USCIRF Issues New Report On Vietnam Religious Freedom Concerns

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday released a 32-page report on religious freedom in Vietnam (full text). The report, which includes findings from USCIRF's 2007 trip to Vietnam, concludes that "religious freedom conditions in Vietnam continue to be mixed, with improvements for some religious communities but not for others; progress in some provinces but not in others; reforms of laws at the national level that are not fully implemented or are ignored at the local level; and still too many abuses of and restrictions on religious freedom affecting most of Vietnam's diverse religious communities." The Commission calls on the State Department to re-designate Vietnam a "country of particular concern" under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. From 2004 to November 2006, Vietnam had carried the CPC designation; however it was removed in 2006 just before President Bush visited the country for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. (See prior posting.)