Vietnam - At least three independent activists still in detention (2010)

In May a Human Rights Watch report documented the government’s repression of activists who tried to create independent trade unions. The report recalls that since 2006 at least eight independent activists have been sentenced to prison on dubious national security charges. Three of them were still in prison at the end of 2009: Doan Van Dien, one of the founders of the the United Worker-Farmers Organisation of Vietnam (UWFO), Tran Quoc Hien, UWFO spokesperson, and Le Thi Cong Nhan, a lawyer and multi-party democracy campaigner. During her trial she was accused of “fallacious interpretation” of government policies on labour unions. Her articles on the internet criticised national legislation that allowed for artibrary detention, prevented the creation of independent trade unions and the exercise of the right to strike. Le Thi Cong Nhan is being held in Yen Dinh prison, 150km south of Hanoi.