Meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark on 15/11/2021
From left: Canh Thang Nguyen (SKVN), Thomas Lund-Andersen (MFA), Helena Huong Nguyen (VietTan and SKVN) and Emilie Lehmann-Jakobsen (IMS).
Sofie Dyhr Crump (MFA) and Ulrikke Dyrholm (MFA) are missing from the picture.
Monday, November 15th, 2021, a delegation consisting of Canh Thanh Nguyen, Secretary of the Support Committee for Vietnam (SKVN), Helena Huong Nguyen, Chairman of SKVN and member of VietTan and Emilie Lehmann-Jakobsen, Political Adviser for Asia at International Media Support (IMS) visited the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They were met by Sofie Dyhr Crump, Team Leader of the South Asian and Southeast Asian Office, Head of section Thomas Lund-Andersen, and student assistant Ulrikke Dyrholm from the same office.
After a brief presentation round, Helena Huong Nguyen presented the positive development, with data from Human Development Report from 1990 till now. This development was based on three primary parameters of the Human Development Index (HDI), which are life expectancy, education and income. Denmark can take great pride in these positive developments, as the country has contributed considerable aid to Vietnam, with 5.5 billion DKK in the period 2000-2015, an average of DKK 400 million annually. From 2016 onwards, Danish official development aid (ODA) to Vietnam has been significantly reduced, approx. 60 million DKK/year on average, as Vietnam was redesignated to be a strategic bilateral partner as opposed to a priority country for Danish ODA in 2015.
On the other hand, Vietnam has also experienced worsening developments in at least two areas. The first is rising inequality, which is measured by the so-called “Coefficient of Human Inequality”. This inequality has contributed to the lowering of Vietnam’s HDI (Inequality adjusted HDI – IHDI, see the above graph). The second is the increase of state sanctioned violations of basic human rights, including freedom of speech. The below figure shows the number of pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders that have been arrested and convicted by the Vietnamese government in the period 2010-2021.
Suppression of system critics has since 2010 increased alarmingly as a result of rising resistance among the Vietnamese population. Compared to earlier years, there has been an unseen number of demonstrations, which have taken place in connection with what the population views as serious social challenges. Some of these have included e.g. the government’s passive policy and concessions of seas and island territories in the South China Sea; the “Formosa” environmental disaster in Central Vietnam in 2016; the introduction of the Cyber Security Law and the Specialized Economic Zone Law 2019; the Dong Tam land dispute case in 2020; the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic; et cetera. The Vietnamese government, which to this day consists of top members of the Communist Party of Vietnam, has met the rising resistance with force in their efforts to maintain and control power, especially since 2016.
Emilie Lehmann-Jakobsen spoke about freedom of press and freedom of expression in Vietnam. She assessed that despite the fact that freedom of expression is part of the country’s constitution, Vietnam has a myriad of laws that are used to restrict freedom of expression and thus censor critical voices. Recently, various laws regarding mis/disinformation (or “fake news”) have become popular.
Emilie also stated that the Cyber Security Law (effective as of 2019) and Decree 28/2020 are the most worrying when it comes to freedom of digital expression – the same applies to the expected changes to Decree 72 (better known as the Internet Decree).
These laws allow the government to:
- Request platforms to remove content that the government deems to contain “propaganda against the Party and State” within 24 hours (something that both YouTube and Facebook are already doing);
- Request user data if users are deemed to be spreading “fake news” or spreading “propaganda against the state”; and
- Prosecute individuals who have shared content online that is deemed to be in violation of existing law.
In addition, so-called “fake news” fines have been introduced this year – a new initiative to combat mis / disinformation related to Covid-19, but which in practice is also used to silence critical voices.
Helena showed an interview video of an activist who has fled to Thailand after receiving an arrest warrant from the Vietnamese government, and the story of the wife of an activist, who was arrested earlier this year.
During the meeting, four documents were shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
- Vietnam’s Prisoners of Conscience, Report 2021
- Magnitsky-Call to Impose Sanctions against To Lam and Nguyen Hoa Binh
- Global Magnitsky Report No. 1 – Viettel
- Police Brutality in Murders, Tortures & Kidnappers Against Common Civilians From 2007-2019 In Vietnam
The last and main part of the meeting was spent on exchanging, listening and understanding each other’s needs and conditions. Both partners discussed how the Danish government can use its influence to promote human rights in Vietnam. The meeting ended as the beginning for future collaboration, which will also include other units of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and parts of the Danish government.
#SKVN #Viettan #IMS #DENMARKMFA
See the danish version here:
See the Vietnamese version here:
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