June 24, 2017
Viet Tan condemns the Vietnamese government’s exiling of Pham Minh Hoang. A blogger and former university lecturer, Pham Minh Hoang was stripped of his Vietnamese citizenship and placed on a plane late Saturday night. He is currently on his way to France and is due to land at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Sunday morning local time.
Police forcibly took Professor Hoang from his home Friday evening on the pretext that he was illegally residing in the country. Vietnamese authorities issued a decree stripping Pham Minh Hoang of his citizenship on May 17. The vaguely worded decision was a thinly veiled move to silence Pham Minh Hoang for his peaceful advocacy.
Pham Minh Hoang is the first known case of Vietnamese authorities officially revoking an individual’s citizenship based on their political views. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that no individual shall be arbitrarily deprived of their nationality.
Born in 1955 in Vietnam, Pham Minh Hoang moved to France in 1973 to study at university. He returned to Vietnam in 2000 to teach mathematics at the Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic Institute. A member of Viet Tan, Pham Minh Hoang organized trainings on leadership skills and civic action. He is a prolific blogger, writing on environmental issues and Vietnamese sovereignty.
Viet Tan will continue to support Pham Minh Hoang’s efforts to obtain legal redress. As Pham Minh Hoang stated in a recent interview, “Every Vietnamese has the wish to live on the land that he was born and raised. Like everyone, I also wish to live, to work and even to die here.”
With members inside Vietnam and around the world, Viet Tan aims to establish democracy and reform the country through peaceful means.
For more information:
- Front Line Defenders, “Pham Minh Hoang Profile”
www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/pham-minh-hoang
- Loa, “Vietnamese Blogger Phạm Minh Hoàng: ‘I Cannot Be Stripped of My Citizenship’”
www.loa.fm/our-stories/pham-minh-hoang
- Reporters Sans Frontières, “RSF calls for urgent French response to Vietnam’s arrest of blogger”
www.rsf.org/en/news/rsf-calls-urgent-french-response-vietnams-arrest-blogger
Contact: Duy Hoang +1.202.596.7951
