Demdigest | Jun 15, 2015
A group of activists yesterday visited blogger Ta Phong Tan, who is currently detained at Prison No 5 in north centralVietnam, Vietnam Right Now reports.
The prominent online activist jailed for “anti-government propaganda” has mounted a hunger strike for at least three weeks to protest the mistreatment of political prisoners, RFA reports:
Citizen journalist Ta Phong Tan—a former policewoman who has received international awards for her work—began fasting on May 13 at her prison in Thanh Hoa province, where she has been serving a 10-year sentence since her conviction in 2012, her sister Ta Minh Tu told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
A group of Vietnamese independent labor leaders has sent aletter to Congress saying a major pending trade bill will undermine efforts to improve workers’ rights, Zach Carter writes for Huffington Post:
President Barack Obama has long insisted his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact with 11 other nations will improve labor standards in countries with terrible human rights records, including Vietnam. But the letter signed by Lê Thanh Tùng of the Committee of Support of Independent Labor Unions, Trương Minh Đức from Viet Labor and Phạm Văn Trội of the Brotherhood for Democracy argues the opposite is true.
It is currently illegal to form labor unions in Vietnam, where the only formal union is a wing of the communist government. Average worker wages, according to the letter, are far below the amount needed to cover basic living expenses including food and housing. Workers are routinely beaten and jailed for speaking out in favor of better labor rules.
“Workers who attempt to exercise their rights are met with verbal and physical threats by hired thugs working in conjunction with factory management and government operatives,” the letter adds.
“The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an authoritarian state ruled by a single party, the Communist Party of Vietnam,” according to the U.S. State Department’s latest report on human rights in Vietnam, published in 2014.
June 17, 2015 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations | 2255 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 |
Witnesses
Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (Dieu Cay)
Writer
Free Journalists Club of Vietnam
Mrs. Doan Thi Hong-Anh
(Wife of a torture victim)
Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Boat People SOS
RTWT
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June 16, 2015
Rights abuses by Vietnamese authorities scrutinized
by Nhan Quyen • Ta Phong Tan
Demdigest | Jun 15, 2015
A group of activists yesterday visited blogger Ta Phong Tan, who is currently detained at Prison No 5 in north centralVietnam, Vietnam Right Now reports.
The prominent online activist jailed for “anti-government propaganda” has mounted a hunger strike for at least three weeks to protest the mistreatment of political prisoners, RFA reports:
Citizen journalist Ta Phong Tan—a former policewoman who has received international awards for her work—began fasting on May 13 at her prison in Thanh Hoa province, where she has been serving a 10-year sentence since her conviction in 2012, her sister Ta Minh Tu told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
A group of Vietnamese independent labor leaders has sent aletter to Congress saying a major pending trade bill will undermine efforts to improve workers’ rights, Zach Carter writes for Huffington Post:
President Barack Obama has long insisted his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact with 11 other nations will improve labor standards in countries with terrible human rights records, including Vietnam. But the letter signed by Lê Thanh Tùng of the Committee of Support of Independent Labor Unions, Trương Minh Đức from Viet Labor and Phạm Văn Trội of the Brotherhood for Democracy argues the opposite is true.
It is currently illegal to form labor unions in Vietnam, where the only formal union is a wing of the communist government. Average worker wages, according to the letter, are far below the amount needed to cover basic living expenses including food and housing. Workers are routinely beaten and jailed for speaking out in favor of better labor rules.
“Workers who attempt to exercise their rights are met with verbal and physical threats by hired thugs working in conjunction with factory management and government operatives,” the letter adds.
“The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an authoritarian state ruled by a single party, the Communist Party of Vietnam,” according to the U.S. State Department’s latest report on human rights in Vietnam, published in 2014.
June 17, 2015 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations | 2255 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 |
Witnesses
Mr. Nguyen Van Hai (Dieu Cay)
Writer
Free Journalists Club of Vietnam
Mrs. Doan Thi Hong-Anh
(Wife of a torture victim)
Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Boat People SOS
RTWT