CDCA e A Sud alla COP30 a Belém

Posted by salvatore on 10:18 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Warren Cornwall on Science, March 1st, 2018] For Jaharul Sardar, a rice farmer in rural Bangladesh, the perils of living behind a wall hit home one cloudy May afternoon in 2009. Sardar was standing beside his fields when he heard neighbors cry out in alarm. A black hill of seawater was sweeping toward him. Sardar’s wife and 5-year-old son clambered atop the embankment that stands guard over his mud-floored house. Instead of joining them, he dashed inside to rescue a suitcase stuffed with cash and property records. Within seconds, waves slammed into the house. Sardar was trapped. Water pushed the structure, with him inside it, into an adjacent pond. His wife pulled him to safety, soaked but alive. For Sardar, relief was short-lived. That day marked the beginning of fierce floods. Each day the tide poured in through the breached wall, drowning fields and homes in saltwater, and then withdrew and left a blanket of mud. “During high tide it was all underwater. And during low tide it was like [a] desert,” Sardar says. The 4-meter-high earthen wall that failed dated from the 1960s. It encircles 80 square kilometers of land to create a massive “polder”—an artificial island surrounded by the vast tidal rivers that extend like thick tendrils from the nearby Bay of Bengal. At 66, Sardar remembers conditions before the wall, when flooding during very high tides was the norm here. Until that fateful day in 2009, the flooding appeared to be banished. Bangladesh, a vast river delta that barely rises above the sea at the best of times, is buffeted by natural forces including flooding rivers and cyclones blowing in from the bay. Over decades, the country has developed defenses: warning systems, storm shelters, salt-resistant crops, and 139 polders near the coast—a 5700-kilometer network of walls to protect farmland from inundation. But humanmade infrastructure is not infallible and can cause problems of its own. That’s starkly apparent across the country’s polders, which have disrupted a fragile standoff between water and land and are now straining to hold back the water. As climate change compounds that threat with rising seas and stronger storms, Bangladeshis who have spent years building barricades are considering what was once unthinkable: letting the water in. It’s resilience by bending, not resisting. And it’s tougher to do than it sounds. Other countries are trying similar approaches. Vietnam recently adopted plans to allow more flooding in the upper reaches of the Mekong delta. The Netherlands, renowned for building some of the world’s most sophisticated sea walls, is adapting suburbs for controlled river flooding. On the other end of the spectrum sits Indonesia, which is planning a $40 billion, 40-kilometer-long sea wall to shield its capital city, Jakarta, from the Java Sea. Here in a country the size of Iowa that’s home to 165 million people, experiments in resilience underscore the challenges of rearranging a crowded landscape. “You can’t remove the polders now,” says Anisul Haque, a hydraulic modeler at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Dhaka who studies coastal flooding. “So what can you do?” The dance between water and land Rivers are the midwives of Bangladesh. The Ganges and Brahmaputra pour from the Himalayas and converge with the Meghna River to form the world’s fourth largest drainage, which flows...

Posted by salvatore on 10:04 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Parth M.N. on People’s Archive of Rural India, March 8th, 2018] Shankar Waghere flings his plastic bag on the ground and hunches over on his wooden cane to gather his breath. Then he kneels down, panting, and closes his eyes. They remain shut for the next 15 minutes. It’s been a lot of walking today for this 65-year old. Around him, in the darkness, are some 25,000 other farmers. “We have to fight for our rights,” he says, sitting on the Nashik-Agra highway in Igatpuri’s Raigadnagar locality. It is the first halt of a massive farmers’ morcha that began in Nashik town on March 6, on a busy Tuesday afternoon. The farmers plan to reach Mumbai on Sunday, March 11, and encircle the legislative assembly building the day after – to protest against the state government’s failure to fulfil its promises. The Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, the farmers’ collective of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has called for this long march. One of the organisers, Ajit Navale, general secretary of the Kisan Sabha, says the government cannot get away with hollow words. “In 2015, we had protested for the farmers to get their [rights to the] forest land, better rates for crops, a loan waiver and so on,” he says. “The government is merely pretending to fulfil its promises. This time it is now or never.” As the march moves along, more farmers from across Maharashtra – from Marathwada, Raigad, Vidarbha and other districts – are expected to join and the numbers are likely to multiply by the time the morcha reaches Mumbai, 170 km from its starting point. For now, most of the farmers already on the move are from Nashik district and nearby areas, many of them from Adivasi communities. Waghere, from the Koli Mahadev community, has come from Nalegaon village in Dindori taluka of Nashik. Earlier in the day, he reached CBS Chowk in Nashik – 28 km from Nalegaon – by foot. The long walk to Mumbai began from this chowk later that afternoon. “We have been cultivating the land for generations, yet it still comes under the forest department,” he says. “In spite of promises [to give land rights to Adivasi farmers under the Forest Rights Act of 2006] we are not owners of the land.” In Waghere’s village, almost everyone cultivates rice. “The production cost for an acre is Rs 12,000. If the rains are good, we get 15 quintals of rice [per acre],” he says. “The current [market] rate is Rs 10 a kilo [Rs 1,000 per quintal]. How will we sustain? When I got to know of the march, I decided I will participate, come what may.” When I reach CBS Chowk at 1 pm, the crowd is still sparse, waiting. Gradually, jeeps full of farmers start pouring in, filling up the entire street with a sea of red CPI(M) flags and caps. Some of the men have wrapped handkerchiefs around their foreheads, the women have covered their heads with saris as shields against the hot sun. Most of the people here are carrying plastic bags or shoulder bags containing clothes, and wheat, rice, bajra and a few other food grains to last for the week-long march. By 2:30 pm, the men and women dip into their bags...

Posted by salvatore on 10:11 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted on Center for International Environmental Law, February 9th, 2018] Yesterday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights released a precedent-setting opinion which recognizes the right to a healthy environment as fundamental to human existence and enumerates key duties of States in protecting that and other environment-related rights. “This opinion extends and strengthens the growing body of law confirming States’ obligations to protect the right to a healthy environment,” says Carla García Zendejas. Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). “This historic precedent will bolster communities seeking justice not only in Latin America but around the world, from communities affected by mining in Colombia to climate justice advocates in the Philippines and beyond.” The opinion is particularly significant because decisions from the IACHR have advanced jurisprudence at international courts worldwide for decades. CIEL provided input on the legal questions under consideration by the court through an amicus brief. Importantly, the opinion recognizes that the right to a healthy environment is both an individual and collective right that protects both present and future generations. Critically, it recognizes that a country’s duty to protect these rights does not stop at its own borders. Governments have a duty under the Convention to protect human rights from environmental impacts and damages caused by activities under the jurisdiction or control of the State, even when the harms fall outside their territory. “This opinion has ramifications far beyond the marine environments that prompted Colombia’s question,” adds CIEL President Carroll Muffett. “In recognizing that the right to a healthy environment transcends both borders and generations, the Opinion will make a vital contribution to accelerating efforts to protect the rights of present and future generations from transboundary harm, including the impacts of climate change.” The decision also marks a vital step toward codifying access rights as enshrined in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration. The decision articulates, “States have the obligation to guarantee access to information with respect to activities that may affect the environment, the duty to guarantee the right to public participation in decisions and policies that may affect the environment, and access to justice with respect to State obligations for the protection of the environment.” At a time when the negotiation of a binding regional agreement on Principle 10 is reaching its final stages in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Court’s decision adds new energy and urgency to this effort. Full decision available in Spanish here. Short summary in English here....

Stop ai progetti di estrazione del gas in Europa

Posted by salvatore on 3:24 pm in News, Notizie | Commenti disabilitati su Stop ai progetti di estrazione del gas in Europa

Riceviamo e diffondiamo.   Il Parlamento Europeo sta per decidere se appoggiare la costruzione di oltre 90 progetti per l’estrazione di gas naturale. Abbiamo fino a mercoledì 14 per unirci alle comunità che subiranno gli impatti di questi progetti e chiedere ai nostri rappresentanti di opporsi.   Manda subito un’email ai tuoi rappresentanti presso il Parlamento Europeo.   La lista dei progetti include il TAP, il gasdotto MidCat, il terminale per gas di Gothenburg e molti altri. Le comunità locali si stanno opponendo strenuamente a questi progetti, manifestando contro la dipendenza dai combustibili fossili, l’inquinamento dei territori e gli impatti sulle proprie vite.   A prescindere dalla decisione del Parlamento Europeo, noi continueremo a rafforzare la nostra lotta per arrivare a fermare tutti i progetti fossili. Tieni d’occhio il calendario di quest’anno!   E puoi fare anche un’altra cosa: guarda e condividi questo nuovo video dei Gastivists, gli attivisti del gas, che spiega perché il gas è una falsa soluzione e come unirsi al...

I boschi non sono in vendita

Posted by salvatore on 1:12 pm in Notizie | Commenti disabilitati su I boschi non sono in vendita

Pubblichiamo, diffondiamo e sottoscriviamo l’appello dell’Associazione Medici per l’Ambiente ISDE Italia al Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri, on. Paolo Gentiloni, e al Sig. Presidente della Repubblica Italiana, Sergio Mattarella, perché non venga adottato il Decreto Legislativo recante “Disposizioni concernenti la revisione e l’armonizzazione della normativa nazionale in materia di foreste e filiere forestali, in attuazione dell’art. 5 della legge 28 luglio 2016, n. 154”.   Preliminarmente ci preme sottolineare che le nostre iniziative di critica e ferma opposizione al nuovo decreto forestale in itinere non muovono da interessi personali di sorta, diretti o indiretti e che la nostra azione è svolta in completa terzietà, ispirata unicamente da scienza e coscienza e dall’amore per il nostro Paese. Chiediamo ai sostenitori del testo di decreto in itinere di dichiarare se si trovino nella medesima situazione. La legge in itinere ha ricevuto severe critiche da parte di 264 Accademici italiani da Bolzano a Palermo, da molte sezioni regionali di Italia Nostra onlus e da molte altre Associazioni e Comitati più o meno diffusi sul territorio nazionale, di cui ci riserviamo di aggiornare ulteriormente l’elenco. Tutti questi soggetti sono mossi dalle preoccupazioni per i prevedibili danni economici, ecologici e sociali al patrimonio forestale e al paesaggio italiani che la nuova disciplina aprirebbe, se non adeguatamente corretta. Preoccupazioni sono pervenute anche dai Medici per l’Ambiente e dalla Rete di Scienziati “Energia per l’Italia” che hanno lanciato una petizione che in pochi giorni si sta avvicinando a 15.000 adesioni per fermare questo provvedimento, ritenuto pericoloso per la salute per via della particolare composizione chimico-fisica delle emissioni delle centrali a biomasse. Tuttavia in questi ultimi giorni sono comparsi su giornali ed altri media anche comunicati a favore dell’approvazione del D.Lgs . Tra le argomentazioni utilizzate da chi si è pronunciato a favore, ad esempio l’Accademia dei Georgofili, ve ne sono molte sicuramente del tutto evasive delle critiche puntualmente sollevate, talune non corrispondenti al vero (ci sono state attribuite posizioni mai espresse e che non ci appartengono), altre sicuramente prive di basi scientifiche e gravide di inaccettabili conseguenze negative. Richiamiamo la Vs attenzione, sinteticamente, sulle le motivazioni per cui riteniamo che l’iter seguito dal progetto di legge e i suoi contenuti nella sua forma attuale, a nostro avviso lo rendono non pubblicabile.   Per quanto riguarda l’iter procedurale: Un provvedimento di tale vasta portata per l’assetto forestale del Paese e per le connesse e rilevantissime questioni legate alla tutela della biodiversità, alla questione climatica, all’assetto idrogeologico, al patrimonio genetico forestale, alla tutela del paesaggio, alle funzioni ecosistemiche dei boschi e delle foreste, agli impegni assunti in sede comunitaria ed internazionale sui cambiamenti climatici, non può essere approvato come un atto di “ordinaria amministrazione” e per di più da un governo in scadenza di mandato e senza passare per le Camere. Senza alcuna motivazione, non sono state apportate le modifiche, serie ed argomentate, richieste in sede di dibattito nelle commissioni. L’iter del procedimento legislativo è assai contestato per i temi della trasparenza e della partecipazione. Dubbi severi sono sollevati, da fonti autorevoli, rispetto alla sua costituzionalità. Tre dei 4 onorevoli che hanno sostenuto il decreto (on. Olivero, sottosegretario all’Agricoltura, on. Realacci presidente della Commissione Ambiente, on. Sani presidente della Commissione agricoltura) non sono stati eletti alle ultime consultazioni elettorali. Il Decreto pertanto verrebbe ereditato da forze politiche e...

Posted by salvatore on 10:09 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Rob Evans on The Guardian, March 7th, 2018] Another firm is seeking a sweeping injunction against environmental protesters, drawing accusations that the legal move is “draconian and chillingly anti-democratic”. UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) has applied for a broad injunction to prevent campaigners from mounting protests that it says would unlawfully interfere with its operations. The injunction, if granted by a judge, would cover all campaigners who organise protests at the firm’s three sites in the south-east of England where it wants to drill for oil. Anyone breaking the injunction faces being jailed, fined or having their assets seized. The application, which is due to be heard at London’s high court on 19 March, has been condemned by campaigners who fear that corporate firms are increasingly attempting to use a heavy-handed legal weapon to close down dissent. Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the region, said the move was “chillingly anti-democratic”. “This is an absolutely outrageous move by a firm that has no social licence for its environmentally destructive drilling operations, and instead is seeking a draconian injunction to bludgeon local people’s right to peaceful and lawful protest.” Kevin Blowe of Netpol, a group monitoring the policing of protest, said it was “another attempt by the onshore oil and gas industry to stifle opposition and severely restrict the right to freedom of assembly. The sweeping nature of the injunction is extraordinary.” He criticised UKOG’s attempt to prevent interference with what it called its “economic interests” – a term, he said, that “could mean almost anything.” He added: “The company seems to suggest that the only ‘acceptable’ protests are those that have no cost impact on its business and no effect on its share price.” The move follows by a similar injunction that was granted against all anti-fracking protesters to petrochemicals giant Ineos in November. That injunction, which prohibits campaigners from interfering unlawfully with Ineos’s fracking operations, was opposed by two campaigners who said it was oppressive and restricted their fundamental rights to protest. UKOG said it had been compelled to take “this serious legal action to protect itself, its supply chain and landlords from threats and unlawful conduct from activists, who are intent on preventing us from going about our lawful business.” It said the injunction “does not prevent anyone effectively exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.” It said it was seeking an injunction against unlawful actions such as trespass and obstruction of the highway, as well as tactics used by protesters such as walking slowly in front of suppliers’ vehicles. UKOG is seeking to extract oil in Sussex and Surrey, claiming there could be a huge number of barrels of oil – dubbed the Gatwick Gusher – at one site near the airport. However, doubts have been cast over the potential for the site at Horse Hill in Surrey. Stephen Sanderson, UKOG’s chairman, said in its application that the firm had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in recent years to ward off protesters. The injunction, if granted, would cover UKOG’s sites at Broadford Bridge and Markwells Wood in Sussex as well as Horse Hill and its headquarters in Guildford, Surrey. The use of injunctions by multinationals against protesters has fluctuated over the years, and has frequently been criticised. When Ineos obtained its injunction in November, it disclosed that last May representatives of the...

Posted by salvatore on 2:05 pm in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Dom Phillips on The Guardian, March 7th, 2018] At least 7.7 million Brazilians, or one every minute, have been forced to leave their homes since 2000, a pioneering study has found. Of those, 6.4 million moved after large-scale flooding, droughts and other natural disasters, while 1.2 million were forced out by large-scale construction projects such as dams. The analysis was conducted by Forced Migration Observatory (FMO), a digital platform launched on Wednesday that uses georeferencing data. Significant attention has been paid recently to the fact that Brazil, a large country with a population of 209 million, has taken in only 10,000 refugees from countries such as Syria. But little is known about people affected by forced migrations within Brazil, whom the government has no legal framework to protect, said researchers from the Igarapé Institute, an independent thinktank based in Rio de Janeiro. Rob Muggah, its director, came up with the idea for the FMO project in 2015. But once researchers began gathering information from local and national government, private companies, development banks, the World Bank and activist groups they soon abandon an initial estimate of 1.7 million people. “What I was struck by was how little we knew and how little a government response existed to manage this displacement,” he said. “Our hope with this observatory is to help shape a more informed debate and discussion.” It took repeated requests to get information on people displaced by big development projects. This data is generally included in environmental reports, rather than calculated separately. “People, it turns out, are just one small subcategory of the environmental impact assessment that you have to do for credit or for loans or whatever,” Muggah said. Data on people forced to migrate by disasters came from government departments. Many more have probably been forced to move by Brazil’s soaring violent crime rates, but a “code of silence” makes compiling that data impossible, Muggah said. The interactive FMO platform presents data, maps and video and includes emblematic cases of mega-projects and natural disasters such as the 2015 Mariana dam collapse in which 19 people died and nearly 1,400 lost their homes. Floods in the north-east of Brazil in 2009 killed 43 people and forced 343,000 from their homes. Devastating flooding in mountainous regions near Rio in 2011 killed 889 people and left nearly 34,000 people homeless. In 2015 alone, 64,000 people moved because of a five-year drought in the semi-arid interior regions of Brazil’s north-east. “Unfortunately there is still a lot of migration because of this drought,” said Caroline Albanesi from the São Paulo-based non-profit group Amigos de Bem (Good Friends), which works with those affected in semi-arid regions. Brazil has a long history of relocating populations for ambitious construction projects like dams. In 2000 10,000 people were moved for the Itá dam in the south of the country, the FMO calculated. From 2014, 30,000 were moved for construction of the huge Belo Monte dam in the Amazon state of Pará. Activist groups said numbers could be much higher and that migrants suffered from a lack of decent housing and government care. Many were relocated to small houses in purpose-built, distant suburbs that have seen flooding, water shortages and structural problems, said Antonia Melo from Xingu Vivo,) an non-profit organisation in nearby Altamira. “There is a lack of water. Most of...

Posted by salvatore on 10:22 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Arthur Neslen on The Guardian, March 5th, 2018] Officials from 24 Latin American and Caribbean states have signed a legally binding environmental rights pact containing measures to protect land defenders, almost two years to the day since environmental leader Berta Cáceres was killed in her home in Honduras. Last year almost 200 nature protectors were killed across the world, 60% of them in Latin America. The new treaty obliges states to “guarantee a safe and enabling environment for persons, groups and organisations that promote and defend human rights in environmental matters”. It compels strong measures to protect national environmental defenders from threats or attack – and investigate and punish these whenever they occur. And it codifies the rights of environmental defenders “to life, personal integrity, freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and free movement.” The 2016 killing of Cáceres, a winner of the Goldman environmental prize, focused attention on the killings of environmental and land rights activists in the region. Her death was one of 14 such deaths recorded in Honduras that year in a collaboration between the Guardian and NGO Global Witness, making the country one of the deadliest in the world for environmental activists. In a sign of progress, though, the number of killings fell in 2017 and two days before the new pact was agreed, Honduran authorities arrested a former military intelligence officer for masterminding Cáceres’s killing. Costa Rica’s president, Luis Guillermo Solís, described the treaty as “a turning point” in the fight against poverty, inequality and hate. “It is also crucial for the very survival of our species,” he said. “The right to a healthy environment is a human right.” Carole Excell, the environmental democracy director of the World Resources Institute, described the new protocol as “a historic stand to safeguard the backbone of environmental protection”. In Brazil, where 49 environmental defenders were killed in 2016, a statement by Fundação Grupo Esquel Brasil and the Article 19 campaign said: “A legally binding agreement is critical for us to protect our land and environmental defenders who will now have greater access to the rights enshrined in this convention. “The treaty may help Brazil to reverse the trend of regressive environmental laws.” The agreement is formally called the Latin American and Caribbean countries declaration on Principle 10 (LAC-P10). Emerging from the UN’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in 2012, it covers access to environmental information, justice and public participation in decision making. “I cannot understate how critical it is for communities to have access to environmental information, like data on local water pollution or nearby mining concessions,” Excell said. “LAC-P10 is designed not only to protect environmental defenders, but also to make it easier for people to get information, participate in decision-making that will affect their lives and hold powerful interests to account.” The treaty, which was stewarded by Chile, Costa Rica and Panama, also guarantees the right to a healthy environment and impels states to establish transparency bodies to monitor, report and oversee compliance with the new rules....

Concorso a premi Storie di Economia Circolare

Posted by salvatore on 1:35 am in in Evidenza | Commenti disabilitati su Concorso a premi Storie di Economia Circolare

Il Concorso Storie di Economia Circolare, promosso da CDCA ed ECODOM, è un concorso a premi dedicato al racconto di storie virtuose di economia circolare in Italia. Il concorso è rivolto a giornalisti, videomaker, fotografi, scrittori, storyteller e a chiunque voglia mettersi in gioco per raccontare attraverso video, fotografie, audio e scritti una piccola grande storia di cambiamento nel mondo dell’economia del nostro Paese. Finalità del concorso è quella di stimolare e promuovere, tra giornalisti e addetti del mondo dell’informazione una rinnovata consapevolezza sulla sostenibilità ambientale, i nuovi modelli produttivi e i benefici per l’ambiente e la società che derivano da processi di transizione virtuosi. Attraverso il concorso le realtà circolari raccontate avranno inoltre la possibilità di essere visibili nel portale e dunque di essere promosse a livello nazionale. Opere ammesse e scelta dei vincitori Iscrizione gratuita. Sono ammesse a concorso opere inedite e originali audiovisive, reportage fotografici, radiofonici e testi scritti. Per partecipare al concorso occorre seguire le istruzioni contenute nel Regolamento di Concorso ed inviare i materiali nelle modalità previste non oltre il 31 maggio 2018. Il processo di valutazione si compone di due fasi: la votazione on-line e il giudizio della Giuria Tecnica di Qualità. Per i dettagli riguardanti le modalità di votazione, si rimanda al Regolamento di concorso. I premi I vincitori saranno premiati con un premio in denaro così diviso: 3.500 euro per la Categoria Video, 3.000 euro per la Categoria Foto, 2.000 per la Categoria Audio e 1.500 per la Categoria Scrittura. La differenziazione economica dei premi è stata stabilita in base alla stima dei costi vivi di produzione dei diversi tipi di Storia. I premi sono sponsorizzati da Banca Popolare Etica. Delle storie vincenti sarà curata la pubblicazione su testate e media nazionali. Per informazioni:...

Posted by salvatore on 10:06 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted on The Guardian, February 6, 2018] A court in central Vietnam has sentenced an activist to 14 years in jail for livestreaming fishermen marching to file a lawsuit against a Taiwan-owned steel plant’s spill of toxins into the ocean. Hoang Duc Binh, 34, was convicted of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state, organisation and people, and opposing officers on duty, following a trial on Tuesday by the people’s court in Nghe An province, lawyer Ha Huy Son said. Fellow activist Nguyen Nam Phong was given two years in jail for opposing officers on duty. During last February’s livestream on Facebook, Binh commented that the fishermen were stopped and beaten by authorities. Son said Binh told the court that he made the comments, but he denied committing a crime because what he said was true. The court said his comments were untrue and slandered authorities. Reuters reported that the 14-year jail term is one of the toughest sentences to have been delivered against an activist in Vietnam. The $10.6bn (£7.6bn) steel complex owned by Formosa Plastics Group, which includes a steel plant, a power plant and a deep sea port in Ha Tinh province, discharged toxins such as cyanide and phenol during a test run in April 2016. It killed massive amounts of fish and other sea life along more than 200km (125 miles) of coastline, devastating fishing communities and tourism in four central provinces. The plant owner has paid $500m in compensation. The chemical spill, one of the country’s worst environmental disasters, sparked rare protests. Despite economic reforms three decades ago that opened up the communist-ruled country to foreign investment and trade, making it one of fastest growing economies in the region, the one-party state maintains tight control on all aspects of life including the media and has zero tolerance for dissent. Eight people have been convicted and given prison sentences for spreading propaganda against the state over the past month. International human rights groups and some western governments have criticised Vietnam for punishing those who peacefully express their views. Hanoi maintains that only lawbreakers are...