Venerable Thich Duc Son pleads innocence at the appeal trial PARIS, 10 July 2006 (IBIB) – More than 50 monks and nuns of the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church (VBC) staged a demonstration outside the People’s Supreme Organ of Supervision and Control (Supreme Procuracy) in Hanoi on 6 July calling for …
Read More »GENEVA, 20th June 2006 – As the new United Nations Human Rights Council begins its first session in Geneva this week, Vo Van Ai, President of the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights and Vice-President of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), wrote to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan, the …
Read More »The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) has received urgent information that Security Police have expelled Buddhist nun Thich Nu Thong Man and all her novices from Dich Quang Pagoda in Ninh Hoa district in the central province of Khanh Hoa. Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, head of the local village authorities, …
Read More »PARIS, 17 May 2006 (IBIB) – Thanks to concerted international pressure for improvements in religious freedom in Vietnam, including as Resolutions in the European Parliament and US Congress, the US State Department’s designation of Vietnam as a “Country of Particular Concern” and repeated interventions by the United Nations, and following …
Read More »PARIS, 12 May 2006 (IBIB) – As State-sponsored Buddhist organisations celebrate the 2550th Anniversary of the Vesak (Birth of Buddha) in Vietnam today (15th day of the 4th Lunar month, i.e. 12th May 2006), the authorities are tightening controls on the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Security Police have …
Read More »PARIS, April 25, 2006 (IBIB) – The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) strongly denounces the statement made by Ngo Yen Thi, Chairman of Vietnam’s Religious Board at a Press Conference in Hanoi on Monday 24th April. Asked by a reporter whether Vietnam was prepared to re-establish the legal status of …
Read More »Vo Van Ai, President of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, wrote to European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner this week asking her to place issues of human rights and democratization high on her agenda during her official visit to Vietnam which begins on Friday, in which she will …
Read More »At the Fourth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul (2-5 April), Venerable Thich Quang Do, Deputy Head of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and Communist Party veteran Hoang Minh Chinh were awarded the “Democracy Courage Tribute” alongside activists from Nepal, Uzbekistan and the Crimea (1). …
Read More »PARIS, 6th April 2006 – More than 600 democracy activists, practitioners and scholars from 125 countries gathered for the Fourth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) in Istanbul from 2-5 April 2006 under the theme of “Advancing Democracy : Justice, Pluralism and Participation”. Founded in 1999, the WMD held …
Read More »PARIS, 30th March 2006 (IBIB) – The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) received today an “Open Letter” from Venerable Thich Quang Do, prominent dissident and Head of the Executive Institute (Vien Hoa Dao) of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), calling on international labour movements, donor agencies and …
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Quê Me Quê Me: Action for democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights