The Degar-Montagnards people were UNPO members between 2003 and 2016. 

The Degar-Montagnards, an Indigenous group from Vietnam’s Central Highlands, have faced a long history of marginalisation, land dispossession, and cultural suppression. Traditionally reliant on communal farming and deeply connected to their ancestral lands, Montagnard communities have seen their territories steadily encroached upon by state-sponsored development, commercial agricultural, and internal migration policies. These pressures have intensified in recent decades, leading to large-scale deforestation, loss of traditional livelihoods, and forced relocation. Alongside environmental and economic challenges, Montaganrds—many of whom converted to Christianity during the colonial and post-colonial periods—have experienced severe restrictions on religious freedom, including the arrest of pastors, surveillance of unregistered churches, and pressure to renounce their faith. Reports of arbitrary detention, torture, and travel bans continue to surface, especially targeting those advocating for Indigenous rights or land restitution. 

The Vietnamese government’s refusal to recognise the distinct identity and land rights of the Degar-Montagnard peoples have compounded these challenges, limiting access to education in native languages and eroding traditional governance systems. In response, the Montagnard Foundation, Inc. (MFI) has served as a key platform for advocacy, documenting human rights abuses and promoting international awareness of the Montagnard cause. Through its engagement with the UNPO, MFI brought global attention to the systemic violations facing the Degar-Montagnards, calling for the protection of their cultural heritage, religious freedom, and the recognition of their right to self-determination within Vietnam.

The Montagnards refer to the diverse Indigenous ethnic groups living in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, including the Jarai, Ede, Bahnar, Koho, and over two dozen others. Each group has its own language, customs, and spiritual beliefs, but many share cultural characteristics such as animist cosmologies, oral storytelling traditions, communal longhouse living, and subsistence agriculture, particularly slash-and-burn (swidden) farming. Montagnard identity is deeply rooted in a connection to ancestral land, with forests and mountains playing central roles in both practical subsistence and spiritual life. Social structures are often clan-based, and in some groups like the Ede and Jarai, matrilineal kinship systems dominate, which is rare in Vietnam. Cultural expression is also reflected in their music, textiles, and communal festivals, which reinforce social bonds and intergenerational continuity. 

The Degar people, more widely known by the French colonial term “Montagnards” (meaning “mountain people”), are the Indigenous inhabitants of Vietnam’s Central Highlands and have a rich yet troubled history marked by marginalisation, resistance, and survival. Comprising over thirty distinct ethnic groups, the Degar have inhabited the highland regions of present-day Vietnam for centuries, long before the formation of the modern Vietnamese state. Traditionally animist, with strong spiritual ties to their ancestral lands and natural surroundings, these communities lived in self-sustaining village societies, relying on slash-and-burn agriculture, communal landholding, and deeply rooted oral traditions. Their remote location and distinct cultures largely kept them outside the reach of lowland Vietnamese authority until the 19th and 20th centuries. 

The arrival of French colonial rule in the late 19th century marked a turning point in the Degar’s historical trajectory. The French administration, seeking to consolidate control over Indochina, viewed the Central Highlands as both a strategic buffer and a source of untapped natural resources. They labeled the Indigenous highlanders “Montagnards” and incorporated them into the colonial framework through indirect rule, missionary activity, and limited development projects. French Catholic and Protestant missionaries were particularly active in the region, converting many Degars to Christianity—a religious transformation that would later become a source of tension with the communist state. Importantly, the French never fully integrated the Degar into Vietnamese society, reinforcing their distinct identity and further deepening the cultural divide between the highland and lowland populations. 

During the Vietnam War, the Degar found themselves caught between two powerful forces: the communist North Vietnamese and the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese and American military. Many Degar allied with the United States and South Vietnamese forces, motivated both by opposition to communist rule and by long-standing grievances against the Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese) majority, who they saw as historical oppressors. In the aftermath of the war, the Degar were branded as traitors by the new regime. The Vietnamese government launched aggressive campaigns to pacify the Central Highlands, including confiscating ancestral lands, relocating Degar communities, and suppressing Indigenous languages and traditions. These policies, aimed at assimilating the Degar into the dominant Kinh culture, led to widespread poverty, alienation, and resistance. Uprisings and protests throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s were met with harsh crackdowns, prompting thousands of Degar to flee across the border into Cambodia, and from there, seek asylum in countries like the United States. In exile, Degar diaspora communities have become active advocates for Indigenous and religious rights in Vietnam, though their efforts often receive limited international attention.