Bùi Thị Minh Hằng is a Vietnamese activist and blogger.[1] In 2016, Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., named her as one of twenty women political prisoners in the FreeThe20 campaign.[2]
In 2011, Hằng protested in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City against Chinese territorial claims on the Spratly and Paracel Islands. She was then arrested by police before been sent to Thanh Ha Education Center, a re-education camp in Vĩnh Phúc Province.[1] Her arrestment was met with international protest.[3] She was in the re-education camp for six months without a trial.[4]
In 2012, Hằng was freed and returned to her work on human rights, writing about her time in the Thanh Ha Education Center. She also published a “Manual for the Implementation of Human Rights” (Cam nang thuc thi quyen lam nguoi).[1] In 2014, Hằng with a group of 21 bloggers and Hoa Hao Buddhist activists went to visit a political prisoner. She was arrested again for the second time along with two other activists.[5] She was charged with disrupting traffic under Article 245 of the Penal Code,[6] and sentenced to three years in prison.[4]
In 2016, Amnesty International reported Hằng had health problems in prison and she did not receive any medical care from the Vietnamese authorities.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c Vietnam: Activists Face Trial on Bogus Traffic Offense, 2015
- ^ "#Freethe20 | HumanRights.gov is the official United States Government website for international human rights related information". Archived from the original on 2016-07-16. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
- ^ "Vietnam: Free Peaceful Activist Bui Thi Minh Hang Sent to 'Education Center' for 2 Years". Human Rights Watch. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-09. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Appeal Trial of Vietnamese Activists: Bui Thi Minh Hang & Others". Freedom House. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- ^ "Vì sao bà Bùi Thị Minh Hằng bị bắt?" (in Vietnamese). BBC. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- ^ "Viet Nam: Human rights defender denied medical care: Bùi Thị Minh Hằng". Amnesty International. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.