HANOI'S NEW CIVIL SOCIETY LAW IN LIMBO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 002617 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL/AWH E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/12/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV ECON VM SUBJECT: HANOI'S NEW CIVIL SOCIETY LAW IN LIMBO REF: HANOI 835 HANOI 00002617 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Ambassador Michael W. Marine for reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) Summary: The GVN in late September pulled the 11th version of the draft Law on Associations (LOA) from the National Assembly's (NA) upcoming agenda. The Politburo, which has ultimate say over legislation put forward to the NA, probably is foot-dragging because it fears the law,s potential to open up society, particularly to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) it perceives as involved in the color revolutions in Eastern Europe. This tracks with several U.S.-based NGOs' recent experience: The International Republican Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, and Catholic Relief Services report that the GVN sees them as involved in those revolutions and has been slow to allow NGOs to establish programs in Vietnam. Next steps for the LOA are uncertain. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Hoang Ngoc Giao, a Fulbright scholar and law lecturer at Hanoi National University who is associated with draft legislation on the LOA, told Poloff on October 4 that the GVN asked the National Assembly's (NA) Standing Committee in late September not to consider the 11th version of the draft LOA during its sessions before and after APEC. (Note: This would have been the draft's "second reading" by the NA, which would have brought the bill to a vote. End Note.) The GVN says it wants more time to refine the law. However, Christoph Wiesner and David Milliot of the European Union Mission told Poloff some Politburo members worry about the law,s political implications. These Politburo members do not want associations to register easily because it would spur an increase in groups with legal status that do not fall under the Party's purview, they added. ¶3. (C) Giao said some GVN leaders want to delete language that would make mass political organizations under the Vietnam Fatherland Front umbrella subject to the LOA. (Note: The 11th draft LOA requires associations be transparent in how they spend money. If subject to this version of the LOA, the Party's mass political organizations would have to be transparent as well. End Note.) Representatives of the International Republican Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, and Catholic Relief Services report that the GVN remains suspicious of non-governmental organization (NGO) involvement in the color revolutions in Eastern Europe and fears that NGOs would stir up trouble in Vietnam if allowed to operate more freely. ¶4. (C) Giao said the 11th version of the LOA is not perfect, but is "acceptable given Vietnam's political situation." It is better than previous drafts because it specifies powers for central ministries and their local affiliates, as well as provincial people,s committees, in dealing with associations. This latest version also reduces the time limit ministries have to recognize an association's charter and grant permits for operation. In addition, it prohibits central and local authorities from hindering an association's establishment, although it no longer has provisions allowing an association to contest, in court, a denial of legal status. ¶5. (C) Our contacts say it is not clear whether the GVN will make major changes to this latest version of the LOA and whether the NGO and donor communities will be consulted, as they were on earlier versions (reftel). Our EU contacts (who have also been following this law's odyssey) point out that civil society is a new concept for Vietnam, and Party leaders are "feeling their way as they go." Even if the NA passed a LOA, the Prime Minister's office and line ministries could undermine the new law's liberal clauses by passing a narrower implementing decree or other "re-defining" decrees, as they have done with other controversial legislation. Comment -------------- ¶6. (C) Given that the Party wrote the first version of the LOA in 1992 and that the new NA Chairman, who also sits on the Politburo, is regarded as a hardliner, we are not surprised that the GVN pulled the 11th version of the LOA from the NA's upcoming agenda. Nonetheless, the debate that took place among NA deputies about the law last summer was significant in that some NA members refused to accept the GVN,s original draft. The principal area of disagreement at that time was the GVN's desire for line ministries to directly "manage" new associations, rather than have a purely regulatory function. It is likely that the NA's draft was unacceptable to some Politburo members because it established HANOI 00002617 002.2 OF 002 a clear separation of power between ministries and associations and, if passed, would have made these associations harder for the Party to control. MARINE