United Nations’ human rights experts urge Vietnam to release journalist Pham Doan Trang

The Vietnamese Magazine reports:

• On October 29, 2021, eight U.N. human rights experts called on the Vietnamese government to immediately and unconditionally release detained writer and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang, who is currently facing “anti-State propaganda” charges and up to 12 years of imprisonment.

• The U.N experts, who are a part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, stated that Doan Trang was the latest victim of the Vietnamese authorities’ use of vaguely defined laws to criminalize journalists and human rights defenders for their “exercise of their right to freedom of opinion and expression to share information.”

• The team also expressed concerns that Vietnam will use Pham Doan Trang’s reports on environmental disaster, religious freedom, and human rights issues, together with her interviews with foreign media outlets, as evidence in her trial. “This could have far-reaching consequences and consolidate an environment of fear in Viet Nam, leading to self-censorship and inhibiting others from cooperating with the UN,” said the experts.

• Finally, regarding Doan Trang’s health, the U.N. experts urged the Vietnamese government “to immediately and unconditionally release Ms Pham Doan Trang and allow her to receive all necessary medical care.”

• Also last week in a jointly released report from The 88 Project and the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School (GHRC), Vietnam was accused of continuing its suppression and criminalization of freedom of expression through controversial and vaguely defined laws. This report, which is the culmination of interviews with activists and their families and data collected by The 88 Project, was presented to the UNHRC as part of its Universal Periodic Review of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Campaign to send letters to imprisoned journalist Pham Doan Trang

The Vietnamese Magazine, Luat Khoa Magazine, and The 88 Project have jointly called on the public to join a campaign of sending letters to journalist Pham Doan Trang, who is being detained in Hanoi. The participants are invited to write and send letters to Doan Trang as a way to keep her spirit up while she is being held in detention.