FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: v4climateleaders@gmail.com
The Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition, a group of over 30 international and regional environmental, climate justice, and human rights organizations, celebrates the early release from prison of climate advocate and environmental defender Hoang Thi Minh Hong.
Hong was released in the early hours of 21 September 2024 and reunited with her family. She served 15 months in prison after she was detained by police on 31 May 2023 and sentenced to three years imprisonment and a fine of 100 million VND on charges of “tax evasion” on 28 September 2023.
Hong is a celebrated environmentalist and founder of the nonprofit organization Center for Hands-on Action and Networking for Growth and Environment (CHANGE). Before its closure in 2022, CHANGE led environmental education, public communications and advocacy to fight environmental degradation and climate change and promote wildlife protection and sustainability. In 2018, Hong was among the first cohort of Obama Foundation Scholars to attend Columbia University and in 2019, she was listed among the 50 most influential Vietnamese women by Forbes Vietnam.
While Hong is free, her organization remains shut down and other climate and environmental defenders in Vietnam remain behind bars. Six climate leaders have been imprisoned since 2021 on false charges after advocating for the country’s transition away from coal-based energy. They include environmental justice lawyer Dang Dinh Bach, former director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center (LPSD), who was arrested in June 2021 after advocating for the country’s shift away from coal. Bach has now served three years of a five-year prison sentence and continues to face harsh and inhumane treatment in prison and grave threats to his health. We continue to call for his immediate and unconditional release.
Vietnam’s vague tax laws are being weaponized to silence climate and environmental defenders through arbitrary enforcement and disproportionately harsh penalties for civil society organizations and individuals working on energy and environmental issues. This, together with restrictive policies criminalizing access to information and public participation in the country’s energy transition, has led to a country-wide chilling effect. Multiple non-governmental organizations have been forced to close down, curtail operations, or face harassment and scrutiny from authorities.
The efforts of unjustly imprisoned climate leaders paved the way for Vietnam’s commitment to net zero at COP26 in Glasgow and the US $15.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) between Vietnam and the G7, the European Union (EU), and other governments, announced in December 2022. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other governments, as well as United Nations agencies (including OHCHR and UNEP) and experts, have issued multiple statements calling for the release of Vietnam’s wrongfully imprisoned climate defenders and the inclusion of civil society in the country’s energy transition.
Hong’s early release from prison took place just days before this week’s visit of General To Lam, Vietnamese President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Communist Party to the United States to participate in the UN Summit of the Future and bilateral trade talks and address the UN General Assembly. It also takes place ahead of New York Climate Week, where the issue of threats and targeting of environmental and climate defenders will be highlighted.
Hong’s release also came just a few days after a report was released by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, Surya Deva, which recommends that the Vietnamese government explore ways to pardon or remit the sentences of all environmental human rights defenders who have peacefully raised legitimate concerns about the country’s transition to clean energy.
We urge all involved in meetings this week to call for the immediate release of Dang Dinh Bach and others who remain unjustly imprisoned in Vietnam and around the world and emphasize the critical role of climate and environmental defenders in our global response to the climate crisis and securing a just energy transition.
The VCDC and 350.org are co-hosting an event at New York Climate Week on 26 September 2024 from 1 – 2pm ET entitled Vietnam’s Unjust Energy Transition. More information can be found here.
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