VIETNAM USCIRF–RECOMMENDED FOR COUNTRIES OF PARTICULAR CONCERN (CPC) KEY FINDINGS I n 2020, religious freedom conditions in Vietnam generally trended the same as in 2019. The government actively enforced the Law on Belief and Religion, which, as written and implemented, contravened international human rights standards and systematically violated religious freedom, particularly of independent religious groups but also of government-recognized groups. Authorities continued to actively persecute independent religious minority communities, including Protestant Hmong and Montagnard Christians, Hoa Hao Buddhists, the Unified Buddhists, Cao Dai followers, Catholics, and Falun Gong practitioners. Ethnic minority communities faced especially egregious persecution for the peaceful practice of their faith, including physical assault, banishment, detention, imprisonment, and forced renunciation of faith. An estimated 10,000 Hmong and Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands remained effectively stateless because local authorities have refused to issue household registration documents and identity cards—in many instances in retaliation for refusal to renounce their faith. During the year, central and local authorities made efforts to resettle Hmong Christians in Subdivision 179 of Dam Rong District in Lam Dong Province, but as of December implementation of this process remained incomplete. The government also continued to harass and interfere in the religious activities of independent Hoa Hao Buddhists. In March and July, local officials disrupted and prevented members of this community from conducting religious rituals and observing important religious holidays. In February, following the death of Patriarch Thich Quang Do—former leader of the independent Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV)—authorities interfered in Do’s funeral arrangements. In addition, USCIRF received a report that local officials in the Huong Tra Township of Thua Thien-Hue Province disrupted UBCV’s disaster relief work this year, claiming that it was an “illegal church.” Authorities have in recent years also harassed independent Cao Dai believers and attempted to take over their temples or forcibly “reunite” them with state-recognized ones. Local authorities continued to expropriate or destroy Catholic Church properties. In August, government-led thugs harassed and attacked members of a Benedictine monastery at Thuy Bang Commune in Thua Thien-Hue Province, forcing the monastery to relinquish its land. In Ho Chi Minh City, an ownership dispute involving a local parish school led one Catholic priest to sue the local government. During the year, authorities also detained and punished Falun Gong practitioners for practicing and distributing materials about their spiritual practice—including a school principal who was punished for practicing Falun Gong with others at his home—on the grounds that it is not a recognized religion. Reports of torture and mistreatment of religious leaders and religious freedom advocates persisted in 2020. Nguyen Bac Truyen—a Hoa Hao Buddhist advocate sentenced to 11 years in April 2018—remained imprisoned at the end of the year and is reportedly in poor health. In November, Truyen started a hunger strike protesting prison conditions, including the lack of medical care. Prison authorities in Nam Ha Province continued to refuse to provide a Bible to Catholic environmental activist Le Dinh Luong. Authorities also targeted recognized groups for harassment. For example, USCIRF received reports that during the year authorities had cited Article 34 of the Law on Belief and Religion to interfere in the election of religious officers—known as “functionaries”—of recognized religious groups, leading at least one such group to suspend its election process. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT • Designate Vietnam as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), and enter into a new binding agreement with the government, as authorized by Section 405(c) of IRFA, setting forth commitments to further improve religious freedom; • Encourage the Vietnamese government to amend the Law on Belief and Religion to conform to international standards to which Vietnam is party, including by making registration optional and not using it as a burdensome tool to control religious groups and activities; • Encourage the effort by central, provincial, and local authorities to resettle Hmong Christians in Subdivision 179, urge similar efforts for other functionally stateless ethnic minority communities in the Northern and Central Highlands, and consider providing funding to facilitate improving religious freedom conditions among those communities; and • Direct the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Vietnam to track houses of worship or KEY USCIRF RESOURCES & ACTIVITIES • Op-Ed: The Rising Cost of Religious Freedom in Vietnam (in The Hill) • Op-Ed: Hopes and Fears for Religious Freedom in Vietnam (in The Hill) • Country Update: Religious Prisoners of Conscience in Vietnam 52 U S C I R F | A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 1 religious sites of unique spiritual, cultural, or historical importance and work with Vietnamese authorities to ensure those sites receive special protection from development projects or expropriation. The U.S. Congress should: • Send delegations focused on religious freedom and related human rights to Vietnam, and specifically request to visit areas impacted by religious freedom restrictions and individual prisoners of conscience— such as Nguyen Bac Truyen—and urge authorities to release them.