Dear Commissioner Šefčovič,
We are writing on behalf of Human Rights Watch ahead of your visit to Vietnam to urge you to raise strong concerns and the consequences to be expected for intensifying repression by the Vietnamese government since the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) came into force in 2020.
We note that serious human rights violations constitute a breach of the EVFTA’s human rights obligations, and that article 2 of the EU-Vietnam Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), on which the EVFTA depends, identifies respect for human rights as an “essential element” of the agreement.
In 2019 and 2020, many nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, repeatedly called on the European Parliament to postpone consent to the EVFTA, emphasizing the need to use Vietnam’s strong interest in the agreement as leverage to secure concrete human rights progress and reforms. The groups reiterated that such reforms had to be secured before ratification, highlighting the transactional approach of Vietnam’s leadership. They also expressed concern that Vietnamese authorities were likely to violate the EVFTA’s human rights obligations, just as they were breaching obligations under international human rights conventions to which Vietnam is party.
Regrettably, the European Commission’s claims that the agreement would lead to more freedom in Vietnam have proven wrong.
The Vietnamese government’s severe and systematic repression of civil and political rights has intensified since the EVFTA came into force, and Secretary General To Lam’s rise to leadership in 2024 has not reversed that trend. The Vietnamese authorities continue to prohibit independent rights groups, labor unions, media, many religious groups, and all other organizations that operate outside government control. At the time of your visit, there are more than 170 political prisoners in Vietnam, jailed for peaceful acts, exercising rights to free speech, or activism for human rights and democracy, and charged under Vietnam’s draconian criminal code.
Several people were arrested and imprisoned specifically for their work related to the EVFTA. Journalist Pham Chi Dung was arrested in 2019 after addressing a message to the European Parliament before the agreement was finalized, and has been behind bars since. Activists Mai Phan Loi and Dang Dinh Bach were arrested as they tried to join the EVFTA’s Domestic Advisor Group (DAG), tasked with monitoring implementation of the agreement. Mai Phan Loi was released in September 2023, but Dang Dinh Bach is still serving a five-year prison sentence. In 2024, the authorities even arrested Nguyen Van Binh, a senior government official involved in leading the government’s discussions with international organizations on labor reforms, and charged him in relation to the alleged disclosure of classified information.
Furthermore, Vietnam has still not ratified International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, despite the government’s pledge, in correspondence with the European Parliament and EU officials, to ratify the convention by the end of 2023. The self-imposed deadline is linked to the EVFTA obligation to “make continued and sustained efforts towards ratifying ... the fundamental ILO conventions.” Besides missing this deadline, Vietnamese authorities have made almost no progress toward meeting core obligations in conventions they have already ratified, or ensuring the basic rights of workers to organize and freely operate independent trade unions.
As a matter of law and practice, the Vietnamese government does not allow independent unions to represent workers. Vietnam’s Trade Union Law only allows government-controlled “unions.” The labor code still requires implementing regulations to be issued for the law to go into force. And no enterprise-level worker representative organizations exist in Vietnam.
These and many other negative human rights developments in Vietnam have led several human rights and labor rights groups to file complaints with the EU’s Single Entry Point, alleging that persistent serious abuses constitute a breach of the EVFTA.
We are aware that the EU raises concerns about those abuses in annual EU-Vietnam human rights dialogues. These interventions, however, have had little if any impact on the Vietnamese government’s conduct. EU member states have also routinely raised human rights concerns in statements at the United Nations Human Rights Council, which likewise have had no appreciable impact.
The EU needs to take stronger action. Article 21 of the Treaty of the European Union states that human rights, democracy, and the rule of law must be promoted “in the development and implementation of the different areas of the Union's external action,” including trade. EU foreign ministers reiterated this commitment in the EU Strategic Framework on Human Rights and Democracy and in all Action Plans adopted since, including the current one.
As Vietnam’s abuses persist and intensify, we urge you to enforce your treaty obligations by raising serious concerns and formulating concrete demands with the Vietnamese officials with whom you will interact during your visit, making it clear that persistent failure to comply with the EVFTA and PCA human rights obligations will have clear consequences.
In particular, we urge you to ask that the Vietnamese government:
- Unconditionally release all those detained or imprisoned for exercising rights to freedom of expression, association, religion and assembly, including those arrested in relation to their activities related to the EVFTA, such as Pham Chi Dung and Dang Dinh Bach;
- Take meaningful steps to implement labor reforms to allow independent labor unions to be formed—in law and in practice—and end retaliation against workers who attempt to organize unions outside of government-controlled mechanisms;
- Ratify ILO Convention No. 87 without further delay, and genuinely engage with the ILO to reform laws and policies as necessary to ensure the proper application of ILO Convention No. 98, which Vietnam has ratified;
- Repeal vaguely worded “national security” provisions and other provisions in the Vietnamese penal code that have been used to prosecute individuals for peaceful dissent, including: “abusing democratic freedom” (article 331); “sabotaging the unity policy” (article 116); and propaganda against the State (article 117);
- Amend the Criminal Procedure Code to ensure the due process rights of all criminal suspects, including prompt and unhindered access to legal counsel throughout the investigation period, which exposes defendants to an increased risk of torture and ill-treatment and undermines the principles of fair trial and due process of law.
We also encourage you to open a dialogue with Vietnam about how the EU and EU member states could better contribute to international tax cooperation, as well as on the importance of a robust EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Accountability framework. Labor abuses in countries like Vietnam are often fueled by lax due diligence in global supply chains, including unfair purchasing practices of companies, which should be addressed through strong EU supply chain legislations.
We would be pleased to meet with you or your team in preparation for the visit and to provide further information any time.
Yours sincerely,
Elaine Pearson, Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
Philippe Dam, EU Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch
Annex
Overview
Vietnam’s government severely restricts basic civil and political rights in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Vietnam ratified in 1982. These include the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion and belief. It prohibits the formation of any organization or group the Vietnamese Communist Party deems threatening to its monopoly on power. Authorities block access to websites and require social media and telecommunications companies to remove content deemed to be politically sensitive. Those who criticize the one-party state, including on social media, face police harassment, restricted movement, physical assault, arbitrary arrest and detention, and prosecution. Police detain political activists for months without access to legal counsel and subject them to abusive interrogations and in some cases, torture. Party-controlled courts convict bloggers and activists on bogus national security charges and impose lengthy prison sentences.
Human Rights Watch recommends that you focus on three priority areas regarding the dire human rights situation in Vietnam: 1) political prisoners and detainees; 2) repression of labor rights; and 3) repression of the right to freely practice religion and belief.
1. Political Prisoners and Detainees
The Vietnamese government frequently uses vaguely worded and loosely interpreted provisions in Vietnam’s penal code and other laws to prosecute and imprison peaceful political and religious activists. These include “undermining the unity policy” (article 116), “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” (article 117) and “abusing the rights to democracy and freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations, individuals” (article 331).
Vietnam currently holds more than 170 people in prison for peacefully exercising their basic civil and political rights, including those who voiced grievances against local governments for various issues including land confiscation, corruption, and police brutality. In 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 alone, party-controlled courts convicted and sentenced at least 52 people to long prison terms, including prominent journalist Truong Huy San, lawyer Tran Dinh Trien, democracy campaigners Phan Van Bach, Nguyen Vu Binh, and Nguyen Chi Tuyen.
Police also held at least 29 other people in pretrial detention centers under politically motivated charges.
2. Repression of Labor Rights
Vietnam does not allow independent unions to represent workers. The Vietnamese government continues to call the government-led Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) a “labor confederation” of enterprise-level “labor federations.” But the VGCL is led by Vietnamese government appointees. The “unions” and “federations” that exist under the VGCL are almost all led by people appointed by management at the enterprise level. Workers or labor leaders do not choose leaders or representatives who can bargain to set wages on their behalf. In so far as the VGCL does bargain with management or at the state-wide level, it does so in the interests of the government and the Communist Party of Vietnam, not on behalf of workers and not in a representative capacity. The dynamic of state control of the VGCL has been further demonstrated by a recent directive issued by the Communist Party, “Directive 24,” which orders enhanced scrutiny of labor groups, civil society, and foreign organizations, specifically in the context of Vietnam’s implementation of new trade agreements with other countries and with the International Labour Organization.
In April 2024, Vietnamese police arrested Nguyen Van Binh and Vu Minh Tien, senior officials in Vietnam’s then Labor Ministry and in VGCL who had advocated for more meaningful labor reforms and some independence of trade unions.
Numerous articles in state-run media reflect the Vietnamese government’s hostility to independent labor organizations or unions, calling them “hostile forces” that use “plots and tricks” to “oppose the Party and the State… causing social disorder and hindering the lives of laborers in our country,” or arguing that the purpose of “so-called independent trade unions” is to “form a domestic oppositional political force, proceeding to carry out a ‘color revolution’ or ‘street revolution’ to overthrow the Communist Party and eliminate the political regime in Vietnam.”
3. Repression of the Right to Freely Practice Religion and Belief
The Vietnamese government restricts religious practice through legislation, registration requirements, harassment, and surveillance. Religious groups are required to gain approval from and register with the government as well as operate under government-controlled management boards. While authorities allow many government-affiliated churches and pagodas to hold worship services, they regularly ban religious activities they arbitrarily deem to be contrary to the “national interest,” “public order,” or “national unity.” The government labels Dega Protestant, Ha Mon Catholic, Falun Gong and other religious groups as ta dao (“evil religion”) and harasses those who practice those beliefs.
The police monitor and sometimes violently crack down on religious groups operating outside government-controlled institutions. Unrecognized independent religious groups face constant surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, and their followers are subject to public criticism, forced renunciation of faith, detention, interrogation, torture, and imprisonment.
In March 2025, the authorities of Gia Lai province prosecuted and sentenced Montagnard religious activist Ro Cham Grong to seven years in prison. Two other Montagnard religious campaigners, Y Po Mlo and Y Thing Nie, are currently in police detention awaiting trials.
UN experts expressed alarm about the discriminatory misuse of counterterrorism laws against Montagnard Indigenous Peoples and Christian religious minorities in the country’s Central Highlands.
In March, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom published its 2025 report in which it recommended that the US government “designate Vietnam as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the US International Religious Freedom Act.
