Rights Groups Press Belgium and Denmark to Challenge Vietnam's Leader Over Crackdown
President To Lam begins a six day visit to Copenhagen, Brussels and the EU institutions this week, his first as head of state. Human Rights Watch wants Belgian and Danish leaders to raise a prisoner count it puts at more than 160 and a wave of new convictions this year.
Vietnamese President To Lam arrived in Copenhagen on Monday at the start of a six day visit to Denmark, Belgium and the European Union institutions in Brussels, his first trip to either country since becoming head of state. The Denmark leg is a state visit, the first by a Vietnamese Communist Party general secretary, while the stops in Brussels mark his first official visits to Belgium and the EU in that role.
To Lam was invited by Danish King Frederik X, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and European Council President Antonio Costa, and is also due to meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, King Philippe and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Denmark visit falls in the 55th anniversary year of diplomatic ties between the two countries, which have moved their relationship to a Comprehensive Partnership and a Green Strategic Partnership.
Human Rights Watch presses for a harder line
Ahead of the trip, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Danish and Belgian prime ministers and to the EU Council and Commission presidents, urging them to press To Lam on what the group calls an intensifying crackdown on dissent. It says the campaign breaches commitments Vietnam made under its 2020 free trade agreement with the EU, and puts the number of political prisoners held under laws that criminalize free expression at more than 160, with 28 activists convicted and sentenced in the first nine months of 2026 and 39 more arrested for criticizing the government or joining groups out of favor with it. Named cases include writer Pham Doan Trang, journalists Pham Chi Dung and Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and land rights activist Can Thi Theu.
The group also says Hanoi has not followed through on promised labor reforms, including ratifying an International Labour Organization convention on freedom of association, and it is calling on Brussels to stop what it describes as giving Vietnam a free pass on repression. The appeal comes nine months after the EU upgraded relations with Vietnam to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership despite the same concerns being raised at the time, leaving Belgium and Denmark's response to this visit as an early test of whether that upgrade changes how firmly the bloc is willing to speak.
