Civilrightsdefenders.org - As Vietnam is seeking a seat in the UN
Human Rights Council for 2014-2016, the authorities are tightening the
restrictions of the right to freedom of expression on the Internet
through new regulations and peaceful activists are arrested, threatened
and harassed. Dinh Nhat Uy is one of them. He is facing several years in
prison for posting criticism of the government on the Internet and for
protesting against the imprisonment of his brother and another blogger.
Civil Rigths Defenders calls on the international community to increase
the pressure on the Vietnam government to uphold its international
obligations and reform or repeal repressive legislation. Over a hundred
Vietnamese bloggers have done just that. They are drawing the attention
to the right to freedom of expression in general and article 258 in the
Vietnamese penal code in particular. In a statement, they highlight that
article 258 is a breach of the freedom of expression, and should be
repealed. The campaign, one of the most sophisticated human rights
campaigns that Vietnam has ever seen, has had wide visibility, both at
home and abroad.
Article 258 provides against “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe
upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of
organisations and/or citizens,” such as freedom of expression and
freedom of association. The vague wording opens for arbitrary
interpretation and imposes a serious threat to the rights for freedom of
expression. Only in June 2013, police arrested three bloggers under
Article 258, including Dinh Nhat Uy. He is accused of insulting the
judiciary through critical status updates on Facebook. Dinh Nhat Uy is
facing charges of offending the state, under article 258. In the
statement, the bloggers argue the article is inconsistent with Vietnam’s
candidacy to the UN Human Rights Council, as it is in breach of
Vietnam’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR).
On 1 September, a new regulation, called decree 72, entered into force.
Decree 72 tightens the state’s grip further on freedom of expression and
freedom of information on Internet, and risks silencing voices that the
authorities don’t tolerate. Decree 72 is vaguely worded and holds that
social media, including blogs, only can be used for “personal
information” and bans users from posting news articles and links.
Freedom Online Coalition is a network of countries, including Sweden,
which promotes freedom of expression on the Internet. The Coalition is
one of many organisations that have expressed concerns about decree 72,
underscoring it does not comply with the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, and is in breach of Vietnam’s obligations under the ICCPR.
The bloggers network has also delivered their statement to the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bangkok, where they presented
their reservations against article 258 and highlighted cases of
imprisoned bloggers.
The group has continued disseminating the statement, and also paid
visits to several embassies to discuss the article and its consequences,
including the Swedish and the German embassies. To ensure safe passage
of the bloggers after their visit, the German embassy offered the group
to go home in an embassy car. They also let them upload pictures from
the visit before leaving the embassy, to make sure that they would not
lose them if should the police confiscate their cameras. The Swedish
embassy invited the group to the home of an embassy staff before
departure.
Civil Rights Defenders believes that the new laws and regulations place
the relatively vibrant blogosphere at further risk. In a
one-party-state, where all the media is controlled by the state and a
third of the population is online, the blogosphere has come to play an
important role as an alternative voice, monitoring those in power. The
bloggers network shows that they have the capacity to shape public
opinion and create a discussion about freedom of expression. Now, decree
72 risks turning the clock back.
Therefore Civil Rights Defenders also believes Vietnam’s candidacy for
the Human Rights Council – and the campaign of the bloggers network –
provides an opportunity for Sweden and Freedom Online Coalition to
increase the pressure on Vietnam to ensure its legislation complies with
international human rights standards. An important step could be to
bring the issue up in the UN General Assembly, which elects the Human
Rights Council. And the important moral support to the bloggers must go
on.
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