UN human rights experts today called on Viet Nam to immediately and unconditionally release detained writer and woman human rights defender Ms Pham Doan Trang who faces “anti-State propaganda” charges and the possibility of up to 12 years in jail.
- Title: Viet Nam: release writer held on “propaganda” charges – UN experts
- Publish Date: October 29, 2021
- Publisher: United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
Excerpt:
“Ms Pham Doan Trang is only the latest victim of the authorities’ use of vaguely defined propaganda charges to persecute writers, journalists and human rights defenders, criminalising the exercise of their right to freedom of opinion and expression to share information,” the experts said.
Ms Pham Doan Trang, detained in Hanoi temporary detention centre 1, was arrested in October 2020. She was held in pre-trial detention for more than a year before being allowed to meet her lawyer, and charges were not brought until the end of August this year. She has not been allowed to meet her family and has only recently received medical treatment, despite deteriorating health. Her trial, initially scheduled for 4 November, has been postponed and is likely to take place in the coming weeks.
“As we have said many times before, Article 88 of the 1999 Criminal Code†, under which she is charged, is vaguely defined and violates international human rights norms,” the experts said. “We reiterate our call to the government to repeal all such provisions that violate the right to freedom of opinion and expression.”
The arrest and detention of an individual exercising their right to freedom of expression to report on human rights issues is an arbitrary deprivation of liberty under international human rights law, the experts said. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention deemed Ms Pham Doan’s detention arbitrary in an Opinion 40/2021 issued in September 2021.
The charges against Ms Pham Doan Trang stem from at least three human rights reports she co-authored, as well as interviews she gave with foreign media outlets. The reports – covering the 2016 Formosa marine environmental disaster, a 2016 law on religion, and human rights issues in Viet Nam in general – are being used as evidence by the prosecution.
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