EU Urged to Push Vietnam to Respect Human Rights

By Defend the Defenders, December 8, 2016

The Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) has called on the EU to pressure Vietnamese authorities to strictly deal with violations of human rights and give out commitments to achieve actual progress in this sector.

In its press released one day ahead of the EU-Vietnam human right dialogue in Belgium on December 8, VCHR said the 28-nation bloc should demand Vietnam’s communist government to free all religious and political prisoners and stop arresting civil society activists and blocking the right to speech, association and religion.

VCHR emphasized that the dialogue on human rights between the EU and Vietnam takes place in the context Hanoi’s authorities are intensifying its persecution against local dissidents, social activists and human right defenders.

VCHR named 2016 a black year for the human rights in Vietnam as its security forces have been oppressing civil society activists and moderate demonstrators in protest against land revocation and natural disasters including the calamity caused by the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group in Vietnam’s central coastal region.

This year is also seen a violent year for the press circle when mistreatment have undergone for detainees. The statistics showed that at least 20 political and social activists have been arrested this year.