Nguyen Thi Tam

Ms. Nguyễn Thị Tâm, born in 1972, is a farmer who lived and worked in Duong Noi, Hanoi City. [1] She was one of many farmers forcefully evicted from their lands in Duong Noi in the 2010s. Becoming a well-known human rights defender and land rights activist, Ms. Tam, along with Ms. Can Thi Theu, Mr. Trinh Ba Tu, and Mr. Trinh Ba Phuong, has tried to use legal remedies to protect her legitimate rights and interests in Duong Noi. She was the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the Duong Noi People’s Committee. Since 2016, she has provided commentary on land rights and human rights issues, including the Dong Tam incident, on Facebook and Youtube. She also did interviews with independent and foreign news outlets.

Activism

In 2008, she was detained and held from June 11 until November 20 under the charge of “disturbing public order,” article 318 of the Vietnamese Penal Code. Since 2016, Nguyễn Thị Tâm has been increasingly active online through social media engagement on Facebook and Youtube, where she raised land rights and broader human rights issues. She has been actively commenting on the Dong Tam incident, posting information and commentary on Youtube. In 2015, she was arrested for three days by Hanoi Police when she was filing complaints.

Arrest and detention

Tam was arrested at 5:00 am June 24, 2020, when she was on her way to the local market. According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, Tam, as well as Can Thi Theu, Trinh Ba Phuong, and Trinh Ba Tu, were all arrested for making and posting video clips and commentaries criticizing the raid on Dong Tam Commune and advocating for Dong Tam petitioners. She is now serving her 6 years’ imprisonment and 3 years of house arrest, charged with “making, storing, or spreading information, materials or items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam,” article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code.

International communications

On November 2, 2022, UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment sent a communication to the Government of Viet Nam concerning 18 Vietnamese human rights defenders. [2] Ms. Nguyễn Thị Tâm’s case was included as a follow-up communication as she was the subject of previous communications by Special Procedures mandate holders (AL VNM 6/2021) and (AL VNM 5/2020). [3] [4]

The experts raised their deep concern at a similar pattern of extended detention pending trial, prosecution, prosecution under vaguely worded criminal offenses, lack of fair trial guarantees, the denial of access to legal counsel, a briefly closed trial at which due process is not observed, disproportionately harsh sentencing that is used to punish human rights defenders in Viet Nam. Those actions violated numerous human rights norms, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was acceded to by Viet Nam. [5] [6]

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