{"id":1787,"date":"2012-02-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/all\/all\/un-committee-calls-on-vietnam-to-cease-persecution-of-religious-and-ethnic-minorities\/"},"modified":"2020-03-28T10:22:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T10:22:25","slug":"cerd-calls-on-vietnam-to-cease-persecution-of-religious-and-ethnic-minorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/cerd-calls-on-vietnam-to-cease-persecution-of-religious-and-ethnic-minorities\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Committee calls on Vietnam to cease persecution of religious and ethnic minorities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


GENEVA, 24 February 2012 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/strong> regrets that Vietnam missed a precious opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the United Nations in Geneva on 21-22 February 2012 during the examination of its 10th-14th periodic reports on implementation of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) to which it acceded in 1982. Instead of addressing real challenges, Vietnam confined itself to propaganda. \u201cVietnam cites the quantity of laws it has adopted as proof of the rule of law in Vietnam. It pretends to believe that everything in the garden is rosy, simply because it says so. In fact, many of Vietnam\u2019s mass-produced laws are rarely or never enacted; the stark reality for religious and ethnic minorities is the anti-human rights policy of the regime\u201d<\/em>, said Vo Van Ai<\/strong>, President of the Vietnam Committee for Human Rights (VCHR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vo
Vo Van Ai speaking at the CERD<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVietnam\u2019s presentation of its periodic report was surreal\u201d<\/em>, said Mr. Ai. \u201cThe delegation began by describing the resounding success of its policies on ethnic minorities, supporting its claims with Soviet-style statistics – 100% of cities have primary schools and free clinics! It then proceeded to lament the lack of access to education and health in the remote regions where ethnic communities live. In fact, the report was more like a bad exercise in propaganda than a genuine effort to address problems of racial discrimination in Vietnam\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CERD experts saw through Vietnam\u2019s claims, and sharply criticized the delegation for presenting a theoretical vision of racial discrimination, with a long list of laws but no concrete details on their implementation. Regretting that no factual examples of discrimination were mentioned, French expert Regis de Gouttes<\/strong> observed that \u201cthe lack of complaints against racism is not proof that racism does not exist. On the contrary, this could stem from the victims\u2019 lack of knowledge of their rights, or their lack of confidence in the Police and judiciary\u201d.<\/em> He also questioned the system of ho khau<\/em>, or household registration permits, which is the basis of all discrimination. The US expert Carlos Manuel Vazquez<\/strong> commented that Vietnam\u2019s claim that \u201cdiscrimination is prohibited\u201d<\/em> is no guarantee that it does not exist on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN experts also criticized Vietnam\u2019s legal system, notably Article 87 of the Penal Code on \u201cundermining the unity policy; sowing divisions between the religious and non-religious\u201d<\/em> which the government claimed was enacted to protected minorities. Mr. Vazquez noted that this article was \u201cso vaguely worded as to be used against minorities, especially those engaged in peaceful demonstrations\u201d<\/em>, and called on Vietnam to revise it. The Vietnamese delegation initially avoided this question, then stated that they would \u201cthink about it\u201d, adding that if ethnic minorities had their rights, there were also people who \u201cabused\u201d<\/em> these rights. Such people were \u201cdeceitful and harmful, and must be sanctioned by the law\u201d<\/em>. Article 87 is one of a whole chapter of \u201cnational security\u201d provisions in the Vietnamese Penal Code. Since 1995, the UN has repeatedly pressed Vietnam to revise these \u201ccatch-all\u201d provisions which criminalize the legitimate exercise of human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking up reports by NGOs, notably the 30-page alternative report of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, the CERD experts expressed concern about the use of negative stereotypes that stigmatize ethnic minorities as being \u201cbackward\u201d or \u201cuncivilized\u201d. Once again, the Vietnamese delegation responded that such stereotypes were \u201cprohibited\u201d<\/em>. In practice, however, these negative misperceptions are very real. \u201cThe Vietnamese government, the state-controlled media and the Vietnamese population in general continue to refer to ethnic minorities by the derogatory term \u201cmoi\u201d (\u201csavages\u201d), whereas the word \u201cKinh\u201d, used for the majority Vietnamese population, is a term which implies superiority\u201d<\/em>, commented Vo Van Ai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CERD expressed further concern about abuses of political and economic rights suffered by ethnic and religious minorities. French expert Regis de Gouttes<\/strong> and several other experts cited violations such as expropriation from ancestral lands, forced population displacement, restrictions on the rights of freedom of movement and expression, violence, arbitrary arrests and religious persecution. Mr. de Gouttes expressed particular concern about repression against \u201cKhmer Krom Buddhists, affiliated to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, as well as Montagnards and Hmongs, who are predominantly Christian\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"VCHR<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chinese expert Huang Yong\u2019An<\/strong>, who is also Rapporteur for the CERD examination of Vietnam, raised the serious problem of state confiscation of lands: \u201cA Chinese proverb says, \u201coppressive government drives the people to rebellion\u201d. When we look at the conflicts in ethnic minority regions, we find that many are related to issues of land-use rights. One NGO report<\/a> said, I quote, \u201cpeaceful demonstrations on these issues are repressed by excessive force and violence, resulting in frequent arrests\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confronted by the experts\u2019 concerns on human rights violations, the Vietnamese delegation simply repeated that \u201cthere is no racial discrimination in Vietnam\u201d<\/em>. On specific allegations of Police violence used to repress demonstrations of ethnic Hmongs in May 2011, the government denied all use of force. In fact, many press agencies reported Vietnam\u2019s use of armed helicopters and troops to disband these peaceful demonstrations in Dien Bien province. Vietnam even mobilized support from armed forces in Laos to prevent Hmongs escaping across the Vietnam-Laos border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several experts urged Vietnam to develop mechanisms to enable ethnic minorities to claim and defend their rights. Nigerian expert Waliakoye Saidou<\/strong> urged Vietnam to recognize the competence of the CERD Committee to receive complaints from victims of abuses in Vietnam, in accordance with Article 14 of the ICERD Convention. The Vietnamese delegation made no reply. Asked whether Vietnam was considering the creation of a National Human Rights Commission on the lines of the Paris Principles, the delegation replied that it was considering the creation of such a Commission according to the \u201ccountry\u2019s specific conditions\u201d<\/em>, which would not necessarily conform with the Paris Principles. \u201cUnder current circumstances in Vietnam, where spurious laws have remained unchanged for decades, where there is no independent civil society and especially no independent judiciary, a National Human Rights Commission would be a parody of justice, a total farce\u201d<\/em>, said Vo Van Ai.


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GENEVA, 24 February 2012 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights regrets that Vietnam missed a precious opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the United Nations in Geneva on 21-22 February 2012 during the examination of its 10th-14th periodic reports on implementation of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of all …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":28225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1172,417,1180,1171,1174],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-vchr","tag-carlos-manuel-vazquez","tag-cerd","tag-huan-yong-an","tag-regis-de-gouttes","tag-waliakoye-saidou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}