{"id":42107,"date":"2023-12-06T22:14:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T06:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sweet-pascal.52-27-215-206.plesk.page\/eight-asia-pacific-nations-closed-to-democratic-freedoms-civicus\/"},"modified":"2023-12-06T22:14:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T06:14:08","slug":"eight-asia-pacific-nations-closed-to-democratic-freedoms-civicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/eight-asia-pacific-nations-closed-to-democratic-freedoms-civicus\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Asia-Pacific nations \u2018closed\u2019 to democratic freedoms: CIVICUS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Civil society organizations, journalists and protesters in many Asia-Pacific nations are facing increasing repression, according to a <\/span>new report<\/span><\/a> by the CIVICUS Monitor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vietnam came under particular criticism for failing to honor its obligations as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term.<\/span><\/p>\n

CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, assessed conditions in 198 countries and territories for its \u201cPeople Power Under Attack 2023\u201d report, classifying eight in this region \u2013 Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea Vietnam and Bangladesh \u2013 as \u201cclosed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Vietnam CIVICUS cited many cases of repression, including the March sentencing of land rights activist <\/span>Truong Van Dung<\/span><\/a> to six years in prison, and the eight year sentence against alleged anti-state propagandist <\/span>Tran Van Bang<\/span><\/a>, handed down in May.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other imprisoned activists named in the report included <\/span>Bui Tuan Lam<\/span><\/a>, jailed for over five years for \u201cpropaganda;\u201d anti-corruption campaigner <\/span>Dang Dang Phuoc<\/span><\/a>, who received an eight-year sentence; <\/span>Phan Son Tung<\/span><\/a>, handed a six-year term; and <\/span>Nguyen Lan Thang<\/span><\/a>, jailed for six years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conditions in Vietnam\u2019s prisons also worsened, the report said. Lawyer <\/span>Dang Dinh Bach<\/span><\/a> was assaulted by policemen in August after telling his family he\u2019d been threatened by inmates.<\/span><\/p>\n

CIVICUS also criticized Hanoi\u2019s growing use of censorship, blocking hundreds of websites and ordering social media platforms to take down \u201canti-state\u201d posts.<\/span><\/p>\n

People\u2019s freedom to protest was also curtailed with dozens of ethnic Ede demonstrators dispersed by armed police when they tried to block a drainage project in April.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have seen is ongoing efforts to criminalize and jail human rights defenders including environmental activists and minority rights activists using a range of restrictive national security laws after unfair trials,\u201d CIVICUS Montior\u2019s Asia-Pacific researcher Josef Benedict told Radio Free Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely worrying that the authorities have continued to use torture and ill-treatment against political prisoners with the purpose of coercing confessions, obtaining information or punishing political dissidents for their opinions,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Benedict called on the international community to put pressure on Vietnamese authorities \u201cto release all political prisoners and repeal all restrictive laws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also urged Vietnam\u2019s neighbors to protect dissidents seeking refuge in their countries, citing the abduction of <\/span>Duong Van Thai<\/span><\/a> by Vietnamese security agents operating in Thailand and accusing Hanoi of \u201ctransnational repression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by Taejun Kang.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tin t\u1eeb RFA Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civil society organizations, journalists and protesters in many Asia-Pacific nations are facing increasing repression, according to a new report by the CIVICUS Monitor. Vietnam came under particular criticism for failing to honor its obligations as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2023-2025 term. CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, assessed …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82,239],"tags":[246,251],"class_list":["post-42107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","category-vietnam","tag-english","tag-rfa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}