Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The relationship between the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has grown substantially since the end of the trade embargo in 1994, with annual trade between the countries reaching more than $24,800,000,000 in 2012. However, the transition by the Government of Vietnam toward greater economic activity and trade, which has led to increased bilateral engagement between the United States and Vietnam, has not been matched by greater political freedom or substantial improvements in basic human rights for the people of Vietnam.
Vietnam remains an authoritarian state ruled by the Communist Party of Vietnam, which continues to deny the right of the people of Vietnam to participate in free and fair elections. According to the Department of State’s 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Vietnam’s most significant human rights problems . . . continued to be severe government restrictions on citizens’ political rights, particularly their right to change their government; increased measures to limit citizens’ civil liberties; and corruption in the judicial system and police .
The Country Reports also state that the Government of Vietnam increasingly limited freedoms of speech and press and suppressed dissent; further restricted Internet freedom; reportedly continued to be involved in attacks against Web sites containing criticism; maintained spying on dissident bloggers; and continued to limit privacy rights and freedoms of assembly, association, and movement . Furthermore, the Department of State documents that arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly for political activists, remained a problem , with the Government of Vietnam sentencing at least 35 arrested activists during [2012] to a total of 131 years in jail and 27 years of probation for exercising their rights .
At the end of 2012, the Government of Vietnam reportedly held more than 120 political prisoners, and diplomatic sources maintained that 4 reeducation centers in Vietnam held approximately 4,000 prisoners. On September 24, 2012, 3 prominent Vietnamese bloggers—Nguyen Van Hai (also known as Dieu Cay), Ta Phong Tan, and Phan Thanh Hai (also known as Anh Ba Saigon)—were sentenced to prison based on 3-year-old blog postings criticizing the Government and leaders of Vietnam and the Communist Party of Vietnam.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay responded to the sentencing of the bloggers on September 25, 2012, stating that [t]he harsh prison terms handed down to bloggers exemplify the severe restrictions on freedom of expression in Vietnam and calling the sentences an unfortunate development that undermines the commitments Vietnam has made internationally . . . to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression . On March 21, 2013, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Daniel B.
Baer testified before the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate that in Vietnam we’ve been disappointed in recent years to see backsliding, particularly on . . . freedom of expression issues . . . people are being prosecuted for what they say online under really draconian national security laws . . . that is an issue that we continue to raise, both in our human rights dialogue with the Vietnamese as well as in other bilateral engagements .
Although the Constitution of Vietnam provides for freedom of religion, the Department of State’s 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices maintains that Vietnamese who exercise their right to freedom of religion continued to be subject to harassment, differing interpretations and applications of the law, and inconsistent legal protection, especially at provincial and village levels . Likewise, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 2013 Annual Report states that [r]eligious freedom conditions remain very poor in Vietnam and the Vietnamese government continues to imprison individuals for religious activity or religious freedom advocacy using a specialized religious police force . . . and vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhist, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities, and seeks to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism via discrimination, violence and forced renunciations of their faith .
The 2013 Annual Report notes that in 2004 the United States designated Vietnam as a country of particular concern for religious freedom pursuant to section 402(b)(1) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 ( 22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1) ), and that Vietnam responded at that time by releasing prisoners, prohibiting the policy of forced renunciations of faith, and expanding protections for religious groups, and that [m]ost religious leaders in Vietnam attributed these positive changes to the [country of particular concern] designation and the priority placed on religious freedom concerns in U.S.-Vietnamese bilateral relations .
However, the 2013 Annual Report concludes that since the designation as a country of particular concern was lifted from Vietnam in 2006, religious freedom conditions in Vietnam remain mixed , and therefore recommends to the Department of State that Vietnam should be redesignated as a country of particular concern. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Baer likewise testified that [i]n Vietnam the right to religious freedom, which seemed to be improving several years ago, has been stagnant for several years .
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