Map of human rights violations

What is the purpose of the human rights violations map? 

The map highlights human rights violation records by local administrations, specifically provinces, as we believe local governments are playing a more active role in suppressing political dissent. Our data has proved that provincial authorities are responsible for the vast majority of arrests of activists for human rights under “national security” allegations.

The map is centered around arrests, incidents, and perpetrators. Users can filter by arrests and incidents, as well as other data on perpetrators of human rights violations.

Why are there two views of the human rights violations map? 

The two views of the map allows users to see the distribution of individual human rights violation incidents across the country, as well as the distribution of incidents by province, at a quick glance. We would like to draw attention to the record of human rights violations by provinces as our data has shown that provincial authorities are playing a more and more active role in repressing activists for human rights. Our map intends to track those trends. Users can click on individual markers in the “View by Incident,” or on the province in the “View by Province,” to see more details of respective human rights violations incidents. You can also search and combine different criteria to see the distribution of human rights violation incidents by gender, religion, ethnicity, type of incidents, perpetrators, etc., across localities.

Are the locations the exact ones where human rights violations happened?

Not always. We try our best to obtain the most precise location data as possible. However, most of the locations should be seen as approximate. Sometimes, we omit the exact address due to the privacy concerns of the human rights activists.

What does the map do and does not include?

The map includes: Incidents of harassment against political activists, including arrests and other harassment incidents, such as administrative fines, forced evictions, temporary detentions, etc. starting January 1, 2018.

The map does not include: Arrests and incidents of activists for human rights prior to January 1, 2018, due to difficulty tracking incidents too far back in the past.

What are the levels of authorities and how do you determine which administrative unit belongs to which level?

According to Article 110 of the 2013 Constitution: “The administrative units of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are distributed as follows: The country is divided into provinces and cities under direct central rule. The province is divided into districts, provincial cities, and towns; the city under direct central rule is divided into urban districts, rural districts, towns, and units of a similar level. The district is divided
into communes and townlets; the provincial city and the town are divided into wards and communes; the urban district is divided into wards. Special administrative-economic units are created by the National Assembly.”
Which is to say, the designation of administrative units is somewhat confusing. But it essentially follows a three-tier division. Under the national level, there are three local levels:

Level 1:
Provinces and cities under direct central rule, which we refer to here municipalities, so Level 1 is Provinces/Municipalities.

Level 2:
Administrative units directly below provinces and municipalities (“The province is divided into districts, provincial cities, and towns; the city under direct central rule is divided into urban districts, rural districts, towns, and units of similar level”), which, for ease of reference, we simplify here as District/City/Town level.

Level 3:
Administrative units directly below District/City/Town (“The district is divided into communes and townlets; the provincial city and the town are divided into wards and communes; the urban district is divided into wards.”), which, for ease of reference, we simplify here as Commune/Townlet/Ward level. To determine the level of a specific administrative unit, we have referred to the list of administrative subdivisions to determine the level of administrative division it belongs to, and assign a level
accordingly.