Vietnam : repression deepens under new leader

No easing of severe restrictions under general secretary To Lam

The rise of a new leader in Vietnam following a power shake-up in mid-2024 brought no reprieve from the government’s relentless repression of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. The Vietnamese authorities prohibit independent rights groups, labor unions, media, religious groups, and all other organizations that operate outside government control.

For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.

“Secretary General To Lam’s rise to leadership has done nothing to limit the Vietnamese government’s severe and systematic repression of civil and political rights,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “International donors and Vietnam’s trade partners interested in seeing the government carry out reforms should speak out against its abysmal rights record.”

The following were key developments in the country during 2024:

• To Lam, former head of the notorious Ministry of Public Security, secured the paramount position as secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party after an intense internal power struggle displaced five politburo members. Under Lam, Vietnam’s police had wrongfully imprisoned scores of dissidents over the past decade, decimating Vietnam’s budding civil society. This crackdown continued through 2024.
• In 2024, the courts convicted on bogus charges and sentenced at least 43 rights campaigners and dissidents, including human rights defenders Nguyen Chi Tuyen, Nguyen Vu Binh, Phan Van Bach, and environmental activist Ngo Thi To Nhien.
• The Vietnamese government controls the criminal justice system, which is neither independent nor impartial. The authorities have regularly staged public trials to name and shame the defendants – and indirectly, their families – and “educate” the public, with the defendant’s guilt predetermined.
• The government also continued to severely restrict the rights to freedom of association, religion, and movement.

The Vietnamese government should immediately end its systemic rights abuses and release all prisoners and detainees held for exercising their fundamental rights. International trade partners and donors should press Vietnamese authorities to respect civil and political rights.

Human Rights Watch – January 16, 2025