Violations of
religious freedom in Vietnam denounced at a Hearing in the European Parliament
Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
27-5-2011
BRUSSELS, 27 May 2011
(VIETNAM COMMITTEE) - Speaking at a
Hearing
on
Freedom of Religion or Belief
at the
European Parliament’s
Subcommittee on Human Rights
in Brussels on Thursday, 26 May, Ms.
Penelope Faulkner,
Vice-President of Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam and the Vietnam
Committee for Human Rights presented a global overview of violations of
religious freedom and urged the European Union to place freedom of religion and
belief high on its external policy agenda.
Ms. Faulkner spoke on behalf of the
European Platform on Religious Intolerance and
Discrimination (EPRID), along with Ms.
Sarah Vader
of the Bahá’í International Community. EPRID is a network of civil society
organisations and religious bodies working in the EU to ensure that religious
intolerance and discrimination are addressed within EU policy and activities.
Dr. Heiner Bielefelt,
the United Nations’ Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief
was a keynote speaker. He explained the challenges faced under his mandate,
which takes place in a climate of growing intolerance. Mr
Charles-Michel Geurts
from the European External Action Service (EEAS) presented the EU’s policies.
The Hearing was presided by MEP
Heidi Hautala, Chair of the EP Subcommittee
on Human Rights.
Describing religious freedom abuses in a wide range of
religious and geographical contexts over the past year, Ms. Faulkner noted the
systematic repression of the Bahá’í in Iran, Coptic Christians in Egypt,
Ahmadiyya Muslims in Indonesia and Pakistan, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims,
house church Christians and Falun Gong practitioners in China, as well as
sectarian violence in Nigeria and state-endorsed tightening of religious freedom
in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan following the Spring revolutions in
the Middle East.
Although Buddhism is a philosophy of tolerance and peace, she
said, “Buddhists in many parts of
Asia suffer repression and discrimination for their non-violent beliefs. In
Vietnam,
the government has banned the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV),
Vietnam’s largest and oldest religious community and supplanted it with a
State-sponsored body under Communist Party control. UBCV monks and nuns are
systematically detained, intimidated and harassed, and Buddhists who frequent
UBCV pagodas risk grave reprisals”.
Ms. Faulkner told the EP that
“just a few days ago, during the celebrations
of the Vesak (Anniversary of Buddha’s Birth), the government launched a
widespread crack-down on UBCV pagodas, impeding celebrations and harassing UBCV
followers”. Police prohibited Buddhists at the
Giac Minh Pagoda in Danang from reading out the Vesak message by UBCV leader
Thich Quang Do, the UBCV leader and Nobel Peace prize nominee, who remains under
house arrest in Saigon after almost three decades in detention for his peaceful
advocacy of religious freedom and human rights.
Ms. Faulkner also expressed concern about violations of
religious freedom against other religious communities in Vietnam. She recalled
that armed forces brutally suppressed peaceful demonstrations of H’mong
Christians calling for religious freedom and land reforms in the northern
province of Dien Bien in May 2011, killing at least 18 people and wounding
hundreds, including many children. She also deplored the continued detention of
at least 300 Christian Montagnards from the Central Highlands under harsh prison
sentences for staging demonstrations to protest religious persecution and state
seizure of lands.
According to the Chair of the EP Subcommittee on Human
Rights, MEP Heidi Hautala, the Hearing was motivated by
“Parliament’s concerns about discrimination
based on religion or belief that still exists in all regions of the world”.
On 21 February 2011, the Council of the European Union adopted a Resolution
expressing the Council’s
“profound concern about the increasing number of acts of religious intolerance
and discrimination, as epitomized by recent violence and acts of terrorism”
and affirming that “freedom
of religion is a universal human right which needs to be protected everywhere
and for everyone. (…) All persons belonging to religious communities and
minorities should be able to practice their religion and worship freely,
individually or in community with others, without fear of intolerance or
attacks”.