![\"President](\"https:\/\/queme.org\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2019-0530a-tirff.jpg\")
The Forum\nbrought together religious and political leaders, members of parliament,\nreligious freedom experts and civil society activists from 26 countries of\nAsia, Europe and the USA to debate the theme of \u201cRising to the Challenge\u201d of\ngrowing religious persecution, particularly in Asia. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen <\/strong>and Vice-President Chen Chien-jen <\/strong>joined the gatheringtoexpress Taiwan\u2019s commitment to the global effort for religious freedom, as\nwell as Dr. Pusin Tali<\/strong>, Taiwan\u2019s\nnewly-appointed Ambassador-at-large for Religious Freedom, who is the very\nfirst Asian Ambassador at Large for FoRB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his presentation, V\u00f5 Tr\u1ea7n Nh\u1eadt alerted participants to the serious violations of freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam, notably the fierce and consistent persecution of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and the tragic situation of UBCV Patriarch Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9,<\/strong> who has spent over 36 years in prison, internal exile, under house arrest and strict Police surveillance for his nonviolent engagement for religious freedom, human rights and democracy. Mr. Nh\u1eadt called on the Vietnamese government to immediately lift all restrictions imposed upon Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9, and publicly guarantee his fundamental freedoms and rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Calling for\nthe immediate release of all political and religious prisoners, he pressed\nVietnam to take urgent action on behalf of Buddhist environmental activists Phan V\u0103n Thu<\/strong> (71) and \u0110\u00f2an \u0110\u00ecnh Nam <\/strong>(67) who are in very poor\nhealth as a result of harsh detention conditions and lack of medical care. Pham\nV\u0103n Thu and \u0110\u00f2an \u0110\u00ecnh Nam are serving life imprisonment and 16 years in prison respectively\nfollowing an unfair trial on 4 February 2013, in which 22 members of their\ngroup received a total of 295 years in prison and 105 years house arrest on\ncharges of \u201cactivities aimed at\noverthrowing the people\u2019s administration\u201d<\/em>. Known as the \u201cBia Son\nCouncil for Public Law and Affairs\u201d (<\/em>H\u1ed9i \u0111\u1ed3ng c\u00f4ng lu\u1eadt c\u00f4ng \u00e1n\nBia s\u01a1n)<\/em> the group ran an eco-tourist company in Ph\u00fa Y\u00ean which believed in the\nharmonization of nature and humankind. The official press reported\nthat the group \u201cchose the method of nonviolence\u201d<\/em>\nto \u201ctry to win the\nconfidence of the masses against the leadership of the Party and State\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Vietnam\u2019s religious policies, V\u00f5 Tr\u1ea7n Nh\u1eadt said that \u201cthe government and the Communist Party use religions as a tool\u201d. <\/em>He cited the lavish celebrations of UN Vesak Day (Birth of Buddha) in Vietnam in May this year as a perfect example of the government\u2019s double language, where on the one hand they extol State-sponsored Buddhism and on the other they unscrupulously repress the independent UBCV. \u201cIt is ironic that the region of Ba Sao [where the Vesak was held] is home to \u201cthe world\u2019s largest pagoda\u201d, but also to a notorious prison camp where many religious and political prisoners are detained\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also recalled\nthat this year\u2019s Vesak was marred by a controversy that triggered deep protests\nwithin the Buddhist community and beyond. Th\u00edch Thanh Quy\u1ebft, deputy head of the\nState-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Sangha unveiled a huge painting depicting\nBuddha and Ho Chi Minh side by side, and declared that both were \u201csaviours\u201d<\/em> of the Vietnamese nation. Vietnamese\nsocial media strongly criticized the incident, which they said showed the\nregime\u2019s overt politicization of religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Law on\nBelief and Religion, which came into force in January 2018, tightens state\ncontrol over religious communities, said V\u00f5 Tr\u1ea7n Nh\u1eadt. The law provides legal\nidentity only for registered religious bodies that are recognized by the state,\nleaving non-registered groups such as the UBCV in a legal limbo, exposed to\nharassments and arbitrary repression. He stressed that registration should be\noptional, not mandatory, and that the universal right to\nfreedom of religion or belief should never be conditioned on administrative\nprocedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In conclusion, the TIRFF adopted two Declarations, one on the religious freedom of the Uyghurs (Declaration on the Persecution of the Uyghurs<\/a><\/em>) and the other on the traffic of human organs by the Chinese Communist Party (\u201c#NoMore\u201d Organ Harvesting Declaration<\/a><\/em>), and launched an assistance fund for victims of religious persecution. The Forum took place against a backdrop of growing international concern for freedom of religion or belief worldwide. On the eve of the TIRFF, the UN General Assembly<\/a> adopted a resolution establishing 22th August as the \u201cInternational Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PARIS, 8 June 2019 (VCHR) \u2013 Mr. V\u00f5 Tr\u1ea7n Nh\u1eadt, Executive Secretary of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) described the alarming situation of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Vietnam at the Taiwan International Religious Freedom Forum (TIRFF) held in the city of Hsinchu, near Taipei, from 29th May \u2013 1st June …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":41642,"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":[137,113,98,1,64],"tags":[865,863,287,867,288],"class_list":["post-41661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-uncategorized","category-vchr","tag-aprff","tag-phan-van-thu","tag-religious-freedom-2","tag-taiwan","tag-ubcv-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41661","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=41661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"V\u00f5](\"https:\/\/queme.org\/app\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2019-0531a-tirff-vtn.jpg\")