New Visibilities: Challenging Torture and Impunity in Vietnam

• In Event: Without Account: State Violence, Law, and Impunity in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2014. The Prime Minister has since approved an action plan that calls on relevant ministries and agencies to prevent such practices, to hold officials accountable when they occur, and to educate the public about their legal rights and protections as set out in the revised Criminal Procedure Code. Vietnamese activists working on this issue welcome these changes, but they maintain the plan fails to sufficiently address the institutionalized arrangements that have perpetuated impunity, especially at the commune-level, for decades. Police brutality (including torture), and deaths while in custody happen with alarming frequency according to independent journalists, the Campaign to Abolish Torture in Vietnam, Vietnam Human Rights Defenders, and other citizen groups. This paper focuses special attention on digital archives these groups use to make such abuses “visible” to different publics inside and outside the country. Analysis of the archives’ content (formal complaints, petitions, personal testimonies, photographs, and other documentation) reveals how activists selectively draw upon pre-convention language, much of it connected to the socialist-era discourse on “rule-by-law,” to support post-convention claims for reform and redress, including justice for victims and their families. Making these abuses “visible” thus provides avenues for ordinary people to talk about the relationship between the Party-state and its citizens in vernacular as well as legal ways that openly challenge the structural relationships that reinforce impunity in contemporary Vietnam.

Author

• Ken MacLean, Clark University