Dr. Nguyen Dan Que is one of Vietnam’s most renowned democracy activists. His first brush with arbitrary detention occurred in 1978 for criticizing Vietnam’s political system. After he was released, he founded the High Tide Humanist movement to ensure human rights for all Vietnamese people. Through this movement he was active in urging the Vietnamese government to reduce the size of its military and investing in the welfare of its people. Dr. Que was detained again in between 1990 and 1998. After his release he remained under virtual house arrest, under constant government surveillance and with restrictions on his movements and on any use of communication.
Dr. Que was arrested on March 17, 2003, four days after sending a statement to his brother, Dr. Quan Nguyen, from an Internet cafe. The statement criticized the Vietnamese government’s claim to guarantee freedom of information, highlighting the lack of independent media in the country. It also endorsed proposed U.S. legislation that would fund ways to overcome broadcast and Internet jamming by the Vietnamese government.
More than a year later, in July 2004, Dr. Que was sentenced to 30 months in prison for “abusing democratic rights to jeopardize the interests of the state.”
Freedom Now filed a petition in June 2004 to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Dr. Que. The Working Group determined in September 2004 that his detention violated international law and called for his immediate release.
Freedom Now brought international attention to Dr. Que’s case by facilitating letters from 42 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 12 U.S. Senators and participating with NGO partners in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In September 2003, 12 Nobel Prize Laureates called for Dr. Que’s release.
Dr. Que was released on February 1, 2005. Upon his release he remained in Vietnam where he continues to advocate for democracy. In mid-February 2011, he posted an Internet appeal for mass demonstrations in Vietnam on the model of the Arab Spring uprisings, calling on citizens to make a “clean sweep of Communist dictatorship and build a new, free, democratic, humane and progressive Vietnam.”
Dr. Que is the recipient of numerous awards for his lifelong commitment to human rights including the Raoul Wallenberg Award, the RFK Human Rights Award, and the Hellman-Hammett Grant from Human Rights Watch.