Nghe An National Assembly Delegation contributes important opinions to the draft law on belief and religion

(Baonghean.vn) - Continuing the working program at the 2nd Session (14th National Assembly), on the afternoon of October 24, National Assembly deputies worked in the hall, discussing a number of contents with different opinions of the Law on Belief and Religion.

Overview of the working session

Recognizing the efforts of the drafting agency, the majority of delegates said that this is an important draft law directly related to people's spiritual life, political stability and is especially highly sensitive.

According to members of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province, the draft Law has many new and open issues, reduces the mechanism of asking and giving, and has an expansion for religions. The State guarantees the freedom of belief and religion of people who are detained, imprisoned, sentenced to prison, or awaiting execution of death sentences. Many belief and religious activities that were previously very strictly regulated, required registration, licensing, request, and approval, now only need to be notified. New establishment, separation, and merger are also more open...

Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province, talked with delegates on the sidelines of the meeting.

Going into details, Delegate Nguyen Huu Cau said that, in principle, the State must consider intervention as the most important thing to help accurately distinguish between State management and religious work. Otherwise, disputes and encroachment will occur. At the same time, it is necessary to apply the principle of "Selective Cooperation" well to calculate what State work should be assigned to religious and belief organizations, for example, where should health and education be assigned? It is necessary to thoroughly grasp the State's service orientation to resolve issues quickly and smoothly, serving the legitimate needs and interests of organizations and individuals, shortening the time to resolve work, and strictly handling State officials who harass, cause trouble and difficulties.

Delegate Nguyen Huu Cau spoke at the discussion session.

“Freedom of belief and religion can only be limited by law and such limitation is necessary for security, public order, health, social order, and protection of basic freedoms of other subjects. Accordingly, it is necessary to design well the prohibited acts stipulated in Article 5 of the draft law” - delegate Nguyen Huu Cau suggested.

According to the explanation of the delegate, in practice there are still many loopholes in the management of dignitaries and officials. This is the most important content in the State management of religion, because most of the dignitaries, officials, and followers of Vietnamese religions are very good, but there are some people who take advantage of followers and faith, causing many complicated incidents. Talking about the management of dignitaries means talking about the management of training activities, ordination, promotion, and dismissal of dignitaries. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to this issue in the Law.

Regarding the provisions of the Law, according to delegate Nguyen Huu Cau, in Article 21, the conditions for recognizing religious organizations are proposed to be reduced from 23 years to 10 years, not 5 years as in the draft. In Article 55, educational, medical, social protection activities... are proposed to be assigned to religious organizations currently participating in preschool education (other levels of education should not be assigned); similarly, regarding humanitarian medicine, it is kept the same as the 2004 law and assigned to the Government to guide on this issue...

Diep Anh - Tuan Anh