Kaleum Wangkae Village, Xonboury District, Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR | Human Rights Watcher for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) | Advocacy Alert No. 01/2024 | March 16, 2024
About 10:30 a.m. on February 4, 2024, the Lao village government officials destroyed a house of Christian believers, also used as a house of worship, and burned bibles in Kaleum Wangkae village, Xonboury district, Savannakhet province. These village eleven government officials comprised village chief and officials from village security and village Lao Front for National Construction.
The Christians themselves later rebuilt the house that was destroyed and now have continued to gather there for worship despite the ongoing threats from the officials that their rebuilt house, also used as their house of worship, will again be destroyed if they still continue gathering in it for worship. In addition, the authorities have banned Christians from nearby villages from joining Christians in Kaleum Wangkae for worship gathering and manifesting their religious beliefs.
The Lao Constitution, article 30, recognizes the RIGHT and FREEDOM of the Lao citizens “to believe or not to believe in religions.”
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief.”
The UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), article 18 (para. 1), specifies: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of his choice.”
The UN Declaration of the General Assembly, 1981, article 1 (para. 1), demands: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have a religion or whatever belief of his choice.”
The UN Human Rights Committee, general comment 22, explains: “Article 18 does not permit any limitations whatsoever on the freedom of thought and conscience or the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice [para. 1]…the Committee observes that the freedom to “have or to
adopt” a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one’s current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views, as well as the right to retain one’s religion or belief [para. 5].”
The Lao government is a party to all the agreements/declarations above.
The right to have, adopt, change, or replace religion or belief is an “absolute” right not to be subjected to any restriction, and limitations cannot be allowed, even for maintaining public order. In addition
to the Lao government’s duty to respect every Lao person’s “absolute” right to have, adopt, change, or replace religion or belief, they are also obligated to prevent any religious right violation from non-government, or private, actors.
The Lao government is duty-bound to protect the Lao villagers who have adopted, changed, or replaced their former religion or belief with the new Christian faith. They are obligated to protect the Lao Christian believers from acts of aggression from government officials or other villagers based on their decision to have or adopt the Christian religion or belief.
Furthermore, article 2 (para. 3 [a]), ICCPR provides that States should “ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”
The HRWLRF urges the Lao government to respect the Lao Constitution and the Lao government-ratified UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and fulfill their duties as follows:
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To respect the freedom of religion or belief of the Lao Christians in Kaleum Wangkae village, Xonboury district, Savannakhet province, to their adoption and practice of the Christian religion or belief,
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To protect the Kaleum Wangkae Christians from all acts of aggression from the village authorities, including the destruction of their house and a place of worship,
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To investigate this incident of human rights violation per ICCPR, article 18 (para. 1),
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To punish the village authorities responsible for the acts of aggression against this Lao Christian family,
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To ensure effective remedy whereby the local officials’ human rights violations and discrimations with regard to freedom of religion or belief in Kaleum Wangkae are ceased and the damage to Christians is compensated, and
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To promote the freedom of religion or belief for all the people in in Kaleum Wangkae village and throughout Xonboury district.
Additionally, the HRWLRF is calling upon the UN Human Rights Committee, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to hold the government of Lao PDR accountable for their violations and compliance according to the Declaration, Covenant, and Guidelines referenced above.