As President Clinton prepares for his historic trip to Vietnam, Human Rights Watch urged that he give high priority to human rights issues during his discussions with Vietnamese officials in mid-November.
Human Rights Watch noted that Vietnam has taken steps in recent years to address some human rights violations and has implemented social and economic reforms. Tens of thousands of political detainees and re-education camp inmates imprisoned in the 1980s and 1990s have been released, thousands of Vietnamese who fled abroad as refugees have returned without incident, and the government has shown some willingness to cooperate with the U.N. on human rights issues.
However, the government continues to seriously curtail fundamental freedoms—particularly freedom of expression by dissidents and freedom of association by independent religious groups and trade unions.
"The U.S. needs to take a more energetic approach to raising human rights concerns with Vietnam," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. "This can be part of a constructive exchange: President Clinton can offer technical assistance for reform and seek commitments for improvements in return."
The U.S. could assist in the reform of Vietnam's press, criminal, and national security laws and help ensure its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Vietnam has ratified.
Human Rights Watch stressed that U.S. policy should focus not only on implementing the bilateral trade agreement signed this year with Vietnam, but also on obtaining concrete human rights improvements.
"This historic visit is a crucial moment for the U.S. to send a clear signal to Hanoi on how progress on human rights will affect other aspects of the evolving bilateral relationship with the U.S.," said Jendrzejczyk. The U.S. Congress has yet to vote on the new trade agreement.
Human Rights Watch urged Clinton during his visit to:
Call on Vietnam to immediately release all political and religious prisoners, and to cease surveillance and harassment of dissidents including those released from prison or detention. (See attached partial list of political and religious prisoners.)
Emphasize that Vietnam's human rights and labor rights record will be carefully considered in the upcoming debate over Vietnam's trade agreement and its receiving Most Favored Nation (MFN) status.
Encourage Vietnam to cooperate more fully with the U.N.'s human rights mechanisms and to implement the recommendations of the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (which visited Vietnam in 1994) and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance (who visited Vietnam in 1998). The Working Group, among other things, called for better compliance with international standards on treatment of prisoners. The report by the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Religious Intolerance recommended that people imprisoned for their religious beliefs, upon their release from prison, should be allowed to resume their religious activities with full rights and freedoms.
Support Vietnam's process of legal reform. That reform should address not only laws dealing with commercial matters but reforms of criminal, press and national security laws. Call on the Vietnamese government to introduce legislation that guarantees, both in the letter and in the application, the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, assembly, and association, and specifically to repeal Directive 31/CP on administrative detention.
Encourage Vietnam to achieve greater transparency and accountability in its legal and penal systems and continue to press for the establishment of an independent and impartial judiciary. Press for access for international observers and independent monitors to trials and to persons held in prison or administrative detention.
Urge the Vietnamese government to end its censorship and control over the domestic media, including the Internet and electronic communications, recognizing that a free press is essential in promoting civil and political rights. The government should consider amending or repealing the 1999 press law and the 1993 Law on Publications, which limit the right of the domestic and foreign press to report independently and accurately without penalties or censorship.
