On November 21, 2019, Pham Chi Dung, the prominent blogger and dissident, was arrested. Pham Chi Dung is the chairman of Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) – a civil society organization.
Pham Chi Dung was prosecuted on the same day for “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and articles to oppose the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
On July 4, 2014, he established IJAVN and since then the association has been advocating es for press freedom of the press which is prescribed in Article 25 of the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam. The association’s operations in the last five years has been totally compliant with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which entered into force in December 1982 in Vietnam.
Pham Chi Dung’s arrest proves that Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his regime totally failed to promote and advocate Civil and Political Rights. His arrest showed that the government never tolerates any dissent; and confirmed once again that the regime in Vietnam never intended to honor its commitments to the international and regional community.
With this statement, we express our support to Pham Chi Dung’s exercising freedom of the press and stand in solidarity with civil society organizations to advocate fundamental human rights.
We oppose Pham Chi Dung’s arrest and further investigation of Pham Chi Dung and his association.
We call for international NGOs, civil society organizations that promote human rights and freedom of the press to support Pham Chi Dung and to raise awareness about the crackdown on Pham Chi Dung and IJAVN.
We call for the collective support for those who advocate for human rights and democracy in Vietnam to fight for freedom of press and expression.
We call for the compassion and sense of responsibility of countries that highly value democracy and human rights and urge them to stand with Pham Chi Dung and IJAVN to defend our freedom of the press and expression.
We call on the EU to suspend the European Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) due to this aggressive violations of human rights.
Vietnam should not target human rights activists and independent journalists to gain any trade deals with the West.
We are willing to fight for the human rights specified in the 2013 Constitution of Vietnam and those that Hanoi promised to uphold in its commitments to the West.
We call on the Vietnamese regime to immediately and unconditionally release Pham Chi Dung.
Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam