Vietnam: Regime criminalises activists on trumped up charges and labels aid group as ‘terrorists’

The state of civic space in Vietnam is rated as ‘closed’. Among ongoing concerns documented are systematic attempts to silence human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, including their jailing under national security laws, restrictions on their freedom of movement, and torture and ill-treatment in detention. There are also strict controls on the media, online censorship and controls on social media as well as ongoing restrictions on peaceful protests.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in January 2025, that under To Lam, who is the secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Vietnam’s police had continued its crackdown on journalists, labour rights activists, and human rights defenders.

In February 2025, The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), its member organisation Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), and Global Witness lodged a complaint with the European Commission’s trade department, stating that Vietnam’s ongoing crackdown on human rights defenders working on sustainable development violates the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

In March 2025, during the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the European Union spoke out on human rights, saying it remained “deeply concerned over the arrests of human rights defenders as well as labour rights, climate and environmental experts in Vietnam, which has a chilling effect on freedom of expression, assembly and association.”

Since January 2025, the regime has continued to arrest activists including a Protestant pastor, an alleged member of the France-based Assembly for Democracy and Pluralism and an ethnic Khmer Krom monk and human rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong. The government has labelled a refugee aid group a ‘terrorist’ organisation, increased prosecutions under Article 331 and imposed a new law practice licensing rule that could have a chilling effect. It has also jailed an ex-lawyer and prominent journalist over Facebook posts and banned a magazine issue and Telegram.

Association

Religious figures, minority rights activists and critics arrested

Religious figures, minority rights activists and critics have been targeted by the government since the beginning of 2025

In January 2025, police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested 71-year-old Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung after he was accused of spreading anti-state propaganda in a Facebook post. In the post he claimed that Vietnam’s Communist Party once referred to those who bought land as ‘cruel landlords,’ while these days, ‘those who abuse power to acquire land are called ‘outstanding’’.

Pastor Nguyen was arrested in a raid on his home during which his son, Nguyen Tran Hien, was also detained. The authorities seized several phones and laptops. Pastor Nguyen’s son was released after several hours of interrogation. The pastor was charged under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.

Police in southern Vietnam arrested a 28-year-old man in March 2025 on charges of trying to overthrow the communist government. Quach Gia Khang from Dong Nai province was charged with “conducting activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” under Article 109 of the Criminal Code. Khang was allegedly a member of the France-based Assembly for Democracy and Pluralism, police said. They accused him of using Facebook, Viber and other social media to promote the group’s agenda.

In the same month, the authorities arrested an ethnic Khmer Krom monk, Venerable Kim Som Rinh and two activists, Thach Nga and Thach Xuan Dong. The trio were arrested in Tra Vinh province, according to the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation and were charged under Article 331 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code, for “abusing democratic freedoms”. The arrests are believed to be part of the repression of the Khmer Krom community. Nearly 1.3-million Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once south-eastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement.

In April 2025, HRW reported that the authorities in Quang Nam province had charged prominent human rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong under article 117 of the penal code with anti-state propaganda. As previously documented, he was already serving a 10-year prison sentence under article 117 for criticising the Vietnamese government. In November 2024 he created signs in prison saying, “Down with the Communist [Party of] Vietnam for violating human rights.”

Trinh Ba Phuong, 40, comes from a family of land rights activists. In the last two decades, he joined his mother, father, and younger brother in numerous protests and campaigns in support of human rights, land rights, and environmental protection. Trinh Ba Phuong’s family has endured repeated harassment by the police, intimidation, house arrest, and physical assaults.

Authorities labels refugee aid group a ‘terrorist’ organisation

In February 2025, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security added refugee aid organisation Boat People SOS (BPSOS) to its list of terrorist groups, saying it had carried out “anti-Vietnam activities.”

BPSOS was set up in the 1980s to help so-called boat people flee Vietnam by sea. It now helps victims of religious persecution and human trafficking in Vietnam.

BPSOS Executive Director Nguyen Dinh Thang said the terrorist designation was meant to intimidate those who dare speak out on repression. In the same month, BPSOS helped organise the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington. More than 1,000 international delegates attended, including more than 40 parliamentarians. However, three religious representatives from Vietnam who had been invited to the conference were stopped at the airport in Vietnam and told they couldn't leave for security reasons.

The authorities have long used vaguely worded and loosely interpreted provisions in the Vietnamese penal code and other laws to prosecute and imprison peaceful political and religious activists, land rights campaigners, and whistle blowers, and to crush all forms of dissent. These provisions—embedded in particular in the penal code’s article 331—criminalise acts deemed to “infringe upon the interests of the state,” an offence punishable by up to seven years in prison. Vietnamese authorities frequently use article 331 to prevent any public criticism of even low-level officials or protests.

New report shows increase in prosecutions under Article 331

In April 2025, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a new report entitled “We’ll All Be Arrested Soon” which focused on the arrest of individuals under Article 331 of the Penal Code, which is the crime of ‘abusing the rights to democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organisations, individuals.’

The report highlighted that between 2018 and February 2025, the courts had convicted and sentenced at least 124 people to harsh prison terms under Article 331. This is a significant increase over the previous six-year period (2011-2017), when only 28 people were reportedly convicted and sentenced to prison for violating Article 331’s predecessor, Article 258.

In the past, people who were convicted under this law were often bloggers or human rights activists. However, the report shows, the authorities have enlarged the scope and application of article 331 so that it reaches further into society, beyond human rights and democracy dissidents (most of whom are now in prison) to all those who voice any grievance with state or local Communist Party and government officials. As a result, people with no appreciable public profile as activists face arrest and severe prison sentences even for criticising low-level officials.

Lawyers fear the new licensing rule could have a chilling effect

Lawyers are voicing concern over a new government decree regulating the issuance and revocation of law practice licences.

Decree 121, issued on 11th June 2025, shifts the authority to grant, revoke, and renew law practice licences from the Minister of Justice to provincial chairpersons — a move seen as part of a broader agenda to restructure Vietnam’s state apparatus.

However, law professionals have raised alarms over the change, warning that it not only violates existing law but also hands sweeping powers to local leaders, raising concerns the authority could be abused to intimidate lawyers involved in cases against provincial governments.

Expression

Prominent lawyer jailed over Facebook posts

In January 2025, Tran Dinh Trien, the former deputy chair of the Hanoi Bar Association, was convicted on charges of "abusing democratic freedoms", and sentenced to three years in prison.

The court said he had written posts on his personal Facebook page containing "unauthenticated content" that "affected the reputation of the courts and the chief judge of the supreme court personally". The three Facebook posts he was charged over were uploaded in April and May 2024.

Trien was arrested in June 2024. He has defended activists and represented clients on issues such as land confiscation.

Prominent journalist jailed for Facebook posts

On 27th February 2025, a court in Hanoi sentenced independent journalist Truong Huy San, also known by his pen name Huy Duc, to 30 months in prison. He was found guilty of "abusing democratic freedoms" under Article 331 of the Vietnamese Penal Code for 13 articles he posted on his personal Facebook page between 2015 and 2024. A seasoned journalist born in 1962, Huy Duc has worked for several Vietnamese newspapers, exposing abuses of power by numerous high-ranking officials.

Vietnam is ranked at 173rd place out of 180 countries in the 2025 Reporters Without Borders’s press freedom index. Media is closely controlled, and independent reporters and bloggers are often jailed, making Vietnam one of the world's biggest prisons for journalists.

Government bans magazine issue

A 24th May 2025 print edition of The Economist, which features Vietnam’s top leader on its cover, was banned in the country. The magazine carried an image of the Communist party General Secretary To Lam with stars on his eyes, alongside the headline “The man with a plan for Vietnam”, with an article carrying the subheading: “A Communist party hard man has to rescue Asia’s great success story”.

Noting the need for Vietnam to transform its economic strategy, The Economist article stated: “If Mr Lam fails, Vietnam will muddle on as a low-value-added production centre that missed its moment”, adding that reforms could, on the other hand, “propel 100m Vietnamese into the developed world, creating another Asian growth engine”.

Reports by both Reuters and Bloomberg quoted unnamed distributors who said they could not obtain copies of the magazine or that it had been banned. An unnamed executive at distributor Ngay Moi told Reuters they had been ordered to “tear off” the cover and article about Lam, adding: “Later, we were ordered not to sell it at all.” An employee at a second distributor, Global Book Corporation, also told Reuters that Vietnam’s ministry in charge of public information had banned the edition.

Government orders ban of messaging app Telegram

In May 2024, Vietnam ordered the country’s telecommunication service providers to block the messaging app Telegram for not cooperating in combating alleged crimes committed by users of the platform. The ministry said internet service providers should “deploy solutions and measures to prevent Telegram’s activities in Vietnam”.

Almost 70 percent of 9,600 channels on Telegram in Vietnam contain “poisonous and bad information”, the government said in its report on the app. Groups and associations on Telegram, involving tens of thousands of people, had disseminated “anti-state documents” and were involved in “reactionary activities”, the government added.

The government also claimed that some groups on Telegram also used the app to sell users’ data and were involved in drug trafficking or had “terrorist” links.

According to The Vietnamese, this move aligns with broader efforts to tighten control over digital platforms. New regulations enacted in 2024 require social media companies to verify user identities and provide data to authorities, a policy that has drawn criticism from free speech advocates.

Banning Telegram may be partly aimed at stifling dissent ahead of key political milestones, including potential leadership transitions and party congress preparations. The timing of the move, which coincides with heightened scrutiny of anti-corruption investigations and centralisation efforts under General Secretary To Lam, suggests that information control remains the core concern of the Vietnamese party-state.