Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694879006973.pdf (Australia)
UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION The Government of Vietnam and its assurance of freedom of religions and belief I.

Situation of religions Vietnam is a multi-religion country.

At present, about 95% of the Vietnamese population has a religious life, including more than 24 million religion followers (about 27% of the total population); 83,000 religious dignitaries/leaders and 28,000 places of worship.
There are over 12 million Buddhists; 6.7 Catholics; 2.5 million Cao Dai followers; 1.5 million Protestants followers; 80 thousand Muslims; 1.5 million “Pureland Buddhist Home Association” followers; over 1.3 million “Hòa Hảo Buddhists; 60,000 “Four debts of Gratitude Religion” followers; 57,000 Hindu followers; about 15,000 “Strange Perfume from Precious Mountains Religion” followers; about 11,000 “Minh Sư Faith” followers; and about 1,000 “Minh Lý Faith” followers.
There are 40 religious organisations, belonging to 15 recognised and registered religions, which include the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam; Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam; ten Protestant Sects and organisations; Hoa Hao Sangha; 10 Cao Dai sects and organisations and one religious teaching centre; six Islamic organisations; two Cham Hindu organisations; Representative Board of Vietnam Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church); Four Debts of Gratitude Religion organisations; one Pureland Buddhist Home Association; one Baha’i faith of Viet Nam organisation; one Minh Su Faith organisation; one Minh Ly Faith organisation; and one Strange Perfume From Precious Mountains organisation.
Religious followers who are ethnic minority people, especially in remote areas always receive support and agreement from local government for their religious activities provided that those activities are in line with provisions of law.

For the Khmer community in the south west, the Government agreed for the establishment of the Khmer Theravada Buddhism Institute in Can Tho.
For the Cham community following Islamism and the Hinduism followers in the south-central region, the Government recognised the Representative Boards of Islam and Hindu communities in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces respectively.
The Government has approved the establishment of 53 training centres at intermediate and graduate levels to meet the training needs of all religions, of which there are 13 graduate centres including four Buddhist institutions; seven Catholic seminaries; one Catholic institution; and one Protestant biblical theology institution.

In addition, there are 40 intermediate and college training centres.

About 13,000 clergies are studying at those religious dignitary training centres.
1,000 religious dignitaries have pursued Masters or Doctorates abroad, of which there have been nearly 700 Buddhist dignitaries.

II.

Assurance of freedom of religions and belief In 1986, Vietnam started the renovation period in all socio-economic aspects.

This revolution has resulted in poverty elimination, with the lives of people improved significantly, Vietnam’s position has been increasingly realised over the world.
Keeping pace with the development of the country, the Government has made profound and comprehensive changes to socio- economic policies in general and to religious policies in particular.

1.

View of Vietnamese government on religions and beliefs - Freedom of religion and belief is a basic human right.
This has been obviously seen in the first rank of the right of freedom to religions and beliefs in the legal document Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION system, it was clearly enshrined in foundational law – that is the Constitution (Article 24, Chapter II, 2013 Constitution).
- Vietnamese Government has constantly improved the policies, mechanisms and legislation on religion so citizens can best practice their right of freedom of religion and belief.
- Religious followers are a part of the unified nation, the government encourages solidarity between different religions, between people with and without religions, people have the right to religious activities in accordance with the law, the government seriously prohibits any infringement of freedom of religion and belief of citizens.

2.
2.

Legal documents on religions and beliefs since 1986 During the period of opening for international integration, all legal documents in general, and legal documents on religion and belief in particular, have shown the innovative policies of the Vietnamese government that are in line with its commitments in international treaties and conventions to which Vietnam is a party.
The Vietnamese government has promulgated the following legal documents on religion and belief : Constitutions Article 70, 1992 Constitutions affirms : Citizens have the right to follow or not follow religions and beliefs.

All religions are equally positioned in law.

All religious places of worship are protected by law.

No one is allowed to infringe freedom to religion and belief or abuse religion and belief to violate the laws and policies of the government.
On 28 November 2013 the National Assembly ratified the amended 1992 Constitution.

The 2013 Constitution issued many amended contents to previous constitutions including 1992 Constitution, in which it confirmed that the right to freedom of religion and belief is one of the human rights protected by the Government.

Article 24 of the 2013 Constitution states : 1.

Everybody has the right to follow or not follow religions and beliefs, all religions are equally positioned in law.

2.
2.

The Government respects and protects the right to freedom of religion and belief.

3.

Nobody is allowed to infringe freedom of religion or belief or abuse religions and beliefs to violate the laws and policies of the government.

3.

Developing the Law on Religion and Belief - Expanding the range of subjects of the right to freedom of religion and belief from “citizens” to “everybody” which accurately shows that right to freedom of religion and belief is a human right.
- Religious activities are a need of everybody, therefore the registration for religious activities cannot be considered as a condition for the recognition of a religious organisation, thus the whole recognition process is reduced from 23 years (according to regulations of the Ordinance on Religions and Beliefs) to 5 years.

- Many regulations in the law have been changed from “register-license” or “propose- accept” to “notify”.
Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION These new contents aim at giving favorable conditions for individuals and organisations to implement religious activities, ensuring the right to freedom of religion and belief of everyone, these contents also show the government’s respect towards the internal issues of religious organisations.
- Supplementing a regulation on legal status of a religious organisation, an affiliated religious organisation : “a religious organisation is a non-commercial legal entity since being recognised by an authorised governmental body”.
Regulation on the legal entity status of a religious organisation is a new and important component of the Law which aims at clear identification of legal existence of a religious organisation, in order to ensure the rights and obligations of a religious organisation when it enters legal relations.

- Adjusting the approval authority of major religious activities such as opening a training centre; ordaining a title or position; organising a conference or religious congress.
This adjustment will help ease the implementation of administrative procedures in shorter time for religious organisations.

- Supplementing regulations on social activities of religious organisations, in order to promote different roles for religions, especially in the field of social activities.
Thanks to these regulations, social activities have been expanded in accordance with related laws so religious organisations can actively participate, with medical support and charity activities particularly encouraged.
- Supplementing some regulations relating to religious activities of foreigners in - Vietnam : a foreigner who resides legally in Vietnam is allowed to lead a religious life at a religious establishment; to be ordained a title, position; to join in public religious activities with other Vietnamese people or to have their own religious activities at a religious establishment or other legitimate locations in Vietnam, to invite a dignitary or a clergy – either foreign or Vietnamese – to preach.
In order to ensure a full set of legal tools to implement effectively the state’s management of religions, at the same time to ensure the rights of raising issues, recommendations and denouncement of religious individuals and organisations, Law on Religions and Beliefs also includes regulations on inspection of religions, claim and denouncement responses, dealing with violations on religions and beliefs and some sanctions.

4.
Recognition of religious organisations in accordance with laws Since the implementation of the Ordinance on Religion and Beliefs (2005), government authorities have recognised or given registration licenses to 22 religious organisations, of which there are 7 new religions (Baha’i, Four Debts of Gratitude, Strange Perfume from Precious Mountains, Pureland Buddhist Home Association of Vietnam, Minh Su Faith, Minh Ly Faith, Hinduism), and registration licenses for religious activities to Pentecostal Evangelical Churches of Vietnam.
In 2016 the Vietnamese Government recognised the official representative board of Vietnam’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), announced the registration certificate of religious activities of Hiếu nghĩa tà lơn Buddhism.

Before that, the Government recognised 16 religious organisations, belonging to 6 religions (Buddhism, Catholicism, Cao Daism, Protestantism, Islam and Hoa Hao Buddhism).
Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION 5. International activities of religious individuals and organisations increases quickly International activities of religious individuals and organisations in Vietnam are increasingly guaranteed and encouraged by the government.
Every year hundreds of Vietnam religious dignitaries emigrate to participate in religious activities and trainings overseas and hundreds of foreign religious individuals immigrate to teach or join in religious community activities like preaching, conferences, seminars, trainings etc.
Apart from normal international religious activities within its religious organisations or interacting with other religions’ activities, Vietnamese religions participate actively in regional or international conferences and forums, eg ASEM interfaith dialogue, Asia Pacific regional inter-religious dialogue, inter-religious cooperation of non-allied movement countries, Vietnam-US human rights dialogue, Vietnam-EU human rights dialogue etc.
Many big international religious activities have been organised solemnly and successfully in Vietnam and highly appreciated by foreign counterparts such as Vesak 2008 and 2014, XI Female Buddhist Conference (2009-2010), Holy Year Inauguration of the Catholic Church in 2009, 100 year celebration of Protestantism in Vietnam (2011), X Asia Concilium (2012) etc.

These are clear evidence of freedom of religion and belief in Viet Nam.

6.
6.

Respect and guarantees for the right to religious freedom and equality for ethnic minority religious followers Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, of which 53 ethnic minorities make up 14% of the whole population.

Rights and interests of minority people are always guaranteed equally and prioritized by the government, one of which is the right to freedom of religion and belief.
- For the Cham people in some South Central provinces who follow Islam and Hinduism, local authorities recognised the representative board of the Muslim community and the representative board of the Hindu community in Ninh Thuận province and Bình Thuận provinces so the Cham people can preserve and develop the traditional religions of their communities.
In Central Highlands and Bình Phước province, there are about 500,000 Protestants, most of them are minority people, having religious activities at 200 branches and 1,300 groups – accounting for 95% of all Protestants (statistics in March 2015).

In the North West, there are about 180,000 Protestants, most of whom are ethnic minority people, of which 90% are H’mong.

The local authorities have facilitated religious activities of Protestants at home or at registered groups.
Now, most Protestant groups undertake their activities without any obstacles, of which 5 branches and 514 groups have registered (statistics in January 2017).

In the South West, nearly 1.4 million Khmer Theravada Buddhists have religious activities at about 400 pagodas, Vietnamese government supported the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha to establish the Khmer Theravada Buddhism institute in Can Tho City.

- - - 7.
- - - 7.

Land issues relating to religions - Article 4 of the Land Law 2013 states : “Land belongs to all people, with the government as the people’s representative, the government will conduct nationwide land management consistently.

The government gives land use rights to land users in accordance with this law.

Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION - Sction 4.g.
of article 10 and section 5 of article 54 of the Land Law 2013 states : land used by a religion and belief organisation is non-agricultural land.

Government gives this land to the religion and belief organisation for their use without taking land use fees.
- The Vietnamese government has no policy to solve the claims of taking back land which the government already allocated according to land policies that were issued before 01/07/1991, land allocations to religion and belief organisations have been based on real need, land planning and availability.

As a result, many land disputes relating to religions have been resolved satisfactorily, with high consensus among the whole people.
In recent years, the government at all levels has allocated large areas of land to many organisations for use for religious purpose, such as giving 15ha of land for building the La Vang Pilgrimage Centre in Quang Tri province, 10,000m2 land for building The Biblical Theology Training Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, 11,000m2 land to Dak Lak Bishop’s Palace, 2000m2 land to The Vietnam Christian Missionary Association for building their religious training centre etc.
Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185 Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or beliefSubmission 185