Global initiative

FREE THEM ALL

Standing with environmental and climate defenders who are silenced, jailed, or disappeared, simply for protecting our planet.

Led by Hong Hoang
Climate Hero • Obama Scholar • Former Political Prisoner • Speaker

• About

• Why this matters

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WHY THIS IS PERSONAL

My name is Hong Hoang. In 2023, I was arrested and imprisoned in Vietnam for my environmental and climate work.There’s no elegant way to describe those days. It was anger, fear, confusion, humiliation, and a kind of helplessness I had never felt before.When you are trapped inside a system designed to break you, the worst part isn’t the walls. It’s not knowing if your family is safe, if anyone is fighting for you, if your voice has already been erased, if people remember you.But somehow, people did remember me. Thousands of friends, colleagues, and complete strangers refused to let me disappear. A global solidarity campaign, #FreeHong #FreeThemAll, spread across countries and communities. That solidarity gave me hope. That hope kept me alive. And that collective pressure helped bring me home.After I was released, one question kept haunting me: What about the defenders who are still inside? What about the ones without a network, without media attention, without even one person shouting their name?Long before I was arrested, during the years of repression, surveillance, and threats, I remember wishing: “If only there were a hotline… a network… someone who understands what’s happening and can help.” I wished so badly that something like that existed.Now that I’m free, I want to build exactly the thing I once needed.

• What We Do

Global context

A Global Pattern of Silence

Around the world, environmental and climate defenders face the same playbook of repression: surveillance, intimidation, smear campaigns, legal harassment, and fabricated charges.Most cases never reach the international spotlight. And when defenders are taken, the silence is often immediate and devastating.This isn’t a series of isolated incidents, it’s a widespread, escalating pattern.

human impact

The Human Cost of Environmental Defense

Behind every detained defender is a family living in fear, a community left unprotected, and a movement suddenly weakened.People lose their freedom, their livelihoods, their safety, not because they did something wrong, but because they dared to care.The world depends on these defenders, yet there is no consistent system to protect them when repression strikes.This is the urgent gap Free Them All aims to confront.

One defender at a time

Dang Dinh Bach

Vietnamese environmental justice lawyer – imprisoned since 2021Đặng Đình Bách is a respected environmental justice lawyer and former Director of the Center for Law and Policy of Sustainable Development (LPSD) in Vietnam. His work supported communities affected by industrial pollution, coal plants, and hydropower projects.Bach was arrested in June 2021 and later sentenced to five years in prison on politically motivated “tax evasion” charges, widely seen as retaliation for his role in advocating for a transition away from coal.In 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that his arrest was arbitrary, discriminatory, and in violation of international law, calling for his immediate release.In prison, Bach’s health has suffered due to harsh conditions and limited contact with his family. He has carried out multiple hunger strikes to protest mistreatment.In 2024, he received the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty, recognizing his commitment to environmental justice and human rights.Bach’s case highlights a deeper problem: Vietnam’s energy transition cannot be “just” while environmental defenders remain behind bars.

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Together, we will FREE THEM ALL

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