Reports

“My Teacher Said I Had a Disease”

Barriers to the Right to Education for LGBT Youth in Vietnam

The 65-page report, “‘My Teacher Said I Had a Disease’: Barriers to the Right to Education for LGBT Youth in Vietnam,” documents how LGBT youth in Vietnam face stigma and discrimination at home and at school over myths such as the false belief that same-sex attraction is a diagnosable, treatable, and curable mental health condition. Many experience verbal harassment and bullying, which in some cases leads to physical violence. Teachers are often untrained and ill-equipped to handle cases of anti-LGBT discrimination, and their lessons frequently uphold the widespread myth in Vietnam that same-sex attraction is a disease, Human Rights Watch found. The government of Vietnam should fulfill its pledges to protect the rights of LGBT people.

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  • Vietnam: New Documents Reveal Escalating Repression

    A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper

    Human Rights Watch has received credible first-hand reports of an escalation of repression by Vietnamese authorities against the ethnic minorities known as Montagnards in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Human rights violations have continued unabated since protests for land rights and religious freedom began in February 2001.

  • Repression Of Montagnards

    Conflicts over Land and Religion in Vietnam's Central Highlands

    Vietnam should cease its persecution of indigenous Montagnards in the Central Highlands, and Cambodia should continue to offer sanctuary to those fleeing across the border, Human Rights Watch said in this new report.

  • Human Rights Issues in Vietnam

    Press Backgrounder

    While dissent is seriously punished by isolation of critics and through a legal system that is highly politicized, Human Rights Watch notes that there have been areas of gradual improvement in Vietnam in recent years. Restrictions on everyday life for most citizens have eased noticeably as the market economy has taken hold.

  • Vietnam: The Silencing of Dissent

    Vietnam's human rights performance continues to fall far short of international standards, despite economic and socialchanges since the late 1980's.

  • Rural Unrest in Vietnam

    The 15-page report, "Rural Unrest in Vietnam," documents the causes and implications of continuing protests against corruption, land disputes, and compulsory labor in Thai Binh province beginning last May, as well as violent unrest in the largely Catholic district of Thong Nhat in Dong Nai province last month, initially spa

  • Behind Vietnam's Open Door:A Climate of Internal Repression

    While the Vietnamese government pursues this open-door policy and continues to woo foreign investment, domestically it is strengthening Communist Party control, repressing dissent and stifling any development of civil society.

  • Hong Kong: Abuses Against Vietnamese Asylum Seekers

    China is increasingly exercising its authority over the territory of Hong Kong on a number of issues and has directed, for instance, that all the Vietnamese be cleared from Hong Kong before July 1.

  • Human Rights in a Season of Transition

    Law and Dissent in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

    Vietnam has entered an era of rapid economic and social transformation, heralded by the opening of its economy, its entry into ASEAN and the resumption of diplomatic relations with the U.S. At the same time, the government and the Vietnam Communist Party have sought to maintain firm political control.

  • The Suppression of the Unified Buddhist Church

    The Vietnamese government's recent detention of two prominent senior monks is the latest step in its campaign to suppress the Unified Buddhist Church, the main Buddhist organization in south and central Vietnam prior to unification of the country in 1975.