In May 2023, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the US State Department jointly released the 2023 State of Religious Freedom Report. Despite some positive assessments of efforts to ensure religious freedom in Vietnam, the two reports still used the same rhetoric criticizing the religious freedom situation in Vietnam, clearly demonstrating stubbornness, prejudice, and disregard for progress and efforts to ensure religious freedom in Vietnam.
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| A group of foreign reporters visited the religious practice place of Dak Lak Catholics. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
Interfering in Vietnam's internal affairs
The principle of prohibiting interference in the internal affairs of other countries was stated in the Charter of the United Nations (UN) in 1945. Later, in Resolution 2625 of the UN General Assembly in 1970, the principle of prohibiting interference in the internal affairs of other countries continued to be recorded more specifically and clearly.
Accordingly, no country or group of countries has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatsoever, in the internal and external affairs of any other country. According to Clause 7, Article 2, United Nations Charter: “The United Nations Organization has no right to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”. The obligation not to intervene in the affairs of another country is also imposed on all members of the international community.
Thus, the Vietnamese law's handling of those who violate the law, including those who take advantage of beliefs and religions to commit acts against the country, is an internal matter, under the national sovereignty of Vietnam, and no country, organization or individual has the right to interfere. Furthermore, glorifying, encouraging and supporting these illegal acts is even more unacceptable.
USCIRF is an independent advisory body established by the US Congress to serve the purpose of “improving human rights” in countries that the US considers “of particular concern”. USCIRF often has negative assessments of Vietnam, even when it has been given the opportunity to visit Vietnam to witness the actual situation.
Since 2012, USCIRF has continuously recommended that the US State Department put Vietnam on the list of “Countries of Particular Concern - CPC” to create a basis for imposing economic, political, and educational sanctions on Vietnam. In its annual reports on religious freedom in Vietnam, USCIRF said that Vietnam “represses religion in the country”; criticized the Vietnamese government and police; USCIRF is particularly concerned about the number of lawbreakers being tried, which they call “prisoners of conscience”.
False and unfavorable assessment
The information USCIRF uses in the Report is mainly from unverified sources, collected from organizations and individuals of Vietnamese people abroad with extremist and hateful ideologies linked to domestic opposition, so it is always lacking in objectivity, lacks authenticity, and even distorts religious freedom in Vietnam.
There are many approaches to religion, from the perspective of a social organization, in Vietnam it can be divided into two types: religions, religious organizations that are and are not recognized by the State, granted certificates of registration for religious activities; organizations that pretend to be beliefs, religions to profit, sabotage the cause of building and protecting the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam. On that basis, our Party and State have specific viewpoints, policies and laws.
For religions and religious organizations that are recognized and granted certificates of registration for religious activities, our Party and State always pay attention and create favorable conditions for both religious and secular affairs.
According to Article 21, Section 1, Chapter V, Law on Belief and Religion 2016: “An organization that has been granted a certificate of registration for religious activities is recognized as a religious organization when it meets the following conditions: Operating stably and continuously for 05 years or more from the date of being granted a certificate of registration for religious activities; Having a charter as prescribed in Article 23 of this Law; The representative and leader of the organization are Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam, with full civil act capacity; not being subject to administrative handling measures in the field of belief and religion; not having a criminal record or not being a person being charged according to the provisions of the law on criminal proceedings; Having an organizational structure according to the charter; Having assets independent of other individuals and organizations and being responsible for its own assets; Participating in legal relations independently in the name of the organization”.
According to data from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, the State has recognized and granted operating registration to 43 organizations belonging to 16 religions, with over 26.5 million followers, accounting for 27% of the country's population, more than 54,000 dignitaries, over 135,000 officials and nearly 30,000 places of worship. However, extremists and ill-intentioned organizations still deliberately distort and call some religious organizations "state-run religions" or "henchmen" for our Party and State.
For religions and religious organizations that have not been recognized by the State and granted a certificate of registration for religious activities, authorities at all levels have guided them to operate in accordance with local laws and regulations, and provided support in all aspects, especially legal aspects, so that they can soon be considered, recognized, and granted a certificate of registration for religious activities.
At the same time, we have regulations to rectify and handle them when they commit violations of the law. This is also what hostile and reactionary forces accuse the Party and State of “controlling” and “harassing” religions.
Our Party and State resolutely fight and severely punish organizations that disguise themselves as beliefs and religions to profit from and sabotage the cause of building and protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.
These organizations often carry out activities against the Party, the State, and the regime, closely collude with reactionary forces abroad to disseminate reactionary documents; take advantage of beliefs and religions to incite and attract opposition forces to cause disturbances, complicate security and order, affect social life, and cause many social consequences in recent times.
In Vietnam, as in any country in the world, citizens must comply with the constitution and the law. Religious dignitaries and followers are Vietnamese citizens and if they act to obstruct the reform process or go against the interests of the nation and country, they must be severely punished. Religious reasons cannot be used to justify violations of the law because all individuals are equal before the law, regardless of whether they follow a religion or not.
This is the principle of respecting the law in a rule-of-law State, and at the same time is the basis for affirming our clear and resolute attitude in the fight to eliminate bad and evil in society, creating a normal and healthy religious living environment for religious followers, and at the same time is a warning lesson for those who want to take advantage of religion to have intentions and activities against the country.
| The number of religious organizations recognized as legal entities is increasing and continues to increase. According to data from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, the State has recognized and granted operating registration to 43 organizations belonging to 16 religions, with over 26.5 million followers, accounting for 27% of the country's population, more than 54,000 dignitaries, over 135,000 officials and nearly 30,000 places of worship. |
Practice refutes all distortions
Freedom of belief and religion in Vietnam is protected by law and is always guaranteed and enforced in practice.
Up to now, Vietnam has built a relatively complete legal system related to religious freedom, from the 2013 Constitution, the 2004 Ordinance on Belief and Religion to the 2016 Law on Belief and Religion. Vietnam has basically built a complete legal system on religion as a legal tool to ensure the freedom of belief and religion of everyone and is also one of the few countries in the world (20 countries) to issue separate laws on religious freedom. The organization and implementation of policies and laws on religion are given due attention.
Freedom of belief and religion in Vietnam is always exercised in practice, protected by law and facilitated by the government.
The number of religious followers is constantly increasing, and spiritual and religious activities are vibrant. According to data from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, the number of religious followers and dignitaries is constantly increasing. In 1997, the country had over 15 million followers, accounting for more than 20% of the population; by 2022, there will be over 26.5 million religious followers (accounting for about 27% of the country's population), more than 54,000 dignitaries, 135,000 officials and 29,658 places of worship.
In addition, there are more than 200,000 people belonging to 70 private Protestant groups and over 30,000 people belonging to more than 60 new religious phenomena (“strange religions”) who have not registered for collective religious activities. In addition, the vast majority of Vietnamese people have a spiritual life, following traditional polytheistic beliefs.
In addition to the 27% of the population following a religion, over 75% of Vietnamese people in general and over 80% of ethnic minorities in particular follow traditional polytheistic beliefs. That is the difference compared to Western countries or countries following monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam).
Therefore, although not religious, Vietnamese people have a deep spiritual life and actively participate in religious activities. This is clearly demonstrated by the 8,000 religious festivals held annually. Religious organizations are given the opportunity to participate in social security activities, community health care, religious organizations have over 500 medical examination and treatment facilities, over 800 social protection facilities, with 300 kindergartens...
Religious organizations have paid attention to and promoted the construction of places of worship. Since 1990, places of worship have been built and repaired quite vigorously throughout the country to meet the religious needs of parishioners.
In 2000, the country had 18,474 religious places of worship. By 2021, the number had increased to 30,047, an increase of 11,573 in 20 years, with an average of 579 new places of worship added each year. Most of the places of worship have been built and renovated to be spacious and spacious, with some projects costing tens or even hundreds of billions of VND. Local authorities are interested in resolving and granting land to religious organizations to build religious facilities.
International relations of religions are increasingly expanding; the religious activities of foreigners in Vietnam are given attention, creating conditions for religious organizations to increase exchanges, study, and delegations with religious organizations around the world.
From 2011 to present, there have been nearly 2,000 religious individuals leaving the country to attend training courses abroad, international seminars and conferences related to religion, nearly 500 foreign delegations, with more than 3,000 people entering Vietnam to exchange, interact and guide at places of worship in Vietnam, and religious events organized by religious organizations in Vietnam.
The above reality is the clearest evidence to refute all the false information in the USCIRF Report. Not only in the field of religion, Vietnam has been making efforts to ensure human rights for people in all fields, as well as actively and responsibly participating in promoting human rights in the world when it was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council (2023-2025).
REFERENCES
(1) Government Committee for Religious Affairs, Law on Belief and Religion and Decree detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Belief and Religion, Religion Publishing House, Hanoi, 2018.
(2) - Communist Party of Vietnam (2021), Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, Volume 1, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, Volume 1.
(3) - Government Committee for Religious Affairs (2022), Religion and religious policy in Vietnam, Religion Publishing House, Hanoi
(*) Academy of Politics, Ministry of National Defense
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