Montagnard Prisoners of Conscience
Hundreds of Montagnards have been unjustly imprisoned for simply exercising their rights to peaceful dissent and independent worship. Close to 90 Montagnards are currently imprisoned or have been placed under post-release probationary restrictions that severely restrict their civil rights.
For a listing of Montagnard prisoners of conscience, please click here.
For a listing of Montagnard prisoners of conscience, please click here.
Join the Global Campaign to Free Y Pum Bya
The International Religious Freedom Summit has launched a Global Campaign for the Release of Religious Prisoners of Conscience from around the world, including three from Vietnam.
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Report: Montagnards Targeted for Persecution
Montagnards who worship in independent house churches or resist confiscation of their land face beatings, pressure to recant their faith, arrest and imprisonment.
According to a report by CAT-VN and the Montagnard Human Rights Organization, Vietnamese authorities continue to target indigenous minority Christians known as Montagnards for harsh persecution. Singled out are Montagnard Christians who worship in independent house churches, rather than affiliating with state-authorized religious organizations. Government officials routinely force Montagnard Christians to publicly recant their religion; those who continue to worship in independent house churches face beatings, arrest, and imprisonment.
Montagnards who resist confiscation of their ancestral lands are subjected to beatings and arrest by police. Internet use by Montagnards is closely monitored by the Ministry of Public Security, which launched an operation in 2014 to prevent Montagnards from accessing or sharing “anti-government” material on the internet. Montagnards who use the internet to communicate with Montagnard activists abroad are subject to interrogation, arrest, or being forced to confess their wrongdoings in public meetings broadcast on state television. Hundreds of Montagnard Christians have been imprisoned during the last 20 years, with at least 87 Montagnards currently serving long prison sentences or post-release restrictions on their civil rights for simply exercising their rights to peaceful dissent and independent worship. The result of Vietnam’s harsh persecution of Montagnard Christians has been a flow of refugees to Cambodia and Thailand. CAT-VN calls on Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all persons arbitrarily detained, imprisoned or placed under house arrest for peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and religion and belief. We also urge the United States to designate Vietnam as a country of particular concern (CPC) for its systematic, egregious and ongoing violations of religious freedom. We recommend that the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom apply sanctions against individual perpetrators of human rights violations in Vietnam under the Magnitsky laws of those countries. “We Montagnards are treated like enemies in our homeland. If we try to practice our religion independently or resist confiscation of our land, we are accused of being ‘spies’ or wanting to overthrow the government.” 
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