CSDI’s Purposes

Our projects have focused on:

  • providing legal assistance and consultation to individual human rights defenders and disadvantaged communities
  • Reached a large and growing viewership and readership through videos, news stories, and commentaries on youtube and Facebook pages: CFDV (154,195 views & 1,116 subscribers, VNCRP (28,000 likes & 42K followers, VAD (8.5K likes and 10K followers)  

Through BPSOS’s implementing partner, the People Serving People Foundation, we work with civil society groups to develop their capacity to become self-sufficient.

This includes but not limited to:

  • assistance with the participation of historically excluded independent CSOs from the ASEAN Civil Society Forum/ASEAN People’s Forum (ASCS/APF); 
  • creating a safe space for independent CSOs and other international organizations to discuss and advance freedom of religion or belief and other rights; 
  • offering training on human rights, civil society, and capacity building for independent CSOs and religious communities;
  •  building partnerships among independent civil society organizations and between them and the international community;
  • and supporting independent CSOs in engaging with UN mechanisms and human rights instruments.

Through CSDI Program of BPSOS

1,750+

members of some 200 persecuted communities trained on identifying and documenting rights violations

560+

core team members trained and coached for a year to serve their fellow community members

382+

incident reports submitted to different UN Special Procedures

$225k+

secured in emergency assistance for 150 at-risk human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience

20+

prisoners of conscience adopted by US members of Congress, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and International Religious

3+

lawsuits filed against the government-created Cao Dai Sect and a lawsuit filed against Vietnam Television and its subordinates in U.S. courts