Vietnam: Analysis of the 2006 internal training manual ’Concerning the task of the Protestant religion in the Northern Mountainous Region’ 01/11/2006
Executive summary
CSW has obtained from sources in Vietnam an internal religious affairs manual promulgated by the Vietnamese government’s Central Bureau of Religious Affairs, entitled, ‘Training Document: Concerning the Task of the Protestant Religion in the Northern Mountainous Region’, and dated 2006. The origin of the document shows that it concerns the core management of religion, and it is therefore a key indicator of the respect for religious freedom in central government policy.
The document develops a new ‘plan’ for dealing with the ethnic minority Protestant population across the given geographical region. Its content is somewhat ambiguous, containing both promising and deeply concerning signs, and it reflects a duality in the attitude towards both Protestantism and religious freedom. However, it ultimately aims to manage, limit and reverse the growth of Protestantism in the north-western highland region, within the context of ostensibly offering religious freedom. Central among its objectives is the aim to ‘resolutely subdue the abnormally rapid and spontaneous development of the Protestant religion in the region’.
While containing some promising language about the need for religious freedom, the document also provides an unequivocal mandate to local authorities to impose serious restrictions on religious freedom (see p. 7 below for an explanation of the major concerns). It explicitly empowers individual officials to decide about the legitimacy of Protestant congregations, with no apparent accountability. Of particularly grave concern is the specific legitimacy given to the policy of forcing Protestant adherents to renounce their faith and return to their traditional beliefs, in a clear breach of international standards on religious freedom. This represents an extreme shortcoming in Vietnam’s avowed commitment to religious freedom, and should stimulate widespread international concern.
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