On November 18, 2016, Vietnam’s 14th National Assembly adopted the Law on Belief and Religion, which requires religious groups to register with the government, a violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Although the law does not come into effect until January 1, 2018, the Vietnamese government has already begun imposing restrictions on religious groups.

In October 2016, several civil society organizations signed a public joint letter to the President of Vietnam’s National Assembly on Law and Religion, calling for changes to the bill’s restrictions, and vague language that does not clarify how non-registered religious groups will be treated under its authority. A signatory of the letter, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), a democratic Vietnamese non-profit organization, has also denounced the law in a recent statement. According to the VCHR, it can be used to increase state repression against religious groups, like the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, that are either banned or refrain from state registration. World Watch Monitor, a global faith based human rights organization, has stated that the Vietnam government “maintains restrictive and controlling managerial policies, especially towards religions that are feared to have political influence.”