The Vietnamese State consistently implements a policy of respecting and guaranteeing a citizen's right to freedom of religion and belief, and the right to follow or not follow any religion, stated the Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang on May 18.

The US Embassy wishes to cooperate with Vietnam to remove the Southeast Asian nation from the US’s special watch list on religious freedom, Ambassador Marc E. Knapper told Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang during their meeting in Hanoi on April 14.

The Law on Belief and Religion was promulgated in 2016 with many new, open regulations, creating favorable conditions for religious organizations and believers to better exercise the right to freedom of belief and religion while ensuring the effectiveness and effect of state management of belief and religion. This was affirmed by Nguyen Van Long, Chief of the Office of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs (the Ministry of Home Affairs), at a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency.

Recently, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has published one-sided and subjective information on the religious situation in Vietnam. They alleged that violations of religious freedom “continued in Vietnam”; that “the Government’s suppression” was a harsh reality facing unregistered independent religious groups; and that provisions on the right to religious freedom in Vietnam’s law were “in essence restrictions on religious freedom”, which “contravened international human rights standards”.

Discipline has become even more important in the current context as it covers the adherence to Buddhist commandments, other regulations set by the Buddha and predecessors, the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS)’s Charter, as well as the State’s laws, including the Law on Belief and Religion, Most Venerable Thich Hue Thong has affirmed.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang spoke to Vietnam News Agency about the draft of a separate decree on the sanctioning of administrative violations in the field of belief and religion, which aims to encourage organizations and individuals to respect the law and the limits when performing religious and belief activities.

Many religious organizations, and dignitaries, religious officers, clergypersons and believers in religious organizations in Vietnam have, to different extents, relationships with overseas religious organizations and persons. This article analyzes some provisions of the Law on Belief and Religion and relevant documents regarding religious activities involving foreign elements.

On December 30, 2017, the Government issued a decree clarifying some contents of the Law on Belief and Religion, which took effect on January 1, 2018, the same day with the Law.

These include the Law on Belief and Religion, social insurance policies, the Law on Foreign Trade Management, the Tourism Law and provisions on the penal liability of commercial legal persons.