Today’s United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention opinion directs the Vietnamese government to release Bach immediately and issue reparations,” said Kate Holcombe, Managing Attorney of the Defending Defenders Program at Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW). “The Working Group took a hard look at Bach’s case and found that his arrest has no legal basis and violates his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association. It also found that his right to a fair trial was violated and that he is being discriminated against for his environmental activism.

“Bach is a climate champion and should not be punished for his participation in Vietnam’s clean energy transition,” said Meena Jagannath, Coordinator of the Global Network of Movement Lawyers at Movement Law Lab, of which Bach’s organization was a part before being forced to shut down. “It’s crucial for human rights lawyers and environmental defenders to stand up worldwide for our colleague in Vietnam. This kind of solidarity is vitally important for the future of the region and the planet.”

“A just energy transition cannot be successful with people like Bach in jail,” said Maureen Harris, Senior Advisory from International Rivers. “The result of such a repressive environment is that civil society is effectively excluded from negotiating spaces and deliberations around energy transition partnerships, programs, and projects, even as they proclaim to be ‘just’.”