(Brussels) – Leaders of the European Union , Belgium , and Denmark should urge Vietnam to make concrete progress in improving its human rights record during Vietnamese President To Lam ’s visit to Copenhagen and Brussels the week of October 19-24, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the prime ministers of Denmark and Belgium and, jointly with other groups, to the European Council and European Commission presidents, expressing concerns about Vietnam’s intensifying crackdown on human rights , which violates several obligations and commitments it made to the EU in a 2020 free trade agreement.

“The Vietnamese government has broken its pledges of reform and continues to crack down on basic freedoms,” said Patricia Gossman , senior associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.…