Le Thu Ha is the secretary of Brotherhood for Democracy, a Vietnamese association that promotes greater protection of human rights in Viet Nam. She also worked as a translator for Lương Tâm, “Conscience”, an independent TV station that broadcast YouTube clips about human rights isues in Viet Nam. She has been subject to travel ban and arbitrary detention, and she was kept in detention awaiting trial for over two years following her 2015 arrest.
Vietnamese authorities treat human rights defenders as “enemies of the State”. HRDs are subjected to intimidation, threats, interrogation, harassment, arrest and routine beatings. Many defenders are victims of arbitrary detention and criminalisation. Most often, they are not informed of the reasons for their arrest or why their request for bail is denied. When put on trial, they are very often sentenced to heavy jail terms and mistreated in prison. Detained HRDs also do not have access to lawyers and families and can be denied medical care.
