by Defend the Defenders, June 22, 2017
The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has slammed Vietnam’s newly-adopted Penal Code, saying the revised law contains a number of articles limiting basic human rights.
In its press release on June 21, HRW said Vietnam should immediately repeal a provision in its revised penal code that would hold lawyers criminally responsible for not reporting clients to the authorities for a number of crimes.
The revised code also contains a number of changes heightening criminal penalties against criticism of the government or Vietnam’s one-party state.
HRW reacted one day after Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly adopted the revised Penal Code which will become effective from January 1, 2018.
In the revised law, Article 19 requires lawyers to denounce their clients in serious cases relating to national security.
“Requiring lawyers to violate lawyer-client confidentiality will mean that lawyers become agents of the state and clients won’t have any reason to trust their lawyers,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.
“Vietnam considers any criticism or opposition to the government or Communist Party to be a ‘national security’ matter, this will undermine any possibility of real legal defense in such cases,” he said.
“Vietnam’s foreign investors and trading partners should be very concerned about laws that would require their lawyers to pass on confidential information to the authorities to avoid getting into trouble,” Adams said.
In the new law, Vietnam’s parliament kept the national security provisions unchanged from the 1999 Penal Code which have been used to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and independent bloggers. Among these new clauses in Article 109 (previously Article 79) and Article 117 (previously Article 88).
In most politically-motivated arrests and convictions in Vietnam, the authorities use Article 79 to punish people for being affiliated with a particular group or organization disapproved by the ruling communist party. Article 87 is often used to punish people for participating in religious groups not sanctioned by the state. Article 88 is a tool to gag dissidents and bloggers critical of the party or the government. Article 89 is used to punish independent labor activists who help organize wildcat strikes, HRW said.
“The revised penal code illustrates Vietnam’s lack of commitment to improve its abysmal human rights record,” said Adams.
“If Vietnam sincerely wants to promote the rule of law, it should facilitate the work of lawyers instead of introducing new laws to make it impossible to do their jobs.”
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June 22, 2017
Human Rights Watch Slams Vietnam’s Newly-adopted Penal Code
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights]
by Defend the Defenders, June 22, 2017
The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has slammed Vietnam’s newly-adopted Penal Code, saying the revised law contains a number of articles limiting basic human rights.
In its press release on June 21, HRW said Vietnam should immediately repeal a provision in its revised penal code that would hold lawyers criminally responsible for not reporting clients to the authorities for a number of crimes.
The revised code also contains a number of changes heightening criminal penalties against criticism of the government or Vietnam’s one-party state.
HRW reacted one day after Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly adopted the revised Penal Code which will become effective from January 1, 2018.
In the revised law, Article 19 requires lawyers to denounce their clients in serious cases relating to national security.
“Requiring lawyers to violate lawyer-client confidentiality will mean that lawyers become agents of the state and clients won’t have any reason to trust their lawyers,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.
“Vietnam considers any criticism or opposition to the government or Communist Party to be a ‘national security’ matter, this will undermine any possibility of real legal defense in such cases,” he said.
“Vietnam’s foreign investors and trading partners should be very concerned about laws that would require their lawyers to pass on confidential information to the authorities to avoid getting into trouble,” Adams said.
In the new law, Vietnam’s parliament kept the national security provisions unchanged from the 1999 Penal Code which have been used to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and independent bloggers. Among these new clauses in Article 109 (previously Article 79) and Article 117 (previously Article 88).
In most politically-motivated arrests and convictions in Vietnam, the authorities use Article 79 to punish people for being affiliated with a particular group or organization disapproved by the ruling communist party. Article 87 is often used to punish people for participating in religious groups not sanctioned by the state. Article 88 is a tool to gag dissidents and bloggers critical of the party or the government. Article 89 is used to punish independent labor activists who help organize wildcat strikes, HRW said.
“The revised penal code illustrates Vietnam’s lack of commitment to improve its abysmal human rights record,” said Adams.
“If Vietnam sincerely wants to promote the rule of law, it should facilitate the work of lawyers instead of introducing new laws to make it impossible to do their jobs.”