A REVIEW OF SWITZERLAND'S HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000272

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SUBJECT: A REVIEW OF SWITZERLAND'S HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Vietnam and Switzerland held the seventh round of
their bilateral human rights dialogue March 13-18 in Vietnam.
Reviewing the formal discussions, the Swiss Embassy official
responsible for the talks said that Vietnam takes the UN Universal
Periodic Review process seriously and signaled that it is moving
toward acceding to the Convention Against Torture; at the same time,
the indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has indefinitely
derailed Vietnam's entry into the International Criminal Court.
Vietnam's prison reform program continues to make progress, and the
Swiss delegation was able to visit a pretrial detention facility in
Ninh Binh Province. In both their formal dialogue and in a meeting
with the Communist Party, the Swiss raised continuing concerns over
catch-all provisions in Vietnam's national security criminal code
(Article 88). Prior to the start of the official talks, the
delegation discussed assistance cooperation with several ministries
and met with lawyers, a panel of NGOs, and one prominent dissident.
Overall, the Swiss seem generally pleased with the direction their
dialogues are taking, noting that the Vietnamese side appears much
more at ease now than in years past. The challenge is to continue
to be constructive, while remaining substantive. END SUMMARY.

Visit to Ninh Binh
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2. (SBU) On March 23, Deputy PolCouns met with Swiss First
Secretary Tanja Zangger to discuss the seventh annual Swiss-Vietnam
human rights dialogue, which took place March 13-18 in Vietnam. The
Swiss delegation, headed by Switzerland's Special Envoy for Human
Rights Rudolf Knoblauch, began with a March 13-15 visit to Ninh Binh
Province. (According to Zangger, it has become customary for formal
discussions to be complemented by site visits.) In Ninh Binh, the
group met with local authorities, visited a church and a Buddhist
Pagoda, and inspected a Swiss-funded project to combat domestic
violence.


3. (SBU) The main focus of the Ninh Binh trip, however, was to
discuss Vietnam's ongoing program of prison reform, which Zangger
described as an area of marked progress that Vietnam is eager to
showcase. The delegation, which included two experts in prison
management, visited the Ministry of Public Security's new school for
prison staff, as well as a pretrial detention facility. According
to Zangger, it has become obvious in the two years that the Swiss
have been involved with the GVN that physical abuse is rare in
Vietnam's prison system; as is frequently the case, abuse of
detainees, when it occurs, takes place in pretrial detention. For
this reason, she said that the visit to the pretrial detention
center was significant, as is the fact that the training facility
includes courses on the ethical treatment of pretrial detainees.

Discussions with Lawyers and a Prominent Dissident
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4. (SBU) Returning to Hanoi March 15, the delegation met with a
panel of legal experts, including long-time U.S. Embassy contacts
Professor Hoang Ngoc Giao from the Institute on Policy, Law, and
Development and the Chairman of the Vietnam Lawyers Association Pham
Quoc Anh. Later in the afternoon, the delegation met with prominent
dissident Pham Hong Son, who remains in "administrative detention."
Sensitive to possible Vietnamese concerns, the Swiss Ambassador
notified the MFA well in advance, Zannger said. According to
Zangger, the Vietnamese were "not pleased," but did nothing to
prevent or obstruct the meeting. After the formal talks concluded,
the delegation also convened a roundtable on March 18 with local
NGOs active in women's rights, ethnic minority affairs, and the
fight against corruption.

A Focus on Assistance Prior to the Dialogue
--------------


5. (SBU) Official discussions in Hanoi began March 16, with
meetings with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs
(MOLISA) office in charge of gender equality; MPS officials
responsible for prisons and human rights matters; the Committee on
ethnic Minorities; the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)
department responsible for implementing portions of Vietnam's law on
domestic violence; and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). According to
Zangger, these discussions -- coming the day before the formal
dialogue -- focused mainly on technical assistance and cooperation.

The Formal Dialogue
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6. (SBU) Although the visit lasted five days, the formal talks
themselves comprised only a half day of talks March 17. The MFA's
Director General for International Organizations Le Hoai Trung led
Vietnam's delegation, which included representatives from the Office
of Government, the MPS, MOLISA, MOJ, the Supreme Court, the

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Procuracy, the Committee on Religious Affairs, and the Committee on
Minority Affairs. Zangger said that the discussions were organized
around four "clusters": 1) International human rights issues, 2)
Criminal law and procedure, and prison administration, 3) Gender
issues and women's rights, and 4) Minority rights and religious
freedom. Following the formal dialogue, the Swiss met with Nguyen
Ding Luc, who heads the Communist Party's Department of Law and
Judicial Reform.


7. (SBU) Discussion during the first cluster centered on Vietnam's
Universal Periodic Review (UPR),which will take place in Geneva,
and on the Rome Statute or the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to Zannger, the Swiss delegation came away with the
impression that Vietnam takes the review process seriously and will
take on board the Review's recommendations, provided the wording is
"appropriate." On the ICC, DG Trung confirmed that the indictment
of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir would significantly delay any
decision to accede to the Rome Statute, possibly for several years.


8. (SBU) Moving to the second cluster, Zangger said that the Swiss
had submitted a list of "individuals of concern" prior to the
dialogue, together with an official request for information; the
dialogue itself, however, did not focus on individual cases. She
said that after receiving information, the Swiss would confer with
G4 Partners Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and submit a joint
list of "prisoners of concern" prior to the next amnesty. Zangger
said that Vietnam indicated that it would reduce the number of
criminal offenses subject to the death penalty from 29 to 21.
Vietnam also said that it was moving forward with its inter-agency
review of the Convention Against Torture and saw "no big problems"
in revising its penal code to bring it into conformity. The Swiss
raised Vietnam's catch-all national security provision, Article 88,
arguing that the Article's wording was overly vague, provided for
disproportionate sentences, and did not usefully distinguish between
violent and non-violent acts. The delegation also raised Article 88
in their meeting with the CPV. The Vietnamese displayed less
defensiveness than in the past on Article 88, but gave little
ground.


9. (SBU) On women's rights, Zangger said that this was an area
where the GVN was making good progress on policy, but questions
remained on implementation. She said that the Swiss were quite
active in this area. On religious freedom, Zangger reported that
Vietnam was considering acceding to the Convention for the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Vietnam briefed the Swiss
side on talks with the Vatican and surmised that it might be
possible to normalize relations before the Chinese.

COMMENT
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10. (SBU) Zangger said that both sides appear pleased with how the
talks have developed. The Vietnamese side, she continued, was much
more at ease now than in years past, even when confronted with
sensitive issues such as Article 88. (Zangger has also worked on
Switzerland's bilateral human rights dialogue with the Chinese, whom
she said were typically much more defensive.) For its part, the
Vietnamese side views its several human rights dialogues as a way to
discuss issues in a more discreet, bilateral setting -- and to
deflect criticism that might otherwise be voiced in a public,
multilateral forum. The challenge for both sides, Zangger stressed,
is to continue to be constructive while remaining substantive. The
Swiss experience is something to consider as we move toward our own
dialogue in the late spring or early summer.