Nguyen Van Hai

Nguyen Van Hai is a human rights defender who fights for human rights, environmental rights, democracy, and sovereignty in Vietnam.

Hai is a member of the Brotherhood for Democracy, founded in 2013 by human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai to advocate for human rights as defined by the 2013 Constitution and international agreements, such as the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Hai joined the Brotherhood for Democracy in 2014. Since 2014, and until Hai left Vietnam in 2022, he worked to connect young people in Nghe An and neighboring provinces in Central Vietnam to participate in human rights training courses organized by the organization. Moreover, he was a frontline protester in demonstrations against China in Nghe An in 2014 and the demonstrations calling for compensation from the Formosa company, which caused a environmental disaster in Central Vietnam beginning in 2016.

Hai has also been a member of the No-U Football Club- Vinh since 2013. This is the Vinh City (in Nghe An province) branch of the No-U football club, which protests China’s sweeping sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. The No-U Football Club continues to be active on their Facebook account. Nguyen Van Hai, together with his colleagues at the No-U Football Club-Vinh and Brotherhood for Democracy, ran peer-learning workshops where he and other activists shared their knowledge about human rights and discussed activism experiences.

In addition to his work with the two organizations, Hai has also engaged in financially supporting the families of political prisoners in Vietnam. Usually, he serves as an intermediary who receives emergency funding and donations from funders and then safely and confidentially sends the funds to the families.

Outside of activism, Nguyen Van Hai has been active in social volunteer initiatives and charity work. Between 2020-2022, he raised funds to help vulnerable communities, victims of natural disasters, people in need during the COVID-19 pandemic, and those urgently needing support with medical expenses in Quang Binh, Nghe An. 

Nguyen Van Hai told Project88 that the Vietnamese government has targeted him due to both his activism and charity work, but mainly because he has engaged with the Brotherhood for Democracy. He first experienced harassment from Vietnamese police in 2014 when he joined a protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Hanoi, protesting China’s HD981 drilling rig violating territorial boundaries. Hai told us that he was arbitrarily arrested and kept illegally for one week after the demonstration. The harassment then escalated with countless summons, strict surveillance, restriction of his movement, harassment during his wedding party, and intimidation, which led to his fleeing from Vietnam in 2022 and seeking asylum. Hai is now seeking refugee status in the U.K. 

Resources:

Personal communications and information provided by Nguyen Van Hai in November 2024. 

Thanh niên Nghệ An bất ngờ biểu tình chống TQ trước giờ G, Dân Làm Báo, May 10, 2014. Archived version.   

Bản Lược Thuật: V/v 8 nạn nhân bị chặn đường đánh đập cướp của tại Nghệ An, Công Lý Hoà Bình Việt Nam, July 9, 2016. Archived version.