Draft decrees on religion provoke concern

In the first week of June 2022 the Vietnamese authorities published two draft decrees on religion which have provoked significant concern among some religious leaders and adherents in the country and experts outside.

The two decrees and accompanying document, which between them number 151 pages, were posted online for input from government departments and the public, and on 7 June the authorities held a seminar to gather comments on the decrees.

One draft would replace Decree 162/2017, which provided guidelines for implementing the country’s first ever Law on Belief and Religion (LBR), which came into effect on 1 January 2018. The current law imposes a range of restrictions of the right to freedom of religion or belief, including by requiring religious groups to go through an onerous process of registration for permission for a broad range of activities. It is believed that this new decree would only tighten government control over religious affairs, including online meetings.

The second draft concerns remedies and punishments for administrative infractions of the Law and other related regulations. Stipulated punishments include warnings, fines of up to 30 million VND (USD $1,300) for an individual and 60 million VND (USD $2,600) for an organisation, or shutting down a religious organisation entirely.

According to Morning Star News, “even ranking staff members of the Government Bureau of Religious Affairs were taken by surprise and encouraged religious leaders to strongly object.”

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “CSW is highly concerned at the Vietnamese authorities’ latest attempts to increase control over the activities of religion or belief groups. In a country where many already cannot enjoy the full right to freedom of religion or belief, these new decrees will only make that even more difficult. We call on Vietnam to reverse this course, and to instead revise all regulations and legislation pertaining to religion to ensure they align with international standards as set out in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Vietnam is a party.”

Note to editors:

1. The drafts are available on this government website in Vietnamese.