[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1587 Engrossed in House (EH)]


  2d Session

                               H. R. 1587

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

              To promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 1587

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
              To promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Vietnam Human 
Rights Act of 2004''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
  TITLE I--CONDITIONS ON INCREASED NONHUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE 
                         GOVERNMENT OF VIETNAM

Sec. 101. Bilateral nonhumanitarian assistance.
 TITLE II--ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY IN VIETNAM

Sec. 201. Assistance.
               TITLE III--UNITED STATES PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Sec. 301. Radio Free Asia transmissions to Vietnam.
Sec. 302. United states educational and cultural exchange programs with 
                            Vietnam.
  TITLE IV--ANNUAL REPORT ON PROGRESS TOWARD FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY IN 
                                VIETNAM

Sec. 401. Annual report.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a one-party State, 
        ruled and controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), 
        which continues to deny the right of citizens to change their 
        government. Although in recent years the National Assembly of 
        Vietnam has played an increasingly active role as a forum for 
        highlighting local concerns, corruption, and inefficiency, the 
        National Assembly remains subject to CPV direction. The CPV 
        maintains control over the selection of candidates in national 
        and local elections.
            (2) The Government of Vietnam permits no public challenge 
        to the legitimacy of the one-party State. It prohibits 
        independent political, labor, and social organizations, and it 
        continues to detain and imprison persons for the peaceful 
        expression of dissenting religious and political views, 
        including Pham Hong Son, Tran Dung Tien, Father Nguyen Van Ly, 
        Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, Nguyen Vu Binh, Pham Que Duong, and Pastor 
        Nguyen Hong Quang, among others.
            (3) The Government of Vietnam continues to commit serious 
        human rights abuses. In January 2004, the Department of State 
        reported to Congress that during the previous year the 
        Government of Vietnam had made ``no progress'' toward releasing 
        political and religious activists, ending official restrictions 
        on religious activity, or respecting the rights of indigenous 
        minorities in the Central and Northern Highlands of Vietnam.
            (4)(A) The Government of Vietnam limits freedom of religion 
        and restricts the operation of religious organizations other 
        than those approved by the State. While officially sanctioned 
        religious organizations are able to operate with varying 
        degrees of autonomy, some of those organizations continue to 
        face restrictions on selecting, training, and ordaining 
        sufficient numbers of clergy and in conducting educational and 
        charitable activities. The Government has previously 
        confiscated numerous churches, temples, and other properties 
        belonging to religious organizations, most of which have never 
        been returned.
            (B) Unregistered ethnic minority Protestant congregations 
        in the Northwest and Central Highlands of Vietnam suffer severe 
        abuses, which have included forced renunciations of faith, the 
        closure and destruction of churches, the arrest and harassment 
        of pastors, and, in a few cases, there have been credible 
        reports that minority religious leaders have been beaten and 
        killed.
            (C) The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), one of 
        the largest religious denominations in Vietnam, was declared 
        illegal in 1981. The Government of Vietnam confiscated its 
        temples and persecuted its clergy for refusing to join the 
        state-sponsored Buddhist organizations. For more than 2 
        decades, the Government has detained and confined senior UBCV 
        clergy, including the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the 
        Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, the Venerable Thich Tue Sy, and 
        others.
            (D) The Catholic Church continues to face significant 
        restrictions on the training and ordination of priests and 
        bishops, resulting in numbers insufficient to support the 
        growing Catholic population in Vietnam. Although recent years 
        have brought a modest easing of government control in some 
        dioceses, officials in other areas strictly limit the conduct 
        of religious education classes and charitable activities. 
        Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, who was convicted in a closed 
        trial in 2001 after publicly criticizing religious repression 
        by the Government of Vietnam, remains in prison.
            (E) The Government of Vietnam continues to suppress the 
        activities of other religious adherents, including Cao Dai, 
        Baha'i, and Hoa Hao who lack official recognition or have 
        chosen not to affiliate with the State-sanctioned groups, 
        including through the use of detention and imprisonment.
            (5) The Government of Vietnam significantly restricts the 
        freedoms of speech and the press, particularly with respect to 
        political and religious speech. Government and Party-related 
        organizations control all print and electronic media, including 
        access to the Internet. The Government blocks web sites that it 
        deems politically or culturally inappropriate, and it jams some 
        foreign radio stations, including Radio Free Asia. The 
        Government has detained, convicted, and imprisoned individuals 
        who have posted or sent democracy-related materials via the 
        Internet.
            (6)(A) Indigenous Montagnards in the Central Highlands of 
        Vietnam continue to face significant repression. The Government 
        of Vietnam restricts the practice of Christianity by those 
        populations, and more than 100 Montagnards have been sentenced 
        to prison terms of up to 13 years for claiming land rights, 
        organizing Christian gatherings, or attempting to seek asylum 
        in Cambodia.
            (B) The Government of Vietnam uses the separatist agenda of 
        a relatively small number of ethnic minority leaders as a 
        rationale for violating civil and political rights in ethnic 
        minority regions.
            (C) The Government of Vietnam arrested or detained nearly 
        300 Montagnards during 2003 and since then many hundreds of 
        Montagnards have gone into hiding, fearing arrest, 
        interrogation, or physical abuse by government authorities.
            (D) During Easter weekend in April 2004, thousands of 
        Montagnards gathered to protest their treatment by the 
        Government of Vietnam, including the confiscation of tribal 
        lands and ongoing restrictions on religious activities. 
        Credible reports indicate that the protests were met with a 
        violent response and that many demonstrators were arrested, 
        injured, or are in hiding, and that others were killed.
            (E) Government officials continue to restrict access to the 
        Central and Northwest Highlands of Vietnam by diplomats, 
        nongovernmental organizations, journalists, and other 
        foreigners, making it difficult to verify conditions in those 
        areas.
            (7)(A) United States refugee resettlement programs for 
        Vietnamese nationals, including the Orderly Departure Program 
        (ODP), the Resettlement Opportunities for Returning Vietnamese 
        (ROVR) program, the Priority One (P1) program and the 
        resettlement of boat people from refugee camps throughout 
        Southeast Asia, were authorized by law in order to rescue 
        Vietnamese nationals who have suffered persecution on account 
        of their wartime associations with the United States, as well 
        as those who currently have a well-founded fear of persecution 
        on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, 
        or membership in a particular social group.
            (B) While those programs have served their purposes well, a 
        significant number of eligible refugees were unfairly denied or 
        excluded, in some cases by vindictive or corrupt Vietnamese 
        officials who controlled access to the programs, and in others 
        by United States personnel who imposed unduly restrictive 
        interpretations of program criteria.
            (C) The Department of State has agreed to extend the 
        September 30, 1994, registration deadline for former United 
        States employees, ``re-education'' survivors, and surviving 
        spouses of those who did not survive ``re-education'' camps to 
        sign up for United States refugee programs, as well as to 
        resume the Vietnamese In-Country Priority One Program in 
        Vietnam to provide protection to victims of persecution on 
        account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or 
        membership in a particular social group who otherwise have no 
        access to the Orderly Departure Program.
            (D) The former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service 
        agreed to resume the processing of former United States 
        employees under the U11 program, which had been unilaterally 
        suspended by the United States Government, as well as to review 
        the applications of Amerasians, children of American servicemen 
        left behind in Vietnam after the war ended in April 1975, for 
        resettlement to the United States under the Amerasian 
        Homecoming Act of 1988.
            (8) Congress and people of the United States are united in 
        their determination that the expansion of relations with 
        Vietnam, a country whose government engages in serious 
        violations of fundamental human rights, should not be construed 
        as approval of or complacency about such practices. The 
        promotion of freedom and democracy around the world is and must 
        continue to be a central objective of United States foreign 
        policy. Congress remains willing and hopeful to recognize 
        improvement in the future human rights practices of the 
        Government of Vietnam, which is the motivating purpose behind 
        this Act.

  TITLE I--CONDITIONS ON INCREASED NONHUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE 
                         GOVERNMENT OF VIETNAM

SEC. 101. BILATERAL NONHUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE.

    (a) Assistance.--
            (1) In general.--United States nonhumanitarian assistance 
        may not be provided to the Government of Vietnam in an amount 
        exceeding the amount so provided for fiscal year 2004--
                    (A) for fiscal year 2005 unless not later than 30 
                days after the date of the enactment of this Act the 
                President determines and certifies to Congress that the 
                requirements of subparagraphs (A) through (D) of 
                paragraph (2) have been met during the 12-month period 
                ending on the date of the certification; and
                    (B) for each subsequent fiscal year unless the 
                President determines and certifies to Congress in the 
                most recent annual report submitted pursuant to section 
                401 that the requirements of subparagraphs (A) through 
                (E) of paragraph (2) have been met during the 12-month 
                period covered by the report.
            (2) Requirements.--The requirements of this paragraph are 
        that--
                    (A) the Government of Vietnam has made substantial 
                progress toward releasing all political and religious 
                prisoners from imprisonment, house arrest, and other 
                forms of detention;
                    (B)(i) the Government of Vietnam has made 
                substantial progress toward respecting the right to 
                freedom of religion, including the right to participate 
                in religious activities and institutions without 
                interference by or involvement of the Government; and
                    (ii) has made substantial progress toward returning 
                estates and properties confiscated from the churches;
                    (C) the Government of Vietnam has made substantial 
                progress toward allowing Vietnamese nationals free and 
                open access to United States refugee programs;
                    (D) the Government of Vietnam has made substantial 
                progress toward respecting the human rights of members 
                of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands and 
                elsewhere in Vietnam; and
                    (E)(i) neither any official of the Government of 
                Vietnam nor any agency or entity wholly or partly owned 
                by the Government of Vietnam was complicit in a severe 
                form of trafficking in persons; or
                    (ii) the Government of Vietnam took all appropriate 
                steps to end any such complicity and hold such 
                official, agency, or entity fully accountable for its 
                conduct.
    (b) Exception.--
            (1) Continuation of assistance in the national interest.--
        Notwithstanding the failure of the Government of Vietnam to 
        meet the requirements of subsection (a)(2), the President may 
        waive the application of subsection (a) for any fiscal year if 
        the President determines that the provision to the Government 
        of Vietnam of increased United States nonhumanitarian 
        assistance would promote the purposes of this Act or is 
        otherwise in the national interest of the United States.
            (2) Exercise of waiver authority.--The President may 
        exercise the authority under paragraph (2) with respect to--
                    (A) all United States nonhumanitarian assistance to 
                Vietnam; or
                    (B) one or more programs, projects, or activities 
                of such assistance.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Severe form of trafficking in persons.--The term 
        ``severe form of trafficking in persons'' means any activity 
        described in section 103(8) of the Trafficking Victims 
        Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-386 (114 Stat. 1470); 22 
        U.S.C. 7102(8)).
            (2) United states nonhumanitarian assistance.--The term 
        ``United States nonhumanitarian assistance'' means--
                    (A) any assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act 
                of 1961 (including programs under title IV of chapter 2 
                of part I of that Act, relating to the Overseas Private 
                Investment Corporation), other than--
                            (i) disaster relief assistance, including 
                        any assistance under chapter 9 of part I of 
                        that Act;
                            (ii) assistance which involves the 
                        provision of food (including monetization of 
                        food) or medicine;
                            (iii) assistance for refugees; and
                            (iv) assistance to combat HIV/AIDS, 
                        including any assistance under section 104A of 
                        that Act; and
                    (B) sales, or financing on any terms, under the 
                Arms Export Control Act.

 TITLE II--ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY IN VIETNAM

SEC. 201. ASSISTANCE.

    (a) In General.--The President is authorized to provide assistance, 
through appropriate nongovernmental organizations, for the support of 
individuals and organizations to promote democracy and internationally 
recognized human rights in Vietnam.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the President to carry out subsection (a) $2,000,000 
for each of the fiscal years 2005 and 2006.

               TITLE III--UNITED STATES PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

SEC. 301. RADIO FREE ASIA TRANSMISSIONS TO VIETNAM.

    (a) Policy of the United States.--It is the policy of the United 
States to take such measures as are necessary to overcome the jamming 
of Radio Free Asia by the Government of Vietnam, including the active 
pursuit of broadcast facilities in close geographic proximity to 
Vietnam.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--In addition to such amounts 
as are otherwise authorized to be appropriated for the Broadcasting 
Board of Governors, there are authorized to be appropriated to carry 
out the policy under subsection (a) $9,100,000 for the fiscal year 2005 
and $1,100,000 for the fiscal year 2006.

SEC. 302. UNITED STATES EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WITH 
              VIETNAM.

    It is the policy of the United States that programs of educational 
and cultural exchange with Vietnam should actively promote progress 
toward freedom and democracy in Vietnam by providing opportunities to 
Vietnamese nationals from a wide range of occupations and perspectives 
to see freedom and democracy in action and, also, by ensuring that 
Vietnamese nationals who have already demonstrated a commitment to 
these values are included in such programs.

  TITLE IV--ANNUAL REPORT ON PROGRESS TOWARD FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY IN 
                                VIETNAM

SEC. 401. ANNUAL REPORT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 6 months after the date of the 
enactment of this Act and every 12 months thereafter, the Secretary of 
State shall submit to the Congress a report on the following:
            (1)(A) The determination and certification of the President 
        that the requirements of section 101(a)(2) have been met, if 
        applicable.
            (B) The determination of the President under section 
        101(b)(2), if applicable.
            (2) Efforts by the United States Government to secure 
        transmission sites for Radio Free Asia in countries in close 
        geographical proximity to Vietnam in accordance with section 
        301.
            (3) Efforts to ensure that programs with Vietnam promote 
        the policy set forth in section 302 and with section 102 of the 
        Human Rights, Refugee, and Other Foreign Relations Provisions 
        Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-319) regarding participation in 
        programs of educational and cultural exchange.
            (4) Lists of persons believed to be imprisoned, detained, 
        or placed under house arrest, tortured, or otherwise persecuted 
        by the Government of Vietnam due to their pursuit of 
        internationally recognized human rights. In compiling such 
        lists, the Secretary shall exercise appropriate discretion, 
        including concerns regarding the safety and security of, and 
        benefit to, the persons who may be included on the lists and 
        their families. In addition, the Secretary shall include a list 
        of such persons and their families who may qualify for 
        protection under United States refugee programs.
            (5) A description of the development of the rule of law in 
        Vietnam, including, but not limited to--
                    (A) progress toward the development of institutions 
                of democratic governance;
                    (B) processes by which statutes, regulations, 
                rules, and other legal acts of the Government of 
                Vietnam are developed and become binding within 
                Vietnam;
                    (C) the extent to which statutes, regulations, 
                rules, administrative and judicial decisions, and other 
                legal acts of the Government of Vietnam are published 
                and are made accessible to the public;
                    (D) the extent to which administrative and judicial 
                decisions are supported by statements of reasons that 
                are based upon written statutes, regulations, rules, 
                and other legal acts of the Government of Vietnam;
                    (E) the extent to which individuals are treated 
                equally under the laws of Vietnam without regard to 
                citizenship, race, religion, political opinion, or 
                current or former associations;
                    (F) the extent to which administrative and judicial 
                decisions are independent of political pressure or 
                governmental interference and are reviewed by entities 
                of appellate jurisdiction; and
                    (G) the extent to which laws in Vietnam are written 
                and administered in ways that are consistent with 
                international human rights standards, including the 
                requirements of the International Covenant on Civil and 
                Political Rights.
    (b) Contacts With Other Organizations.--In preparing the report 
under subsection (a), the Secretary shall, as appropriate, consult with 
and seek input from nongovernmental organizations, human rights 
advocates (including Vietnamese-Americans and human rights advocates in 
Vietnam), and the United States Commission on Religious Freedom.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 19, 2004.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.