"Arrests of Vietnam environmentalists clash with carbon-cutting goals", 3 July 2022

The arrest and sentencing of prominent environmentalist Nguy Thi Khanh and other rights defenders in Vietnam are in conflict with the country’s commitment to reducing its considerable carbon emissions to combat climate change, human rights and environmental groups said.

Nguy Thi Khanh, an ardent opponent of Vietnam’s reliance on coal power and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018, was arrested in January for failing to pay a 10% tax on her U.S. $200,000 prize money, equivalent to about 4.65 billion Vietnamese dong. The executive director of the environmental NGO Green Innovation and Development Centre was sentenced on June 17 in Hanoi.

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Khanh had been active in pointing out the negative effects of coal-fired plants and calling for clean energy use. [...]

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Though nonprofit organizations are exempt from paying corporate taxes in Vietnam, the tax law pertaining to NGOs receiving funds from international donors are particularly vague and restrictive, according to the Observatory.

The organizations of the activists and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights believe that the arrests were triggered by their promotion of civil society’s role in monitoring the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement that came into force in 2021, the Observatory said. 

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“The Observatory strongly condemns the judicial harassment and arbitrary detention of Nguy Thi Khanh, Dang Dinh Bach, Bach Hung Duong, and Mai Phan Loi, as it seems to be only aimed at punishing them for their legitimate environmental and human rights activities,” the organization’s statement said.