Which Ministry is in charge of State management of beliefs and religions?

There are still concerns about which agency the Law should assign to manage the State on beliefs and religions.

Presenting a report on a number of issues seeking opinions from the National Assembly Standing Committee on the explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft Law on Belief and Religion, on the afternoon of September 19, mentioning the content related to the state management agency on belief and religion, Mr. Phan Thanh Binh - Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Youth, Adolescents and Children (VH-GD-TN-TN-ND) said that the majority of delegates believe that the state management of belief and religion is currently fragmented and proposes to stipulate in the Law the agency with the function of state management of belief and religion at the central level to ensure unity and convenience in management in this field.

Mr. Phan Thanh Binh - Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Youth, Adolescents and Children presented the inspection report.

Currently, according to the Government's assignment, the Ministry of Home Affairs performs the function of state management of religion; the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism performs the management of religious festivals; there is no agency that performs state management of religion.

The assignment of the state management function of religion to the Ministry of Home Affairs is not really appropriate, because it is only based on the approach from the perspective of organizational management without paying attention to ensuring religious activities as cultural and spiritual activities. Therefore, state management of religious activities in practice is still scattered, unsynchronized and ineffective.

Therefore, many opinions suggest that there must be a suitable state agency responsible to the Government for state management of beliefs and religions to ensure unity and convenience in management of this field.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Phan Thanh Binh said that there are still many different opinions. The first type of opinion suggests that there should be an independent state management agency for beliefs and religions to properly reflect the complexity and importance of the field of beliefs and religions in today's social life.

The second type of opinion suggests that when it is not possible to arrange, it should be kept as it is.

The third type of opinion suggests assigning the state management function in the field of beliefs and religions to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to unify management and ensure belief and religious activities as cultural and spiritual activities.

Mr. Phan Thanh Binh said that the Standing Committee of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children said that at the first session, the 14th National Assembly considered and decided on the organizational structure of the Government for the 2016-2021 term, so the provisions in the Law on independent state management agencies need to be carefully and thoroughly considered.

The current draft Law assigns the Government to specify in detail the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the state management agency on beliefs and religions.

Commenting on this content, Chairwoman of the Judicial Committee Le Thi Nga emphasized that in practice it is still not suitable and lacks consistency, but the examining agency gave 3 types of opinions and finally assigned the Government to regulate, which is similar to some controversial issues for many years related to authority.

Ms. Nga believes that we must carefully analyze the advantages and disadvantages of these three types of opinions. If reality shows that management is still fragmented and ineffective, the Government must have a clear viewpoint, and any assigned Ministry must do well to avoid making laws and then continuing to manage the State ineffectively.

Analyzing the basis for assigning management to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as before, it is reasonable and requires coordination between agencies, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu said that anything that has not created unity and has not been more realistic should be kept as it is./.

According to VOV