A/HRC/44/50/Add.4 Conscience Association (FVPOC), and was also a founder of the Independent Journalists Association of Viet Nam (IJAVN). Mr. Pham Chi Dung was arrested on 19 November 2019, and his house searched. During the search, police officers reportedly forced Mr. Pham Chi Dung to log onto his computer and to print certain documents that could be related to his work as a journalist, including his work with IJAVN. According to the information received, he is currently being held under Article 117 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, which relates to “making, storing or disseminating information, documents, materials and items against the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam”, a crime which carries between 10-20 years imprisonment. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government for its reply dated 20 March 2020. The Special Rapporteur remains concerned that these acts appear to be directly linked to the exercise by Ms. Thao and Mr. Pham Chi Dung of their rights to freedom of expression and association, and their work as human rights. 93. In communication VNM 1/2020 sent on 21 March 2020, the Special Rapporteur raised concern at the alleged arbitrary arrest and potential enforced disappearance of Vietnamese lawyer and woman human rights defender Ms. Truong Thi Ha, while crossing the border from Laos to Viet Nam on the 25-26 March 2020, and the possibility that her arrest could be an act of reprisal for her human rights advocacy. In November 2019 Ms. Truong Thi Ha had participated in a workshop organized by the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association in Geneva, Switzerland. In this workshop she voiced her fear of reprisals for her cooperation with UN mechanisms. Ms. Truong was returning to Viet Nam for the first time since her participation in the aforementioned workshop. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government for its reply dated 25 May 2020, which refutes that Ms. Truong Thi Ha was arbitrarily detained or prevented from contacting her family, and states that Ms. Truong Thi Ha had been placed in mandatory health quarantine for 14 days due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government of Viet Nam had introduced mandatory health quarantine for all entries to Viet Nam from March 21, 2020. The Government’s reply appears to indicate that Ms. Truong Thi Ha was able to contact friends and family to communicate her whereabouts as of 30 March 2020. However, the Special Rapporteur would like to highlight, that according to information received Ms. Truong Thi Ha was not given an official way of communicating with her family by the authorities, which would also explain why she was only able to do so as of 30 March 2020, despite having been placed in quarantine on 26 March 2020. The Government reply further states that Ms. Truong Thi Ha is free and not a subject of any criminal detention or prosecution. 21

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents