Vietnam:
UN Rights Review Should Call for Urgent Reform
Worsening Repression of Free Speech, Labor Rights, Religious Freedom
HRW | July 7, 2025
United Nations member
countries should use the upcoming review of Vietnam’s
record on civil and political rights at the UN Human Rights Committee to press
the government to end its crackdown on dissent and other basic rights, Human
Rights Watch said in its submission to
the committee. The review of Vietnam’s report on its adherence to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it ratified in 1982,
will take place on July 7-8, 2025, in Geneva.
Following Vietnam’s previous review in 2019, the Human Rights Committee urged Vietnam
to “take all necessary steps, including revising legislation, to end violations
of the right to freedom of expression offline and online,” among other rights
violations. Since then, repression in the country has worsened, Human Rights
Watch said.
“The Vietnamese government claims that its citizens enjoy freedom of expression,
but this ‘freedom’ disappears for anyone who calls for democracy or criticizes
the Communist Party,” said Elaine
Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “UN member countries should
use Vietnam’s review to call out the government’s systematic repression of civil
and political rights and urge genuine reforms.”
The Vietnamese authorities severely restrict all civil and political rights,
including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association,
and religion. They prohibit independent rights groups, labor unions, media, many
religious groups, and other organizations operating outside government control.
Rights activists and bloggers who criticize the government or advocate for
reform face police intimidation, harassment, restricted movement, arbitrary
arrest and detention, prosecution, and long prison sentences after unfair
trials.
The Vietnamese authorities frequently use penal
code article 117, which criminalizes “making, storing, [or] disseminating
information” critical of the state, to prosecute and imprison activists for
posting or publishing statements opposing government policies. In recent years
the government has also significantly increased
the use of penal code article 331 to target citizens who have complained or
filed grievances against even low-level officials. Article 331 criminalizes the
act of “abusing the rights to democracy and freedoms to infringe upon the
interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations,
individuals,” and punishes violations with up to seven years in prison.
From 2024 and through April 2025, courts in Vietnam convicted and sentenced at
least 16 people to long prison terms under article 117, including prominent
human rights activists Nguyen
Chi Tuyen, who has used social media to criticize the government’s human
rights record, Nguyen
Vu Binh, a blogger, and Phan
Van Bach, a democracy campaigner. Between 2018 and April 2025, Vietnamese
courts convicted and sentenced at least 128 people to harsh prison terms under
article 331, including prominent lawyer Tran
Dinh Trien, influential blogger Truong
Huy San, and internet commentator Nguyen
Thai Hung.
More than 170 people are currently imprisoned in
Vietnam for criticizing the government or the Vietnamese Communist Party. All
media are under Party control and Vietnam is the world’s third
largest jailer of journalists.
In November 2024, the Vietnamese government issued Decree
147 to regulate the use and provision of internet services and online
information. The decree expands government control over access to information on
the internet for vaguely defined reasons of “national security” and “social
order,” and to prevent transgressions of Vietnam’s “morals, beautiful customs,
and traditions.” The authorities have extensively misused such legislation to
repress political dissent.
As a matter of law and practice, the Vietnamese government does not allow
independent unions to represent workers: its Trade Union Law only allows
government-controlled “unions.” The government has still not ratified the
International Labour Organization Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association
and Protection of the Right to Organize, despite making a pledge to
do so. While the government claims that the Vietnam General Confederation of
Labor is a “labor confederation” of enterprise-level unions, it is not
independent, nor does it comprise labor unions: its leaders are appointed by the
Vietnamese government or the Party.
The Vietnamese government restricts religious freedom and 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. As of April the
government had granted
permission to “43 religious organizations which belong to 16 religions” to
operate in Vietnam. It acknowledged that
by 2021, it had not officially recognized about 140 religious groups with
approximately one million followers.
“UN members should not be taken in by Vietnam’s baseless assertions but instead
denounce the government’s terrible human rights record,” Pearson said. “They
should press Vietnam to commit to real change, not empty words.”
___________________________________________
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Vietnam, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam