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The Law on Belief and Religion (2018)

The case in law Reference 14 views 4 min read Back

Vietnam’s Law on Belief and Religion came into force on January 1, 2018. It makes worship lawful only through a registered, state-approved organization. For Dega house churches, which have never been allowed to register as themselves, it turned an old practice into statute. The UN Human Rights Committee has found that it “unduly restricts” freedom of religion.

A small highland church beside a village market — A congregation that is not registered has, under the 2018 law, no lawful way to meet. Illustration.

Passed November 18, 2016, by the National Assembly

In force January 1, 2018

Replaced the 2004 Ordinance on Belief and Religion

Implementing rules Decree 162/2017, replaced by Decree 95/2023 (in force March 2024)

Supervising body the Government Committee for Religious Affairs

What it requires

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom summarizes the core of it. Religious organizations must register their activities with local, provincial and central government and seek approval each year. They must submit the religious officials they appoint for approval. Individuals who practice, for example by attending gatherings, must do so under a registered organization. USCIRF also notes that the law’s word for belief, tín ngưỡng, covers belief in the sacred and supernatural, and leaves out thought and conscience.

Decree 95/2023, which replaced Decree 162 in March 2024, USCIRF reports, allows the central government to suspend religious groups for vaguely defined “serious infractions” and to demand their financial records.

What came before it

Instrument	Year	What it did to Dega churches
Ordinance on Belief and Religion	2004	Set up registration; the UN Special Rapporteur later criticized the “overly-broad” limitation clauses in Vietnam’s law, including the Ordinance
Prime Minister’s Instruction No. 01	2005	Conditions for Protestant registration; Human Rights Watch reports that it bans “Dega Protestantism” by name
Decree 92	2012	Barred using religion for “propaganda against the state”
Law on Belief and Religion	2016, in force 2018	Made registration and approval statutory for all religious activity
Decree 95	2023, in force 2024	Powers to suspend groups and demand finances

How it works in the highlands

There is one recognized Protestant body for the south, the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), recognized in 2001. Independent Dega congregations cannot register as themselves; the choice put to them, according to USCIRF, is to join the state-approved church or stop. Coercion to renounce faith, USCIRF reported in 2025, remains “prevalent in the Central Highlands.” Pastors of independent highland churches continue to be sentenced under the national security articles of the Penal Code; see The laws used against us and The church they closed.

What the UN has said

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, visited Vietnam in July 2014, as the new law was being planned. His visits to An Giang, Gia Lai and Kon Tum were cut short, and he reported that people he wanted to meet had been watched, warned or stopped from traveling. He said freedom of religion cannot be made dependent on administrative recognition, and urged that registration be optional. The law that passed made it compulsory.

In 2019 the UN Human Rights Committee, reviewing Vietnam under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, wrote:

“The Committee is concerned that the Law on Religion and Belief of 2016 unduly restricts the freedom of religion and belief, such as through the mandatory registration and recognition process for religious organizations and restrictions on religious activities based on vague and broadly interpreted legal provisions related to national security and social unity.”

It added that members of unregistered groups, ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples face surveillance, harassment, property destruction, forced renunciation and physical assault, “which sometimes leads to death,” and asked Vietnam to bring the law into line with Article 18 of the Covenant.

Where it stands

USCIRF reports that as of 2025 the government recognized 43 religious organizations and 16 religions, with no increase on the previous year, and it has recommended every year that the United States designate Vietnam a “country of particular concern.” See What Washington has said and What Vietnam signed.

Sources

Compiled September 2026. The law’s text is published by the Vietnamese state, which we do not link; the summaries above are USCIRF’s and the UN’s.

law on belief and religion religion registration decree 162 decree 95 ordinance 2004 instruction 01 ecvn house churches bielefeldt human rights committee uscirf iccpr article 18 law

Indigenous rights at the United Nations, and why the word matters There are two bodies of international law available to a people in our position. One protects minorities. The other protects indigenous peoples, and it is far stronger: it deals in land, consent and institutions rather than in tolerance. Which one applies to the Dega turns on a single contested word, and that is why the word is fought over so hard. Reference 39 views Read More What Vietnam signed, and what happens in the highlands Vietnam has ratified the major human rights instruments and sits as a member of the United Nations. The obligations are not disputed and they are not optional. Set against them is the record in the Central Highlands, documented by UN bodies and independent organizations. This page puts the two columns side by side. Comparison 46 views Read More What the Dega ask for Three aims, stated in 1964 and never withdrawn, pursued since 1992 by peaceful means only. Beneath them, the rights the United Nations has set out for indigenous peoples — every one of which has been taken from us — and, at the end, the four things that could be done next week by a government that wanted to. Policy 31 views Read More What the United Nations has said The Dega have been named in United Nations documents for more than thirty years — in our own submissions, in the findings of treaty bodies that examine Vietnam, and in letters from independent experts to the Vietnamese government. This page is a register of the ones we can link to, in order, with what each actually said. Reference 16 views Read More What Washington has said The United States recruited, armed and paid tens of thousands of Dega soldiers, and since 1986 has given many of their families a home. Congress has returned to the subject again and again: in hearings, in resolutions, and in reports by its own researchers. This page lists the record, so that anyone writing to their representative can cite what... Reference 14 views Read More The Evangelical Church and registration Most Dega Protestants belong to congregations the state does not recognize. The largest state-recognized Protestant church is the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), and the choice put to highland house churches for twenty-five years has been the same: join it, or be treated as “Dega Protestants,” a label the state treats as political separat... Explainer 16 views Read More