Assembly Concurrent Resolution
No. 23
CHAPTER 70
Relative to religious freedom in Vietnam.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
June 27, 2001.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 23, Maddox.
Vietnam: religious freedom.
This measure would express the support of the Legislature for religious freedom for the people of Vietnam.
Digest Key
WHEREAS, The United States Department of State and international human rights organizations have reported that the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam continues to restrict unregistered religious activities and persecutes citizens on the basis of their religious affiliation through arbitrary arrests and detention, harassment, physical abuse, censorship, and the denial of the right of free association and religious worship; and
WHEREAS, The United States Department of State’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 2000 on Vietnam estimates that there are more than 30 religious detainees and religious prisoners but that the number is difficult to verify with any precision because of the secrecy surrounding the arrest, detention, and release process; and
WHEREAS, The Vietnam government’s tactics include confiscation of church property, imprisonment of clerics and followers, restriction of church activities, including the right to ordain, publish written materials, or perform social services functions; and
WHEREAS, The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam systematically violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in contravention of its status as a signatory to that agreement; and
WHEREAS, The Vietnamese American Interfaith Council which represents Catholics, Baptists, Buddhists, Cao Dai, and Hoa Hao, brought together hundreds of residents and local political and religious leaders in Westminster, California on January 6, 2001, to call for religious freedom in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; and
WHEREAS, The Vietnam government’s behavior toward religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular, was demonstrated as recently as December 2000; Father Tadeus Nguyen Van Ly and others were harassed and attacked; now therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California supports religious freedom for the people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and recommends that the United States Congress demand that the government of that country release all religious prisoners, and immediately cease the harassment, detention, physical abuse, and imprisonment of all Vietnamese citizens who have exercised their legitimate rights to freedom of belief, expression, association, and religious worship; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.