Bangkok--10 Oct--ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
Legislators from across Southeast Asia today added their voice to calls for the Vietnamese Parliament to reject a draft of a proposed Law on Belief and Religion until it is brought into line with international human rights standards.
"Across Southeast Asia we are seeing the passing of repressive laws that seek to place into law restrictions on our citizens' human rights and freedoms," said Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament and Chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
" The importance for laws that promote tolerance and uphold the rights to religious freedom, and, inversely, the need for legislation that tackles the dangers of hate speech and discrimination, cannot be understated at this time in our region. With certain constituents and groups seeking to stoke and manipulate ethnic, social and religious divides, our focus has never been more needed on ensuring we, as legislators, use our positions to promote tolerance and religious freedom."
In an open letter to National Assembly President Nguyen Kim Ngân, APHR and civil society groups from across the region gave recognition to improvements to the proposed Law on Belief and Religion in Vietnam from an earlier seen draft, but expressed their concerns that it continued to place unacceptable restrictions on the right to freedom of religion or belief and other human rights.
The draft law, which has been revised several times and drawn strong criticism from many religious communities, is expected to be voted into law by the National Assembly at its session in October-November 2016.
"Basic guarantees of the right to freedom of religion or belief continue to be undermined by onerous registration requirements and excessive state interference in religious organizations' internal affairs," the letter reads.
"Indeed, this and the previous versions of the law inherit from previous rules and regulations this emphasis on government control and management of religious life which is contrary to the spirit and principle of the right to freedom of religion and belief."
Key requests to the Vietnamese Parliament include: 1) that the definition of a religion should be made consistent with Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); 2) registration with the government should not be made a pre-requisite for the exercise of freedom of religion and belief; 3) the law must not allow officials to arbitrarily interfere in the internal affairs of religious organizations; 4) ambiguous and potentially discriminatory language should be removed; and 5) Provisions should be made to establish legal channels and mechanisms for people to file complaints, and have those complaints independently investigated and acted on, in cases of alleged violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
The letter does however, note welcome improvements to the draft law, including provisions for the right to change one's religion, as well as to follow or not follow a religion, the right of some detainees "to use religious books and manifest their belief or religion", and the right of religious organizations to participate in activities such as education, vocational training, medical care and social and humanitarian assistance.
"For these reasons, we strongly urge that the law be revised, in consultation with religious community representatives, including those of non-recognized religious communities, and experts in international human rights law, to ensure that the law protects the right to freedom of religion or belief in line with article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," the letter reads.
The full letter can be downloaded here: Open Letter to the President of the Vietnam National Assembly