The number of prisoners of conscience unjustly jailed across Viet Nam has surged by one third to 128 in signs of a growing crackdown on peaceful activism, new research by Amnesty International reveals today.
The Vietnamese government holds at least 128 prisoners of conscience in prisons across the country, a sharp rise from the 97 identified last year. Detention conditions remain appalling, with evidence of prisoners being tortured and otherwise ill-treated, routinely held incommunicado and in solitary confinement, kept in squalid conditions, and denied medical care, clean water, and fresh air.
The Vietnamese authorities are clearly becoming more thin-skinned by the day. It’s their own citizens who are paying the terrible price, simply because of something they said or someone they met.
Y Quynh Bdap, who had United Nations refugee status in Thailand, was picked up by local police on Tuesday, the day after he had met with Canadian Embassy officials as he pursued asylum there, according to the Peace Rights Foundation, a Thai organization that had been in contact with him.
On the eve of Vietnam’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Viet Tan and nine international organizations held a conference to shed light on the human rights situation in Vietnam.
In Geneva on May 2-3, 2024, a delegation of civil society groups—including members from Viet Tan, Committee Swiss Vietnam (COSUNAM), Freedom House and Hmong Human Rights Coalition—met with officials of the United Nations to advocate for human rights in Vietnam.
The head of Vietnam’s Parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue — who was believed to be a leading contender for Vietnam’s top office — has resigned amid a corruption investigation into a real estate firm. Some activists say a power struggle within the Communist Party is the underlying cause of Hue’s downfall.