Prisoners of Conscience in Vietnam

With at least 258 prisoners of conscience, Vietnam is the second largest jailer of peaceful dissidents in Southeast Asia, after Myanmar.
PictureThe numbers of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam have doubled during the last five years, according to Amnesty International, making it “one of the most dangerous countries in the region to be a human rights defender, journalist, blogger or political activist.”
Abuses of Prisoners of Conscience
In Vietnam, prisoners of conscience are routinely deprived of basic rights from the moment they are arrested until after they finish serving their sentences, when they are placed under probationary detention for up to five years.

​Most are arrested on the basis of imprecisely-defined national security provisions in Vietnam's Criminal Code and other laws that the government uses to imprison peaceful political and religious dissidents. ​ Rights groups estimate that approximately 258 prisoners of conscience are currently detained or imprisoned in Vietnam, the majority on national security charges.
A prisoner of conscience is someone who has been arrested, imprisoned, or had their freedom restricted for peacefully exercising their internationally protected rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, and religion.

A. Abuses in Police Custody and Pre-Trial Detention​

The detention of many political and religious dissidents in Vietnam starts with their arrest and abduction by police, and then with their disappearance. (Read more.)

​B. Abuses In Prison: Isolation And Harsh Treatment

Once tried and sentenced to prison, prisoners of conscience are physically separated from the general inmate population and stripped of many of the rights accorded to other prisoners under Vietnamese law. (Read more.)

Circular 37: “Legal" Basis for Vietnam’s Harsh Treatment of Prisoners of Conscience

The segregation and discriminatory treatment of dissidents sentenced for national security crimes is provided by Ministry of Public Security Circular 37.  Issued in 2011, the circular calls for the isolation of prisoners of conscience in special "security sections" of prisons, where they are subject to harsh treatment and denial of many of the rights accorded to common criminal offenders. (Read more.)