Vietnam: The rubric for religion on the Vietnamese national identity card; circumstances under which it will be marked "none"

On 11 December 2000 a professor at the Catholic University of America, who is originally from Vietnam, stated that:

In Vietnam there are by now 6 religions: Buddhism, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Islam. There are some other spiritual practices such as Confucianism, Taoism, Worship of Ancestors, and others, but these are not considered as religions, but as beliefs, in Vietnam. Therefore, "none" religion may refer to one of these spiritual practices, but not to one of 6 recognized religions.

If the bearer of the religion line is Buddhist, his or her religion identity can not be "none". It must be Buddhist.

However, on 15 December 2000 a Southeast Asia specialist at Human Rights Advocates International, Inc. in New York stated that:

It is entirely possible that, although Buddhism is officially recognized, a Buddhist with affiliations to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) will not be recognized as having an official state religion. Under these circumstances, his identity card could bear the notation "none" on the line for religion.

According to the entry for Vietnam in the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2000:

The Government requires religious groups to register and uses this process to control and monitor church organizations. The Government recognizes six official religious bodies: One each for Buddhist, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Muslim believers. (5 Sept. 2000)

The Annual Report also stated that:

The Government used the lack of official recognition of several groups as a pretext to harass some believers, in particular certain groups of Buddhists, as well as Protestants, and Hoa Hao, who lack legal sanction. ... In particular local officials harass a significant minority of religious believers because they operate without legal sanction. Since 1981 leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) have requested repeatedly that their church be granted official recognition, but their requests continue to be rejected in large part because of the strong criticism of the Communist Party by UBCV leaders and their call for democracy and improved conditions of human rights in Vietnam. UBCV leaders continue to be harassed, and their rights severely restricted by the Government. In early 2000, leaders of several churches belonging to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECV) (the Protestant Tin Lanh churches) in the southern region engaged in quiet discussions with the Government on official recognition of their congregations. These discussions, although stalled at mid-year, were expected to lead eventually to official recognition of the roughly 300 ECV churches throughout the country. In early 2000, several leaders of the Hoa Hao community, including several pre-1975 leaders, openly criticized the Government's 1999 recognition of an official Hoa Hao organization; they claimed that the official group is subservient to the Government and demanded official recognition of their own leadership instead. The Government neither acknowledged the claims of these Hoa Hao believers nor permitted their independent activities. (ibid.)

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2000 . 5 September 2000. United States Department of State. Washington, DC. [Accessed 20 Dec. 2000]

Professor, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. 11 December 2000. Correspondence.

Specialist on Southeast Asia, Human Rights Advocates International, New York. 15 December 2000. Correspondence.