Assembly of Vietnamese Youth for Democracy

Official logo of the Assembly of Vietnamese Youth for Democracy

Assembly of Vietnamese Youth for Democracy or Democratic Youth Movement (in Vietnamese: Tập hợp Thanh niên Dân chủ, also known under the English and Vietnamese acronyms AVYD and THTNDC respectively) is an organization of young Vietnamese worldwide intent on pushing for political freedom in Vietnam.[1] The movement was founded by Nguyễn Tiến Trung a student dissident recently arrested by the authorities in Vietnam July 7, 2009 and charged with "plotting to overthrow the regime".[2]

Founding

The organization was founded on May 8, 2006[3] by Nguyễn Tiến Trung, a Vietnamese student while studying overseas in France. The precipitant was a letter sent to the Ministry of Education seeking redress for the heavy ideological load within the Vietnamese education curriculum. Trung proposed a full reform of the system, eliminating the preeminence of Marxist-Leninist thinking.[4]

For the THTNDC, the objectives set forth are:

Organizational structure

The Assembly of Vietnamese Youth for Democracy is headed by the Representative Council as set forth in the Charter.[1][6] The Representative Council[7] designates individual members to supervise the organization's activities in specific geographical areas. Different mediums are employed for the dissemination of news and directives. Despite the state-controlled mass communication in Vietnam, THTNDC justifies its activities on the 69th Article of Constitution of Vietnam (guaranteeing freedom of expression), the 20th Article of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 21st and 22nd Article of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[1]

Political activism

THTNDC promotes the democratization of Vietnam mostly through its youths by encouraging the exchange of political ideas and participation, and the dissemination of democratic principles. The organization seeks to prepare the younger population to take part in the political spheres.

THTNDC also takes on social issues, advocating for anti-corruption campaigns, fighting on behalf of farmers against forced land seizures, and calling for the respect for the rule-of-law. The latter would include the creation of a civil society, judicial independence, freedom of the press.

In late 2006 taking advantage of the APEC summit being hosted in Hanoi, THTNDC organized a mass assembly named "Nối Vòng Tay Lớn" (Extend Embracing Arms) to collect signatures in a petition the APEC leaders directly. The intent was pressure the Vietnamese government in the midst of the international spotlight to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which it had signed. The campaign also had the goal of uniting all Vietnamese, in-country and overseas, regardless of religious and political views to raise their voices in unison in the name of democracy. Nguyễn Tiến Trung himself visited US President George W. Bush, seeking his support at the Broken Spoke ranch in Texas at a fund raising event hosted by the Republican Party.[8]

THTNDC also won the endorsement of the Belgian Deputy to the Council of Europe Johan Weyts, and René van der Linden, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in support of Vietnamese democracy.[9]

The organization has aligned itself with the Vietnam Democratic Party, originally created in 1944 but had ceased formal operation in 1988. It was resurrected by a high ranking party-member-turned-dissident Hoang Minh Chinh in 2006 and THTNDC joined the Democratic Party's call for a peaceful transformation of Vietnam politics.[10]

Other Activities

Hand-in-Hand Marathon ended. VYD met with former Senator Johan Weyts of Belgium.

VYD members translated Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents from Reporters Without Borders into Vietnamese. Nguyen Tien Trung returned to Vietnam after completed his master's degree at INSA, France.

Met and exchanged information regarding issues in Vietnam with Reporters Without Borders, SESAWE, etc. Completed audio book Tâm Tình Với Tuổi Trẻ Việt Nam by Bùi Tín. Participated in the open ceremony of the Vietnamese Laborer Commission in Paris.

VYD Board of Representatives met with Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor – U.S. State Department. VYD Board of Representatives greeted the local Vietnamese community in Washington, D.C.

Suppression and response

The organization's founder, Nguyễn Tiến Trung, was arrested on July 7, 2009 and charged with "plotting to overthrow the communist government of Vietnam".[11]

According to a formal announcement of the Assembly of Vietnamese Youth for Democracy toward the confession tape of Nguyen Tien Trung and the other pro-democracy activists, the Assembly proclaimed the action of filming the defendant, while under investigation, appeared to be an abusing movement formally forbidden by law as well as disparaging and derogatorily violating to the defendants' esteem. Comprehensively regarding to the weak rule of law of Vietnam communist government, the Assembly steadfastly articulated that no one should have been convicted for their crimes before the verdict became officially and called on Vietnam communist government to respect the democratic processes in the legal proceedings against all of the defendants. The members of the Assembly of Vietnamese Youth for Democracy have undoubtedly been positioning their beliefs into Nguyen Tien Trung and other under-arrested dissidents, pro-democracy activists whose detentions, caused by the unarguable peaceful activism, were resulted without charge or trial. The Assembly formally have made another call to Vietnam communist government for, basing on the ground of Vietnam constitutional respect and international conventions, an immediate and unconditional release of the under arrested dissidents and pro-democracy activists.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Quoted from http://www.taphopthanhniendanchu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=27, Official website of AVYD, Retrieved on 2008-08-18
  2. ↑ http://www.ptdcvn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=99, Retrieved on 2008-08-18
  3. ↑ http://www.taphopthanhniendanchu.org/petition/, Retrieved on 2008-08-18
  4. ↑ "Thư gửi Bộ trưởng Giáo dục". BBCVietnamese.com. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  5. ↑ Official Website of AVYD
  6. ↑ The regulations
  7. ↑ The Representative Council of AVYD Official Website of AVYD
  8. ↑ Nguyễn Tiến Trung (2006). "Lạc quan sau một chuyến đi". BBC Optimism after a journey (Vietnamese). Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  9. ↑ Nguyễn Tiến Trung (2006). "Hội đồng châu Âu và thanh niên Việt Nam". BBC (Council of Europe and Vietnamese youths). Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  10. ↑ THTNDC's position
  11. ↑ "Thêm hai người hoạt động dân chủ bị bắt". BBC More pro-democracy activists arrested(Vietnamese). 2009-07-07. Retrieved 2009-07-13.
  12. ↑ Thông báo chính thức của THTNDC ngày 25/08/2009

External links

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