Vietnam – FoRB in Full

Vietnam’s government restructuring: Streamlining or strongarming?

Posted on 27/10/202527/10/2025 by cswpress in Asia, Vietnam

In April this year the Vietnamese government formally introduced sweeping reforms during the 11th Plenum of the 13th Party Central Committee. The meeting laid the groundwork for the restructuring plan, which was later affirmed at the first Congress of the Government Party Organisation for the 2025–2030 tenure held on 13 October.

At the April plenum, Party General Secretary Tô Lâm described the reforms as part of a long-term vision for national development, stating: ‘The restructure is a strategic decision without precedent, aimed at ensuring fast, stable, and sustainable national development, and at better serving the lives of the people.’

The reforms have been hailed by officials as a bold step toward modernisation and efficiency, but behind the rhetoric of ‘streamlining’, human rights advocates warn that these changes may deepen state control, restrict freedoms further, and marginalise vulnerable communities—most of whom are ethnic and religious minorities.

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Silenced for defending the oppressed – standing up for Vietnam’s prisoners of conscience

Posted on 05/04/2023 by cswpress in Asia, Vietnam

The Communist Party of Vietnam routinely violates the civil and political rights of its people. The right to freedom of expression, opinion and speech is tightly restricted and suppressed, with little or no space for the voice of civil society. The Vietnamese government regularly imprisons individuals for human rights work including exposing corruption, offering legal assistance, organising peaceful protests, and using social media to advocate on social issues and speak out against social injustices.

Many human rights defenders risk their own safety to stand up for victims of human rights violations, including the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). Those who speak out frequently face harassment, intimidation, intrusive monitoring and even imprisonment by the Vietnamese government.

Six such activists are Nguyen Van Dai, Le Thu Ha, Nguyen Trung Ton, Nguyen Bac Truyen, Pham Van Troi and Truong Minh Duc. On 5 April 2018, they stood trial under accusations of ‘carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the government’, receiving prison sentences of between seven and 15 years.

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A gap between policy and practice: In Vietnam, many indigenous communities are forbidden to use their own language

Posted on 27/02/202302/03/2023 by cswpress in Asia, Vietnam

‘We had a Christmas celebration with banners in different languages such as Jarai [and] Ede. The authorities did not like it, so they forbade us from using the banners in our languages.’
Christian from an indigenous people group in Vietnam

Article 5 of Vietnam’s constitution states that ‘every ethnic group has the right to use its own language and system of writing, to preserve its national identity, and to promote its fine customs, habits, traditions and culture’.

And the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a party, states that persons belonging to minority groups ‘shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language’.

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Unregistered and unrecognised: the plight of Vietnam’s Duong Van Minh community

Posted on 12/12/2022 by cswpress in Asia, Vietnam

One year ago today, on 12 December 2021, hundreds of persons in medical protective suits and plainclothes, and police, some armed with shields and batons, disrupted the funeral of Duong Van Minh, the ethnic Hmong founder of an eponymous religious community in Northern Vietnam.

The authorities claimed they were there to force people to take COVID-19 tests, despite no infection having been reported in the area.

Police in Tuyen Quang province arrested and beat at least 36 people as they attempted to attend the funeral. Seven more were arrested a day later, on 13 December, when they went to protest the police action. On 15 December, police announced over loudspeakers that five more people had to surrender. These five were subsequently arrested and accused of assaulting officials.

In total, at least 48 people were arrested.

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A United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland.

Disappointments at the UN, but we must not let the challenges obscure the good that it can achieve

Posted on 25/10/2022 by cswpress in China, International Arenas, Sudan, United Nations, Vietnam

Earlier this month, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) voted to elect 14 new members to the Human Rights Council (HRC) to serve from 2023 to 2025. Among those elected were Sudan and Vietnam. The former was selected in a clean slate election, meaning that the number of candidates equaled the number of seats available, while the latter defeated Afghanistan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

The election of both of these states is deeply disappointing.

Sudan is currently led by a military leader who seized power illegally from the civilian-led transitional government in an October 2021 coup, and where the past year has been characterized by the killing and brutalising of peaceful protesters, and attempts to reverse the limited human rights gains made under the transitional government, including in relation to the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).

The Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) has led the northern part of Vietnam since 1954, and took control of the rest of the country in 1975, following the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. During that time, the VCP has repeatedly violated human rights, including FoRB and land rights, whilst routinely targeting those who request or advocate for such rights with harassment, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, physical violence and even torture.

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