Hanoi (VNA) – The Partyand State of Vietnam have been making continuous efforts to perfect policiesand legal regulations on religion and belief.

Resolutions and directivesrecently issued by the Party have ordered the continued enhancement of protectingthe right to freedom of religion and belief for all people, improvement ofcompetent agencies and individuals’ sense of responsibility towards the task, andpromotion of the state management over religion and belief-related issues.

To better institutionalise theParty and State’s viewpoints and policies, the Government agreed in principleto amend and supplement Decree No. 162/2017/ND-CP, which was released in 2017to detail some articles and measures for enforcing the Law on Belief andReligion. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) is working to make comprehensiverevision to this decree.

Accordingly, the MoHA plansto further detail and align some articles on the law implementation with thereality while adding some measures for the enforcement.

Online religious activities area new issue in legal regulations on religion and belief. The draft reviseddecree stressed the responsibility for organising online or hybrid religious activities,and that those activities must adhere to the Constitution, the Law on Beliefand Religion and other relevant rules.

The draft also supplementedthree articles on concentrated religious practices of foreigners legally residingin Vietnam.

Talking about this issue, theMoHA said the registration for concentrated religious practices of foreignerlegally residing in Vietnam was stipulated in Article 47 of the Law on Beliefand Religion. In reality, such activities have been basically ensured by theprovincial-level People’s Committees over the past years.

Meanwhile, the ministry hasalso built the Government’s draft decree on the settlement of administrativeviolations related to belief and religion. It is seeking public feedback onthis draft.

Deputy Minister Vu ChienThang said this decree is to help institutionalise the policy on building andcompleting a law-governed socialist state; ensure that all people, includingreligious individuals and organisations, live and work in line with the Constitutionand law; and promote the consistency among legal rules on belief, religion andsettlement of administrative violations.

As religion is a sensitiveissue which has been often abused by hostile and reactionary forces to conductdistortion and sabotage, during the decree drafting process, the MoHA andrelevant ministries carried out sufficient procedures stipulated in the Law onPromulgation of Legal Documents, including collecting opinions from agencies, people,religious organisations and those licensed to hold religious activities, henoted.

The right to freedom ofreligion and belief is one of the most universal human rights stated in theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is aparty, the official said, adding that the country has ensured its legal regulations’compatibility with international law.

Aside from managing religiousand belief-related activities, the State has also created conditions for individualsand religious organisations to practice their rights in line with law, whichmatches the policy on building a law-governed state with human rightsguaranteed, according to Thang./.