained working on initiatives that aim at promoting human rights and gender justice in Vietnam. In Danang City, for example, he designed and oversaw the first gender violence prevention program to be introduced into public schools. More recently, he has worked to promote freedom of expression and digital rights by holding Facebook to account for collaborating with the Government of Vietnam to censor social media. Ben has a PhD in Policy Studies from The University of Sydney. His research explores the politics of framing in progressive policy initiatives that aim to promote human rights.
Advocacy Officer
Jessica obtained a Masters degree on Human Rights and Democratization from the Global Campus of Human Rights. Her research and advocacy focus on globalization, development, and human rights, particularly environmental rights and civil society movements.
Senior Research Officer
Trang worked as a trainee lawyer in Vietnam for two years before getting a Master’s degree on international laws in Europe. Her research focuses on international human rights law, the law of armed conflicts, and global democratization.
Senior Editor
The senior editor is an American journalist who has worked in Asia for 35 years. He joined The 88 Project as an editor in 2020. He has a BA degree in East Asian Studies from Manhattanville College and an MA degree in International Relations and a Certificate in East Asian Studies from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has focused on human rights in his reporting.
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