Optimism for the supposed strides taken by the Vietnam government to improve workers' rights appears to be short-lived as a
newly revealed document shows officials are actively clamping down on labor activists and members of civil society despite growing international scrutiny.
On Feb. 29, human rights group The Project 88 released a new report detailing the contents of the so-called “
Directive 24,” believed to have been issued by the Vietnamese Communist Party in July 2023. This came just months after Vietnamese officials
told human rights representatives from the European Union that the government was planning to sign a fundamental International Labor Organization (ILO) convention that protects workers’ right to organize.
The sweeping directive directs party and state organizations to closely monitor those who go abroad, bar the formation of independent political and labor organizations on the basis of ethnicity or religion, and prevent "complicated situations" related to security and social order.
These measures put a damper on Vietnam's
anticipated ratification of the ILO Convention 87 later this year, which guarantees workers’ rights to freedom of association and organization. Vietnam has ratified seven ILO conventions, but the country has been negotiating the ratification of the ILO Convention 87 for over a decade, making it the only convention yet to be ratified.
Project 88 described the directive in a
Feb. 29 report as an "all-out assault on the constitutional and human rights" of Vietnam’s 100 million citizens, who remained “completely unaware of its contents.”
“In Directive 24, Vietnam’s leaders have made clear that efforts by civil society to participate in public affairs are off limits,” Project 88
said.
The
only official union in Vietnam is the state-run Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, and those organizing independent (hence, illegal) unions
face the risk of arrest and detention. While a law was passed in 2021 that allowed workers to form “internal employee organizations,” or IEOs,
no such group has been organized as of 2023 due to doubts about its effectiveness.
One labor activist, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, was
arrested with his two companions in 2010 for organizing a strike at a shoe factory, thus violating Vietnam's national security laws. He was released only nine years later and suffered beatings in detention.