Vietnam Free Expression Newsletter No. 30/2017 – Week of September 18-24

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RELEVANT NEWS & ANALYSIS

Will Vietnam let its human rights record stifle trade with the EU?: “It is now apparent that EU ratification depends on whether Hanoi improves its human rights record. The proposed EVFTA makes an institutional and legally binding linkage to the EU-Vietnam Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), in which both sides pledge to respect democratic principles and human rights — a core component of the EU’s policies, initiatives and agreements. It also states that a party may unilaterally take appropriate measures with respect to the FTA when ‘it considers that the other party has committed a material breach of the PCA,’ such as violating the essential element constituted by the EU’s ‘human rights clause.’”

Growing disquiet about repression in Vietnam: “The plight of civil society activists in Vietnam has been overshadowed by the ethnic cleansing in nearby Myanmar, and the growing tension in Korea, but there are signs that the EU, at least, is waking up to the extent of the violations in Vietnam. A senior trade official visiting Hanoi last week warned that ratification of the EU’s 2015 free trade agreement with Vietnam could be jeopardised by concern over human rights.”

Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web: “While Facebook said its policies in Vietnam have not changed, and it has a consistent process for governments to report illegal content, the Vietnamese government was specific. The social network, they have said, had agreed to help create a new communications channel with the government to prioritize Hanoi’s requests and remove what the regime considered inaccurate posts about senior leaders.”

Vietnam’s Conservatives Purge Former PM Dung’s Allies: “Indeed, it is quite true that Hanoi’s minions have been hauling in dissident activists much faster than usual. Vietnam’s media minders have also cowed Facebook and You Tube into taking down content that the regime considers seditious. There’s a problem, however: a causal connection between Trump’s indifference and the crackdown on alleged subversion is both implausible and unprovable. Vietnam’s internal security agencies and their political masters have their own reasons for what they do. They’re the core of a regime that is dead set on firming up discipline within the all-powerful Communist Party and shutting down public agitation for changes to the system.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

On September 11, at the 36^th session of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, updated the Council on the human rights situation around the world. Here’s his statement regarding Vietnam: “In Viet Nam, a revision of the Penal Code in May retained the death penalty for 18 offenses, including drug offenses not considered by the human rights mechanisms as “most serious crimes” under international law. Until recently the Vietnamese people were not permitted to know the number of people put to death every year, but in January a report released by the Ministry of Public Security stated 429 were executed between August 2013 and June 2016. Official newspapers have recently reported that five new execution facilities will be built, doubling the country’s current facilities. I urge Viet Nam to reconsider its position on the death penalty. I note also that people in Viet Nam who express any form of public criticism of the government or who seek to mobilize others face the risk of arrest, incommunicado detention and long sentences, in contravention of human rights standards.”