Socialist Republic of Vietnam

On Jan. 18, Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh answered question from Radio Voice of Vietnam: Please provide Vietnam's reaction to a report on human rights record in Vietnam in 2001 released by the Human Rights Watch which says that Vietnam suffered some backlash on human rights, especially in freedom of religion.

Answer:

We reject groundless and untruthful assessments by the Human Rights Watch.

It is necessary to add that, recently, this group has always chimed in with fabrications and slanders against Vietnam by anti-Vietnam reactionary forces overseas. Given such acts, this group is blackening itself.

A nation that waged an extremely arduous struggle to regain most fundamental human rights, namely the right to live in independence, freedom, and self-determination shall never disrespect most fundamental human rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of press and the right to adhere to or not adhere to a religion. These rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and respected in practice.

Great achievements in socio-economic development, improvement of material and spiritual life of the people, gradual formulation and further development of the legal system for all citizens in civilian, political, economic, cultural and social fields demonstrate that the State has been doing its utmost to gradually realize and develop human rights. These achievements have been recognized and highly appreciated by the international community.

In Vietnam, nobody is imprisoned for expressing political views or on religious grounds. Only convicted criminals are detained. All nations have their own legal provisions to prevent extremist actions by some individuals which go against the common aspiration of the people. All violations of law must be punished by law. That is a category of a state ruled by law.

Vietnam is a multi-religious nation with about 20 million religious followers, accounting for one third of the population. Article 70 in the current Constitution of Vietnam stipulates: "citizens have a right to adhere to or not to adhere to a religion", "places of worship of religions are protected by law" and "no one shall infringe upon religious freedom". These provisions are guaranteed by a series of specific laws and policies, as well as the policy of broad national unity between religious and non-religious people in order to mobilize all Vietnamese people from all walks of life for the cause of realizing the "prosperous people, strong country, equitable, democratic and civilized society" objective.

We are confident that fabrications of this group as well as those still nurturing hatred toward Vietnam can not convince anybody.