IX. Recommendations

Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu’s arrest, detention, and indictment are based on his peaceful exercise of his right to information, and his right to freedom of opinion, expression, and association, enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam acceded in 1982.

Dr. Vu’s arrest and detention is arbitrary and unlawful, and plainly flies in the face of the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which reiterates the rights of citizens under international human rights law to criticize and protest governments’ failures to enforce human rights standards.[90] The government has failed to answer requests and denunciation by Dr. Vu’s lawyers and family members alleging that various aspects of his arrest, police and judicial investigation, indictment, and trial have been marked by due process violations.

The Vietnamese government is violating its obligations under international law by arresting, prosecuting, and sentencing Dr. Vu to seven years in prison for peacefully criticizing the government’s actions and Communist Party leaders. Human Rights Watch calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu.