August 3, 2015
Australia – Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue
Human Rights Watch Submission
We write on the occasion of the forthcoming Australia-Vietnam human rights dialogue, scheduled to be held on August 14, 2015. We urge you to press human rights issues in an unambiguous manner and improve the efficacy of the dialogue by setting clear benchmarks for improvements and making the outcome of the discussions public.
Vietnam’s human rights record remains dire. Its one-party communist state suppresses virtually all forms of political dissent, using a broad array of repressive measures. Freedom of expression, association and assembly are tightly restricted. The police routinely use torture and beatings to extract confessions and punish detainees. Religious minorities and activists are harassed, intimidated and imprisoned. The criminal justice system lacks independence and operates under the direction of the government and party. State-run drug rehabilitation centers exploit detainees as forced laborers making goods for local markets and export. Despite the pressure, increasing numbers of courageous bloggers and activists are vocal in calling for democracy and greater freedoms.
1. Political Prisoners and Detainees
Vietnam continues to suppress peaceful dissent and punish dissenters for forming organizations that the government views as hostile to its interests. The government bans all political parties, unions, and human rights organizations that are independent of the government or the Vietnamese Communist Party.
It is true that over the past year, a few political prisoners have been released and there are indications that the pace of political arrests has slowed. But the releases appear to be little more than a cosmetic exercise, and it seems the government is replacing arrests with orchestrated thuggery.
The number of known political prisoners in Vietnam has dropped by about 50 since 2013, but few of these were released pursuant to reform steps; in many cases, released detainees simply completed their sentences and are now out on probation, effectively silenced. Further political or dissident activity will land them back in prison. Human Rights Watch documented well over 200 such prisoners in 2013, with the current total number of political prisoners now at least 135. While it is true that fewer dissidents are being convicted, there are still cases and the government now has new methods.
Vietnamese dissidents say that violence or harassment by plainclothes police thugs is the new norm. Thugs, who appear to be government agents in civilian clothes, have been attacking dissidents at an increasing rate, often in public, and with complete impunity. Uniformed police officers do not intervene, most likely because they believe the attackers are state agents. The authorities have also been using proxies in social media to attack and defame bloggers and activists.
For example, on May 11, 2015, when senior US diplomats were in Vietnam to hold a human rights dialogue with Vietnam, Vietnamese security services harassed dissidents and a prominent blogger, Nguyen Chi Tuyen (known as Anh Chi). Anh Chi was brutally attacked by thugs—almost certainly government personnel in plainclothes. Photographs of his battered head and bloodstained face were soon shared by dissidents online. On May 19, another activist, Dinh Quang Tuyen, was assaulted in Ho Chi Minh City, under circumstances that also suggest potential state complicity.
Recommendations
During the upcoming dialogue, Australia should publicly call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Release all political prisoners and detainees, including those imprisoned or detained for exercising their rights to free expression, assembly, movement, or political or religious activity.
- Amend or repeal provisions in the penal code and other laws that criminalize peaceful dissent on the basis of imprecisely defined “national security” crimes including penal code articles 79 (“Carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration”), 87 (“Undermining the unity policy”), 88 (“Conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”), 89 (“Disrupting security”), 91 (“Fleeing abroad or defecting to stay overseas with a view to opposing the people’s administration”), and 258 (“Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens”).
- As an immediate confidence-building measure, allow access to prisoners or detainees by families, legal counsel, and outside observers from Australia and international humanitarian and human rights groups.
- End government-sponsored vigilantism
2. Police Abuse: Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Torture
Police throughout Vietnam have been abusing people in their custody, in some cases leading to death. In many of these cases, those killed were being held for minor infractions. A number of survivors said they were beaten to extract confessions, sometimes for crimes they maintained they did not commit. Although the government promised improvements after Human Rights Watch published its findings about police brutality, it appears that officers who have committed serious, even lethal, transgressions have only rarely faced the serious consequences the law requires.
Recommendations
During the upcoming dialogue, Australia should:
- Express strong concern to Vietnamese officials about police abuse, emphasizing that it violates both Vietnamese and international law, that perpetrators should be punished, and that victims should receive remedy and compensation.
- Urge the government of Vietnam to establish effective accountability mechanisms. For instance, Vietnam should establish an independent police complaints commission to accept complaints from the public and to provide oversight over the “internal affairs” or “professional responsibility” unit of the police. The commission should be a statutory body with the legal authority to bring prosecutions or impose discipline if the internal affairs or professional responsibility unit fails to do so in cases in which credible allegations have been made.
3. Repression of Freedom of Religion
Human Rights Watch has also highlighted the Vietnamese government’s ongoing persecution of ethnic Montagnard Christians in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, one aspect of a broader pattern of rights violations against religious minorities in the country. Accused of practicing “evil way” religions, Montagnard practitioners of the De Ga and Ha Mon forms of Christianity are persecuted pursuant to high level government policy. They are subjected to constant surveillance and other forms of intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and mistreatment in security force custody. In detention, the authorities question them about their religious and political activities and possible plans to flee Vietnam. Over the past year, hundreds have fled to Cambodia and other parts of Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese authorities have responded to the flight of Montagnards into Cambodia by pressuring Cambodian authorities to prevent border crossings and deny those who do cross the right to seek asylum; Cambodian authorities, in turn, refused to register more than a handful as asylum seekers.
The Vietnamese government has not responded to this report, and the arrival of more Montagnard asylum seekers in Cambodia, indicates persecution continues unabated.
Recommendations
During the upcoming dialogue, Australia should publicly call on the Vietnamese government to:
- Allow all independent religious organizations to freely conduct religious activities and govern themselves. Churches and denominations that do not choose to join one of the officially authorized religious organizations with government-appointed boards should be allowed to operate independently.
- End harassment, arrests, prosecutions, imprisonment, and ill-treatment of people because they are followers of disfavored religions, and release anyone currently being held for peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of religion, belief, expression, assembly and association.
- Cease all measures to prevent Montagnards and other Vietnamese citizens from leaving the country and do not punish those who return.
- Ensure all domestic legislation addressing religious affairs is brought into conformity with international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam and Australia are parties. Amend provisions in domestic law that impinge on freedom of religion and belief, expression, association, or peaceful assembly in violation of the ICCPR.
- Investigate and appropriately discipline or prosecute members of the police or other authorities responsible for torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
- Permit outside observers, including United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations concerned with human rights, and foreign diplomats, unhindered and unaccompanied access to the Central Highlands, including specifically to communes and villages from which Montagnards have recently departed to seek asylum abroad. Ensure there is no retribution or retaliation whatsoever against anyone who speaks to or otherwise communicates with such outside observers.
4. Vietnamese Asylum Seeker Boat Returns
Australia has recently returned two boats carrying Vietnamese asylum seekers back to Vietnam. On March 20, 2015, a boat containing 46 Vietnamese men, women and children was intercepted by the Australian government and held at sea. On April 18, 2015, Australian officials returned the passengers to Vietnam.
On May 25, 2015, Australian border officials testified before a Senate Estimates Committee that the government had been provided written assurance that the asylum seekers would face "no retribution for their illegal departure from Vietnam.” On its face, the assurance from Vietnam is limited to not prosecuting people for their "illegal departure" but no assurance is given against future persecution or protection from acts that may have prompted them to flee in the first place.
Australia did undertake what it terms “enhanced screening” measures to interview the 46. These are cursory interviews at sea to pre-screen asylum seekers for possible claims for asylum and fail to meet international standards. International refugee law provides that asylum seekers must have an adequate opportunity to make a claim for protection, and the law of the sea requires swift embarkation to a place of safety following a rescue.
After being questioned whether they had determined that Vietnam had lived up to its assurances, Australian officials admitted that they do not track people once they have been returned and the assurance was based solely on trust.
More recently, on July 20, 2015, Australian officials intercepted a boat carrying 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers that reportedly included two babies. On July 25, 2015, the Vietnamese were transported back to Vietnam by plane. Upon arrival, three of the asylum seekers were reported to have been detained by Vietnamese authorities.
Recommendations
During the upcoming dialogue, Australia should publicly call on the Vietnamese government to:
- State the whereabouts and ensure the safety of all returned asylum seekers.
- Immediately explain under what charges any of the returnees have been detained, and release any detained arbitrarily.
