Truong Thi Ha

April 2020:

Truong Thi Ha returned to Vietnam via the Laos border in late March and was immediately put in quarantine. She posted that upon her return to Vietnam, her important papers and money were confiscated. She was held in in Dong Hoi’s quarantine area for 14 days. It is unclear why Ha returned to Vietnam. After completing her mandatory quarantine period, she was released. Ha reportedly bought a new cell phone, but the police confiscated it, and her Facebook accounts are under the control of the police. Thus, Ha’s posts about this on her Facebook account are currently inaccessible (here is a repost of one of Ha’s posts on Nguyen Van Hai’s Facebook about her return to Vietnam).

Two international associations of lawyers have condemned the actions against Ha; read the full press release here. The Hon. Michael Kirby, Co-Chair of The International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights Institute, said of the incident: "The IBAHRI understands and commends the precautions taken by the Vietnamese authorities to prevent the spread of Covid-19. However, preventing Trương Thị Hà; from communicating with anybody outside of the quarantine unit is an abuse of power and violation of a basic human right."

Ha is known for her active participation in the 2018 series of demonstrations against two draft bills: the Law on Cybersecurity and Law on Special Economics Zones. Ha is also an outspoken supporter of the democratization movement in Vietnam.

Ha is also known as an active law student who often participated in organizing and guiding other law students to field trips to courts in Hanoi. On April  2016, she represented 44 law students from Hanoi Law School to send a petition to the Chief Justice of Hanoi Court to request that the Court “puts an end to the obstruction of the participation of citizens to public trials.”