Report Highlights Human Rights Abuses in Vietnam
By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service jeremyreynalds@gmail.com
VIETNAM (ANS. FEB. 6 2015)
Twenty-four independent Vietnamese civil society organizations (CSOs),
have co-signed a report drawing attention to human rights abuses in
Vietnam in 2014, including violations against the right to freedom of
religion or belief.
According to a news release by
human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the
report aims to alert the UN Human Rights Council, the European External
Action Service, foreign embassies in Vietnam and various members of the
international community to “the blatant, illegal and systematic
crackdowns on human rights defenders and dissidents” in Vietnam.
In particular, the report claims that there are at least 105 prisoners of conscience currently detained in the country.
CSW said it welcomes this
report, which includes information on the attacks on the Mennonite
church center in Binh Duong Province reported on by CSW from June to
Nov. 2014.
The CSOs' report also covers
the prohibition of worship and religious gatherings, the beating of
religious clerks, monks and believers, and the demolition of religious
facilities.
CSW said it shares the
authors’ concern that about the use of the charge of “carrying out
activities aimed at overthrowing the people's administration” (Article
79 of the penal code) to suppress peaceful religious activists.
The report's signatories
include Protestant, Hoa Hao Buddhist, Cao Dao, and Buddhist
faith-based organizations, as well as several other groups which promote
the rights of religious minorities.
This reflects CSW's
observation that religious leaders and lay people in Vietnam are “at the
forefront of the struggle to promote human rights and rule of law …
becoming, even as the government clamps down on freedom of expression,
the voice of dissent.”
CSW's Chief Operating Officer
Andy Dipper said in the news release, “We welcome this report by
independent Vietnamese civil society organizations. As the report
observes, Vietnam was elected to the UN Human Rights Council in November
2013, yet over one year on, the government has yet to address the grave
human rights concerns raised in the report, including violations
against Christians and other religion or belief communities.”
He added, “We encourage
religious and other civil society organizations to continue to advocate
for religious freedom, and we urge the Vietnamese government to
immediately release prisoners of conscience, and to protect the right to
freedom of religion or belief of all religious minorities.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW) is a Christian organization working for religious freedom through
advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.
For further information, visit www.csw.org.uk.
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