Nguyen Van Binh

Nguyen Van Binh is a trade unionist who has agitated within the government to expand protections for workers. He has a doctorate in economic law from Hanoi National University, where he conducted research on trade union organizing and how to strengthen the independence and representation of trade unions in Vietnam. 

Binh worked his way up through the country’s only trade union, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL), before spending five years at the Hanoi office of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and then becoming a policymaker in MOLISA’s legal affairs department.

At MOLISA, Binh was responsible for overseeing labor law reform. He was a key force behind the 2019 Labor Code, which provided the legal basis for Vietnam to ratify ILO conventions that protect workers’ rights. 

Before his arrest, Binh was preparing a dossier for the ratification of ILO Convention 87, with technical support from the ILO, to submit to the National Assembly. Under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, Vietnam agreed to ratify the convention in 2023, although the government has delayed the process. The EU has not imposed any consequences for this delay. 

Several years earlier, Binh succeeded in pushing the government to ratify ILO conventions on collective bargaining and forced labor. Binh also published, for the first time, the text of all the core ILO conventions in Vietnamese.

Binh’s labor politics had a pro-feminist orientation. In 2015, he drafted the first code of conduct on sexual harassment in the workplace in Vietnam. After he updated the code in 2022 to bring it in line with international standards, Binh stated, ‘Freedom from discrimination is an international standard that Vietnam has committed to, and this is a commitment contained within a new generation of free trade agreements’.

Binh’s extensive engagement with foreign governments and international organizations on labor reform was at odds with the hardening stance of the country’s leaders towards foreign influence in legislative reform and policymaking activities. According to a source who spoke with Project88, prior to his arrest, Binh was increasingly isolated at MOLISA after powerful allies and reformers resigned in recent years.

Read more about his background, here: Vietnam Arrests Labor Reformer Ahead of Commerce Department Hearing on Country’s Market Status, Project88, May 5, 2024. 

Photo source: MOLISA