Urge Vietnamese government to release Norwegian and Australian human rights defenders abducted in Cambodia
The issue
Free Norwegian and Australian Human Rights Defenders Abducted in Cambodia
Urge Vietnamese government to release Norwegian and Australian human rights defenders abducted in Cambodia
To:
- Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia
- Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway
- Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
- António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
On 18 September 2026, Nguyen Duc Thuan, a Norwegian citizen, and Tran Hiep (Ho Pham Hiep Huy), an Australian citizen, disappeared while traveling to the Kaoh Andaet area of Cambodia. For ten days, their families heard nothing.
On 28 September, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security announced that the two men, along with Thai Cong Truong Son, an ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia, had been caught “illegally entering Vietnam” at the My Quy Tay border gate. All three are now under investigation for “terrorism.” Their families and colleagues reject this account. All available information indicates that the men were abducted on Cambodian soil and forcibly taken across the border.
Mr. Thuan, 52, a pharmacist, lives in Oslo and has long advocated for human rights in Vietnam with Norwegian and European parliamentarians. Mr. Hiep, 51, a data analyst, lives in Melbourne and has worked for years on social justice and anti-trafficking initiatives. Both are members of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy organization, and have been targeted solely for their peaceful advocacy. Mr. Thuan has diabetes and needs daily insulin. Any interruption to his medication puts his life at serious risk. Mr. Son, without the protection of a foreign government, is especially vulnerable.
This is a brazen act of transnational repression. By holding two foreign citizens in secret for ten days, the Vietnamese government disregarded its obligation under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to notify Norway and Australia without delay. Its “terrorism” charges follow a long pattern of criminalizing peaceful critics, a practice UN experts have repeatedly condemned.
The abduction is the latest in a growing campaign. Vietnamese agents seized Trinh Xuan Thanh in Berlin in 2017, blogger Truong Duy Nhat in Thailand in 2019, and UNHCR-recognized refugee Duong Van Thai in Thailand in 2023. Now Hanoi has crossed a new line by seizing Norwegian and Australian citizens. Without a firm international response, no activist, journalist or exile will be safe, whatever passport they hold.
We urge:
- Prime Ministers Albanese and Støre to secure immediate and regular consular access to their citizens, raise the case with Vietnam at the highest political level, and publicly call for their release.
- President von der Leyen to raise this case directly with Vietnam’s leadership under the EU–Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which includes a commitment to human rights, and to stand with Norway, the EU’s close partner.
- Secretary-General Guterres to publicly call for the release of all three men, including Mr. Son, who has no foreign government to speak for him, and to urge the Vietnamese government to guarantee Mr. Thuan’s access to insulin and medical care and to cooperate fully with UN human rights mechanisms, including the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
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Free Norwegian and Australian Human Rights Defenders Abducted in Cambodia
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