Threats and restrictions on UBCV Vesak celebrations – Buddhists in Hue prepare non-violent resistance
PARIS, 3 May 2012 (IBIB) – Senior monks from the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) have reported increasing threats and pressure by Security Police and local authorities in the central provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam-Danang, Phu Yen and Binh Thuan to ban the UBCV from organizing celebrations of …
Read More »UBCV Supreme Patriarch Thich Quang Do issues Vesak Message
PARIS, May 2, 2012 (IBIB) – On the occasion of the 2556th Vesak, or anniversary of Buddha’s Birth, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has issued a Message to Vietnamese Buddhists urging them to keep up the spirit of freedom …
Read More »Vietnam bans UBCV Vesak celebrations in Binh Thuan – Police surround Giac Minh Pagoda in Danang
PARIS, 28 April 2012 (IBIB) The International Buddhist Information Bureau has received an urgent report from the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) on the intensification of Police controls and harassment in the run-up to the celebrations of the Vesak. The Vesak is the anniversary of the Birth of Buddha …
Read More »
The Wall Street Journal : Reading Orwell in Hanoi
A judge reminds bloggers how Vietnamese “justice” really works
In further proof that irony is alive and well, Vietnam is a candidate for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2014-2016. What sort of human-rights watchdog would the government in Hanoi be? For a hint, consider the ongoing cases of three activist bloggers now facing …
Read More »Vietnam must free bloggers Dieu Cay, Phan Thanh Hai and Ta Phong Tan
PARIS, 16 April 2012 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights calls on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (pen-name Dieu Cay) Phan Thanh Hai (Anh Ba Saigon) and Ms. Ta Phong Tan (Justice and Truth) and drop all charges against them. The three are …
Read More »Local authorities threaten to cut electricity and water in UBCV Executive Institute at the Giac Hoa Pagoda in Saigon
PARIS, March 27, 2012 (IBIB) –The right to religious freedom is formally guaranteed in the Constitution of Vietnam. Yet in reality, the authorities implement a host of repressive measures to restrict and paralyze religious activities. Alongside the detention and house arrest of Buddhist leaders and intimidation of its followers, the …
Read More »USCIRF Report lists Vietnam as one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom
PARIS, March 22, 2012 (IBIB) – In its Annual Report for 2012 unveiled in Washington D.C. this week, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has named Vietnam as one of the world’s worst religious freedom violators along with Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, …
Read More »UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issues conclusions on Vietnam
PARIS-GENEVA, 15 March 2012 (VCHR & FIDH) – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights welcome the conclusions issued by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) after examining Vietnam’s periodic report on its implementation of the International Convention on …
Read More »Buddhist leader Thich Quang Do writes to President Obama on the situation of human rights, VOA radio broadcasts and repression of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
PARIS, 2 March 2012 (IBIB) – The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, prominent dissident and Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has written to the US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Joe Boehner, calling on …
Read More »