{"id":41835,"date":"2019-09-18T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=41835"},"modified":"2019-09-18T14:32:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T14:32:56","slug":"hcr42-vchr-denounces-forb-violations-and-suppression-of-civil-society-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/hcr42-vchr-denounces-forb-violations-and-suppression-of-civil-society-in-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"At UN Human Rights Council: VCHR denounces religious freedom violations and suppression of civil society in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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GENEVA, 18 September 2019 (VCHR) \u2013 At the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s 42nd<\/sup> session in Geneva today, Acting Together for Human Rights<\/strong> (AEDH<\/a>) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/strong> (VCHR) denounced Vietnam\u2019s serious violations of human rights and freedom or religion or belief (FoRB), and the Hanoi government\u2019s systematic refusal to engage in a genuine dialogue with the international community and civil society to improve the abysmal human rights situation in Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their statement, the organizations recalled the words of L\u00ea H\u00f2ai Trung, Head of the Vietnamese delegation at the adoption of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in July 2019<\/a>. After VCHR and other international NGOs deplored ongoing human rights violations, Mr Trung accused them of being \u201cbiased and irresponsible.\u201d<\/em> These words should not be taken lightly. They conceal a deliberate government policy that not only holds civil society in contempt, but seeks to silence all critical voices, both inside and outside the country. \u201cIf we were in Vietnam, we would probably be in prison by now!\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, since the Vietnamese Communist Party\u2019s XII Congress in January 2016, repression against all forms of independent expression has intensified alarmingly. In September 2019, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)<\/a> ranked Vietnam the 6th<\/sup> most repressive country in the world for freedom of expression.<\/strong> Today, at least 130 identified prisoners of conscience languish in Vietnam\u2019s prisons \u2013 although the real figure is probably much higher. The crackdown on civil society continues. Just recently, on 5th<\/sup> September 2019, blogger L\u00ea V\u0103n Sinh<\/a> was sentenced to five years in prison for \u201cabusing democratic freedoms to encroach on the interests of the State\u201d<\/em> (Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code) for criticizing Vietnam\u2019s leaders on his Facebook account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government repression extends far beyond Vietnam\u2019s borders. In recent years, the Vietnamese authorities have kidnapped several dissidents in neighbouring countries, with or without the connivance of the local authorities. In January 2019, Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng Duy Nh\u1ea5t<\/a>, a reporter for Radio Free Asia, was abducted in Thailand, where he had sought asylum with the UN High Commission on Refugees. He is now imprisoned in Vietnam. The government has blocked or refused entry to international NGO leaders<\/a> invited to speak at Conferences in Vietnam, and VCHR leaders have frequently been blacklisted and banned entry to, or subjected to surveillance in ASEAN countries such as Thailand<\/a> and Indonesia following pressure from Hanoi.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuman\nrights have never been Hanoi\u2019s priority\u201d,<\/em><\/strong> said VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. \u201cOn the\ncontrary, they are perceived as a threat to the regime\u2019s survival. What is new today\nis that the Vietnamese government no longer hesitates to openly reject fundamental\nfreedoms, democracy and pluralism<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d <\/em>He explained: \u201cIn\nApril 2018, when justifying the prison sentences of up to 15 years for members\nof the Brotherhood for Democracy, the Foreign Ministry\u2019s spokeswoman explicitly\nstated that in Vietnam, advocating democracy and pluralism was synonymous with\nattempting to overthrow the government\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Vietnam\nremains opposed to all forms of genuine dialogue on human rights, be it with governments\nof international NGOs. Mr. \u00c1i recalled that in July 2019, at the adoption of\nits third UPR, Vietnam rejected many pertinent recommendations by UN member\nstates on the pretext that they used \u201ccontentious\nterms\u201d, \u201cimplying assessments that are inaccurate or alien to the reality in\nViet Nam<\/em>\u201d, or making recommendations that were \u201cimproper<\/em>\nvis-\u00e0-vis the Vietnamese people\u2019s right to\nself-determination\u201d.<\/em> These recommendations included critical subjects such\nas the misuse of \u201cnational security\u201d provisions to detain human rights\ndefenders, restrictions of freedom of expression, the Internet and the press,\nviolations of the right to freedom of religion or belief, torture, poor detention\nconditions and impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the right to freedom of religion or\nbelief (FoRB), the Vietnamese government\u2019s refusal to heed appeals by Vietnamese\nreligious bodies and the international community has had disastrous\nconsequences. The Law on Belief and Religion, which came into force in January\n2018, is totally incompatible with international law. It has become the legal\nbasis for increased repression against independent religious movements such as\nthe Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), some Protestant house churches,\nHoa Hao, Cao Dai followers and Khmer Krom Buddhists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. \u00c1i observed that the Law grants legal\npersonality only to State-registered religious groups, outlawing others and\ncriminalizing their activities. Independent religious movements are dynamic and\nvibrant actors of civil society, and they have remained strong and unwavering\nin face of wars, revolutions, repression and societal crises. Yet today, they \u201csuffer harassments, intimidation,\nsurveillance, confiscation of property, arrest and imprisonment\u201d <\/em>on account\nof their beliefs. <\/em>He called on the\nVietnamese government to heed the voices of religious movements and civil\nsociety, and work together to \u201cbuild a\njust society in Vietnam.\u201d  <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA, 18 September 2019 (VCHR) \u2013 At the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s 42nd session in Geneva today, Acting Together for Human Rights (AEDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) denounced Vietnam\u2019s serious violations of human rights and freedom or religion or belief (FoRB), and the Hanoi government\u2019s systematic refusal to engage in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":41832,"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":[137,113,98,64],"tags":[250,931,288,251],"class_list":["post-41835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-aedh","tag-thailand","tag-ubcv-2","tag-upr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41835","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=41835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}