The special rapporteur for religious intolerance operates under the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Reports of findings are submitted to the Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. General Assembly, and each adopts resolutions. The rapporteur first asked to visit Vietnam in 1995, and although Hanoi had indicated it would consider the request, it was slow to react, United Nations records show.
Religion is a thorny subject in communist Vietnam.
While the climate has eased in the last decade as the country embraced economic reform, religious groups still face restrictions. The Catholic church has complained that priests face travel and preaching restrictions, that there are delays in government approvals for new priests and that there are strict limits on the number of youths allowed to enter seminaries. Official unease also appeared in December when the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, a state body, banned all tourism organisations in the country from advertising an important Catholic festival due in August. Last month Communist Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, Vietnam's top leader, said that among some party members there remained religious intolerance and prejudice. But he added that to ensure national security some controls and restrictions were necessary.