Measuring Vietnam's Progress in Ending Torture
BENCHMARKS:
CAT-VN measures Vietnam’s progress in eliminating torture by the government’s timely implementation of the following milestones:
1. Prompt ratification of the Convention against Torture (CAT) and signing and ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, a treaty that supplements CAT and strengthens its preventive mandate.
2. Prohibition of the practices of holding prisoners and detainees for prolonged periods in incommunicado detention and solitary confinement, which not only facilitate and perpetuate the torture of detainees, but in some circumstances can themselves amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
3. Commitment to a timetable by which the government will authorize independent monitoring of all prisons, re-education centers, and other places of detention in Vietnam by both international and domestic monitoring bodies to investigate allegations of physical abuse and torture of prisoners and detainees and enforce the absolute prohibition on such abuses by police, security officials, prison and detention center staff, and other detainees.
4. Acceptance of country visits by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and officials of the International Labor Organization, with unrestricted access to prisons, detention centers, psychiatric institutions, re-education camps, drug detention centers, jails, police lock-ups, and other places of detention.
5. Ratification and implementation of Work Convention No. 105 (Abolition of Forced Labor), which prohibits forced or compulsory labor of prisoners convicted of political offenses or because of racial, social, national, or religious discrimination; and publication of a list of all forms of work in which prisoners and detainees are involved, which products are processed using detainee or prison labor, and the companies whose products are processed using detainee or prison labor.
6. Implementation of and adherence to basic safeguards against torture and other abuses of detainees that are enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam is a party. The ICCPR prohibits arbitrary detention and torture, and protects the rights of people deprived of their liberty, including the right to prompt access to legal advice and a fair trial.
7. Publication of a central registry of the names and locations of all persons held in pretrial detention, as well as a list of all those convicted and sentenced, and the relevant charges or reasons for their detention or imprisonment.
8. Establishment of an independent mechanism allowing prisoners to submit complaints without the knowledge of prison guards directly responsible for them, along with provisions to protect detainees who raise concerns or complaints from being subject to retribution from prison authorities or individuals acting on their behalf.
9. Disclosure of the number of law enforcement officers who have been investigated, indicted, prosecuted, or brought to justice in connection to torture or abuse of detainees or prisoners.
10. Commitment to a timetable to repeal laws that penalize peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, including laws on national security and public order, religious belief and practice, and administrative detention.
Civil society organizations and individual citizens play important watchdog roles in monitoring torture and mistreatment of detainees and prisoners in Vietnam. We call on international human rights organizations, concerned governments, and Vietnam’s development partners to support and defend the brave advocates who step forward to report incidents of torture and other abuses of detainees and prisoners in Vietnam, and hold Vietnamese authorities accountable in implementing the Convention against Torture.
CAT-VN's full recommendations to the Vietnamese government and its development partners can be found here.
CAT-VN measures Vietnam’s progress in eliminating torture by the government’s timely implementation of the following milestones:
1. Prompt ratification of the Convention against Torture (CAT) and signing and ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, a treaty that supplements CAT and strengthens its preventive mandate.
2. Prohibition of the practices of holding prisoners and detainees for prolonged periods in incommunicado detention and solitary confinement, which not only facilitate and perpetuate the torture of detainees, but in some circumstances can themselves amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
3. Commitment to a timetable by which the government will authorize independent monitoring of all prisons, re-education centers, and other places of detention in Vietnam by both international and domestic monitoring bodies to investigate allegations of physical abuse and torture of prisoners and detainees and enforce the absolute prohibition on such abuses by police, security officials, prison and detention center staff, and other detainees.
4. Acceptance of country visits by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and officials of the International Labor Organization, with unrestricted access to prisons, detention centers, psychiatric institutions, re-education camps, drug detention centers, jails, police lock-ups, and other places of detention.
5. Ratification and implementation of Work Convention No. 105 (Abolition of Forced Labor), which prohibits forced or compulsory labor of prisoners convicted of political offenses or because of racial, social, national, or religious discrimination; and publication of a list of all forms of work in which prisoners and detainees are involved, which products are processed using detainee or prison labor, and the companies whose products are processed using detainee or prison labor.
6. Implementation of and adherence to basic safeguards against torture and other abuses of detainees that are enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam is a party. The ICCPR prohibits arbitrary detention and torture, and protects the rights of people deprived of their liberty, including the right to prompt access to legal advice and a fair trial.
7. Publication of a central registry of the names and locations of all persons held in pretrial detention, as well as a list of all those convicted and sentenced, and the relevant charges or reasons for their detention or imprisonment.
8. Establishment of an independent mechanism allowing prisoners to submit complaints without the knowledge of prison guards directly responsible for them, along with provisions to protect detainees who raise concerns or complaints from being subject to retribution from prison authorities or individuals acting on their behalf.
9. Disclosure of the number of law enforcement officers who have been investigated, indicted, prosecuted, or brought to justice in connection to torture or abuse of detainees or prisoners.
10. Commitment to a timetable to repeal laws that penalize peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, including laws on national security and public order, religious belief and practice, and administrative detention.
Civil society organizations and individual citizens play important watchdog roles in monitoring torture and mistreatment of detainees and prisoners in Vietnam. We call on international human rights organizations, concerned governments, and Vietnam’s development partners to support and defend the brave advocates who step forward to report incidents of torture and other abuses of detainees and prisoners in Vietnam, and hold Vietnamese authorities accountable in implementing the Convention against Torture.
CAT-VN's full recommendations to the Vietnamese government and its development partners can be found here.