The Defending Freedoms Project, founded in 2012 by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, USCIRF and a coalition of prominent human rights NGOs, aims to increase attention to human rights abuses by encouraging Members of Congress to advocate on behalf of prisoners of conscience wherever they may be found. By taking on a prisoner\u2019s case, the Member can contribute to the release, reduction of a prison sentence or the improvement of prison conditions, while also raising awareness about the unjust laws or policies that led to imprisonment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Patriarch has suffered decades of oppression and imprisonment for nothing more than standing up for his universal right of religious freedom. I am proud to be his advocate and I will continue to fight for his release,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> said Congressman Lowenthal, a Democrat who represents \u201cLittle Saigon\u201d in California, one of the largest Vietnamese-American communities in the USA. In 2015, Congressman Lowenthal visited Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 during a trip to Vietnam and recently urged US Ambassador Dan Kritenbrink to press the Vietnamese authorities for his release.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n USCIRF Vice Chairwoman Kristina Arriaga, who will speak on the situation of Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 at USCIRF\u2019s 20th<\/sup> Anniversary in Washington D.C. next week, stressed the need for improvements in freedom of religion or belief in Vietnam: \u201cIf Vietnam wants to be part of the international community, it must not treat religious liberty as the poor sister of the human rights\u2019 family. Without religious freedom, no other rights exist.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Most Venerable Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9, Fifth Supreme Patriarch of the independent UBCV is under house arrest without charge at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). He is under constant Police surveillance and denied basic citizenship rights. A renowned scholar, outspoken dissident and 16-times Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 has spent over three decades in detention for his advocacy of religious freedom, human rights and democracy. He is a recipient of the World Movement for Democracy\u2019s \u201cDemocracy Courage Tribute\u201d and the Norwegian Rafto Foundation\u2019s prestigious Rafto Prize for human rights defenders for his role as a \u201cunifying force\u201d<\/em> and a \u201csymbol of the growing democracy movement\u201d<\/em> in Vietnam.<\/p>\n The adoption of Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9, who is Vietnam\u2019s longest-detained prisoner of conscience, shines a welcome light on the current brutal crackdown on freedom of expression, religion and assembly in Vietnam. This month, seven members of the Brotherhood for Democracy received sentences of up to 15 years in prison for peaceful human rights activities. There are an estimated 130 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PARIS, 12 April 2018 (VCHR) \u2013 US Congressman Alan Lowenthal and Kristina Arriaga, Vice Chairwoman of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) announced that they have officially adopted the Most Venerable Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9, Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) as a prisoner of conscience through the \u201cDefending Freedoms …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":38886,"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":[368,97,137,113,98,1400,64],"tags":[286,287,671,624],"class_list":["post-38881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-forb","category-ibib","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-thich-quang-do","category-vchr","tag-forb-2","tag-religious-freedom-2","tag-thich-quang-do-2","tag-tom-lantos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38881","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\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"UBCV](\"http:\/\/queme.org\/\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Alan-Lowenthal-Thich-Quang-Do2.jpg\")
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