Activists on Friday called on United States President Barack Obama to make human rights a central theme of his upcoming visit to Vietnam.
The activist group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) wrote in an open letter that Obama should demand the release of political prisoners, as well as greater freedom of expression.
APHR said the 40-member group consist mainly of current and former lawmakers and campaigns against human rights violations in the region.
The U.S. president was to arrive in Hanoi on Monday for a three-day visit ahead of next week’s G7 summit in Japan.
He would meet the leadership of Vietnam’s communist one-party state, along with members of civil society and entrepreneurs.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Obama to demand free elections in Vietnam.
He would arrive one day after parliamentary elections in Vietnam that would be tightly controlled by the Vietnam Communist Party.
“Obama should make it clear that the U.S. does not accept the idea that the Vietnamese people are not ready, willing and able to choose their own leaders,’’ Asia director at HRW, Brad Adams, said. (dpa/NAN)