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Paris–Geneva, 3 December 2025 – The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders (FIDH-OMCT) strongly condemns the sudden extradition from
Thailand to Vietnam of Montagnard human rights defender Y Quynh Bdap.
The Observatory also urges authorities in the two countries to end
and prevent acts of transnational repression against human rights
defenders and demand the Vietnamese authorities to respect, protect,
and fulfill the rights of Y Quynh Bdap and all other human rights
defenders in the country.
On
28 November 2025, the Thai authorities extradited Vietnamese human
rights defender Y Quynh Bdap to Vietnam, following a court decision
issued two days earlier. Y Quynh Bdap is a United Nations
(UN)-recognised refugee, who had lived in Thailand since 2018,
following protracted acts of harassment he suffered in Vietnam in
relation to his peaceful and legitimate human rights activities.
On 26 November 2025,
the Thai Court of Appeals upheld the Criminal
Court’s ruling from 30 September 2024, which had authorised Mr
Bdap’s extradition, despite his refugee
status,
which the Court held was not grounds for exception under Thailand’s
Extradition Act. The Observatory attended both court hearings.
Disturbingly,
the Court of Appeals concluded that there was “no real risk” of
torture or enforced disappearance upon return to Vietnam, dismissing
extensive
documentation
on Vietnam’s systematic
repression,
including arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, of
Montagnard activists and instead relying on diplomatic
assurances
from the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security that Y Quynh Bdap
would be treated in accordance with international standards.
Mr
Bdap was
arrested in Thailand on 11 June 2024, after being sentenced in
absentia
by a Vietnamese court to 10 years in prison over terrorism charges
for his alleged involvement in the 2023 attacks on two police
stations in Vietnam’s Dak Lak Province - charges that he
categorically denied. United Nations human rights experts had
expressed
concerns
about the fairness of the trial.
In
his appeal, Y Quynh Bdap argued that Thai courts had both the
authority
and the obligation
to prevent his extradition due to the real
and foreseeable risk of torture,
invoking the customary international law principle of non-refoulement
and Thailand’s own Prevention
and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act,
which strictly prohibits the return of individuals to jurisdictions
where substantial grounds exist to believe that an individual may be
subjected to torture or ill-treatment.
The
Court’s dismissal of these arguments, including its failure to
assess the fairness of the Vietnamese conviction, represents a grave
breach of Thailand’s human rights obligations. The reasoning
contradicts both Thailand’s anti-torture legislation and its
obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, which bars
reliance on diplomatic assurances from countries with well-documented
patterns of abuse.
The
Observatory calls on the Thai authorities to immediately
stop the refoulement
of individuals, including human rights defenders, to jurisdictions
where they are at risk of torture or enforced disappearance and
to reaffirm Thailand’s commitment to the principle of
non-refoulement.
The Observatory further calls on the Vietnamese authorities to
immediately reveal the fate or whereabouts of Y Quynh Bdap and to put
an end to all acts of transnational repression against all human
rights defenders.
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