[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3974 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3974
To impose sanctions on individuals who are complicit in human rights
abuses committed against nationals of Vietnam or their family members,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 18, 2010
Mr. Brownback (for himself, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. Burr) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To impose sanctions on individuals who are complicit in human rights
abuses committed against nationals of Vietnam or their family members,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Vietnam Human Rights Sanctions
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) 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 $15,200,000,000 in 2008.
(2) The transition of the Government of Vietnam toward
greater economic activity and trade has not been matched by
greater political freedom and substantial improvements in basic
human rights for the citizens of Vietnam, including freedom of
religion, expression, association, and assembly.
(3) The United States Congress agreed to Vietnam becoming
an official member of the World Trade Organization in 2006,
amidst assurances that the Government of Vietnam was steadily
improving its human rights record and would continue to do so.
(4) Despite assurances that Vietnam's accession to the
World Trade Organization would be met with greater respect for
human rights, the Government of Vietnam has continued to
strictly regulate some religious practices and to imprison or
put under house arrest an undetermined number of individuals
for their peaceful advocacy of political views or religious
beliefs, including Father Nguyen Van Ly, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc,
Nguyen Tien Trung, Le Thang Long, Tran Duc Thach, Tran Anh Kim,
Pham Van Troi, Nguyen Xuan Nghia, Nguyen Van Tuc, Nguyen Manh
Son, Nguyen Manh Tinh, Ngo Quynh, Nguyen Kim Nhan, Truong Minh
Duc, Nguyen Van Hai, Vu Hung, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, and Pham
Thanh Nghien, and human rights lawyers, Le Cong Dinh, Nguyen
Van Dai, and Le Thi Cong Nhan. Others arrested during 2010 are
being held incommunicado, including Cu Huy Ha Vu, Pham Minh
Hoang, Phan Thanh Hai, and Vi Duc Hoi.
(5) Vietnam remains a one-party state, ruled and controlled
by the Communist Party of Vietnam, which continues to deny the
right of citizens to change their government.
(6) Although in recent years the National Assembly of
Vietnam has on occasion played a role as a forum for
highlighting local concerns, corruption, and inefficiency, the
National Assembly remains subject to the direction of the
Communist Party of Vietnam and that party maintains control
over the selection of candidates in national and local
elections.
(7) The Government of Vietnam forbids public challenge to
the legitimacy of the one-party state, restricts freedoms of
opinion, the press, assembly, and association, and tightly
limits access to the Internet and telecommunication.
Cyberattacks originating from Vietnam-based servers have
disabled dissident websites and the Government of Vietnam
introduced new restrictions on public internet shops while
continuing to restrict access to numerous overseas and domestic
blogs, news sites, and other websites perceived to carry
content critical of the Government of Vietnam.
(8) The Government of Vietnam continues to detain,
imprison, place under house arrest, convict, and otherwise
restrict individuals for the peaceful expression of dissenting
political or religious views, including democracy and human
rights activists, independent trade union leaders, non-state-
sanctioned publishers, journalists, bloggers, members of ethnic
minorities, and unsanctioned religious groups.
(9) The Government of Vietnam has also failed to improve
labor rights, continues to harass, arrest, and imprison workers
rights activists, including Doan Huy Chuong, Do Thi Minh Hanh,
and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, and restricts the right to organize
independently.
(10) The Government of Vietnam continues to limit freedom
of religion, pressure all religious groups to come under the
control of government- and party-controlled management boards,
and restrict the operation of independent religious
organizations, including the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
and members of unsanctioned Mennonite, Cao Dai, Theravada
Buddhist, and Hoa Hao Buddhist religious groups and independent
Protestant house churches, primarily in the central and
northern highlands. Religious leaders who do not conform to the
Government's demands are often harassed, arrested, imprisoned,
or put under house arrest.
(11) As noted in the October 2009 report of the United
States Commission on International Religious Freedom, ``[T]here
continue to be far too many serious abuses and restrictions of
religious freedom in the country. Individuals continue to be
imprisoned or detained for reasons related to their religious
activity or religious freedom advocacy; police and government
officials are not held fully accountable for abuses;
independent religious activity remains illegal; and legal
protection for government-approved religious organizations are
both vague and subject to arbitrary or discriminatory
interpretations based on political factors. In addition,
improvements experienced by some religious communities are not
experienced by others, including the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam (UBCV), independent Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Protestant
groups, and some ethnic minority Protestants and Buddhists.
Also, over the past year, property disputes between the
government and the Catholic Church in Hanoi led to detention,
threats, harassment, and violence by `contract thugs' against
peaceful prayer vigils and religious leaders.''.
(12) Despite reported progress in church openings and legal
registrations of religious venues, the Government of Vietnam
has halted most religious reforms since the Department of State
lifted the ``country of particular concern'' for religious
freedom violations designation for Vietnam in November 2006.
(13) Unregistered ethnic minority Protestant congregations
suffer severe abuses because of actions by the Government of
Vietnam, which have included forced renunciations of faith,
pressure to join government-recognized religious groups, arrest
and harassment, the withholding of social programs provided for
the general population, destruction of churches and pagodas,
confiscation and destruction of property, and subjection to
severe beatings.
(14) During peaceful Catholic prayer vigils calling for the
return of government-confiscated church properties during 2008
at the Thai Ha Church in Ha Noi, protestors were dispersed
after being harassed, some were detained, and some of the
church property was destroyed. Similar incidents happened at
Bau Sen, Loan Ly, and Tam Toa parishes in central Vietnam and
more recently at Dong Chiem parish in Hanoi, where religious
statues and a crucifix were destroyed and parishioners and
clergies were physically harmed, and at Con Dau parish, where
police forcibly dispersed a Catholic funeral ceremony in May
2010 to a cemetery located on disputed land. Afterwards, police
and members of the civilian defense forces arrested and
interrogated dozens of Con Dau parishioners, with one
parishioner dying from injuries sustained during a beating in
July 2010 by civilian defense forces and two women suffered
miscarriages resulted from police tortures. Catholics continue
to face some restrictions on selection of clergy, the
establishment of seminaries and seminary candidates, and
restrictions on individual cases of travel and church
registration. Dissident clerics such as Father Phan Van Loi and
Father Nguyen Van Ly are currently under house arrest.
(15) The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam suffers
persecution as the Government of Vietnam continues to restrict
contacts and movement of senior clergy for refusing to join the
state-sponsored Buddhist organizations, the Government
restricts expression and assembly, and the Government continues
to harass and threaten monks, nuns, and youth leaders of the
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. The Supreme Patriarch of
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Thich Quang Do, is
currently under house arrest.
(16) The Bat Nha Buddhists monastery in Lam Dong province
was attacked by government thugs in October 2009. About 400
monks and nuns were physically abused and forcibly evicted from
the monastery.
(17) The Government of Vietnam continues to suppress the
activities of other religious adherents, including Cao Dai, Hoa
Hao, Mennonites, and Montagnard Christians belonging to
churches that lack official recognition or have chosen not to
affiliate with the state-sanctioned groups, including through
the use of detention and imprisonment.
(18) During Easter weekend in April 2004, thousands of
Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands 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 violent response as many demonstrators
were arrested or went into hiding, that many were injured, and
that some were killed. At least 200 of these Montagnard
Christians are still serving long sentences for their
involvement in peaceful demonstrations in 2001 and 2004.
Government officials continue to severely restrict movement by
the Montagnards and prohibit them from seeking asylum in
Cambodia. Many Montagnards were also imprisoned and otherwise
mistreated for their involvement in demonstrations in 2008.
(19) Ethnic minority Hmong in the Northwest Highlands of
Vietnam also suffer restrictions, abuses, and persecution by
the Government of Vietnam, and although the Government is now
allowing some Hmong Protestants to organize and conduct
religious activity, some government officials continue to deny
or ignore additional applications for registration.
(20) In 2007, the Government of Vietnam arrested and
expelled at least 20 ethnic Khmer Buddhist monks in Soc Trang
province from the monkhood and imprisoned 5 monks in response
to a peaceful religious protest in February 2007. In July 2010,
authorities in Tra Vinh arrested and purported to defrock Khmer
Krom Buddhist abbot Thach Sophon, sentencing him in September
to a 9-month suspended sentence. He remains under house arrest.
(21) The Government of Vietnam controls all print and
electronic media, including access to the Internet, jams the
signals of some foreign radio stations, including Radio Free
Asia, and has detained and imprisoned individuals who have
posted, published, sent, or otherwise distributed democracy-
related materials.
(22) People arrested in Vietnam because of their political
or religious affiliations and activities and charged with
vaguely defined national security crimes are not accorded due
process of law. During the pre-trial investigatory phase of
their detention, religious and political prisoners are often
held incommunicado without access to legal counsel and family
members. They are routinely tortured during interrogation to
force them to confess to crimes they did not commit or to
falsely denounce others. Their trials are usually closed to
international press and diplomats and members of the public.
(23) Vietnam continues to be a source country for the
commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor of women and
girls and for men and women legally entering into international
labor contracts who subsequently face conditions of debt
bondage or forced labor, and is a destination country for child
trafficking and continues to have internal human trafficking.
(24) Labor export companies partly or wholly owned by the
Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, and other
agencies of the Government of Vietnam have frequently been
identified as participants in human trafficking. There are a
number of well-documented cases in which these state
enterprises have misled workers by promising specific wages and
working conditions, often in the form of signed contracts, only
to require the workers to sign different contracts immediately
before leaving for their foreign destinations. When workers
have protested debt bondage or slavery-like conditions in the
foreign workplaces to which these Vietnamese state enterprises
have sent them, officials of the Ministry of Labor have
traveled from Hanoi to threaten the trafficking victims with
``punishment under the laws of Vietnam'' if they do not cease
their protests. Workers who have returned to Vietnam after
being exploited by their foreign employers have reported being
harassed and intimidated by public security forces, who
typically accuse them of being liars, collaborating with
reactionary forces overseas, and having betrayed their country.
(25) United States refugee resettlement programs, including
the Humanitarian Resettlement Program, the Orderly Departure
Program, the Resettlement Opportunities for Vietnamese
Returnees Program, general resettlement of boat people from
refugee camps throughout Southeast Asia, the Amerasian
Homecoming Act of 1988, and the priority one refugee
resettlement category have helped resettle nationals of Vietnam
who have suffered persecution on account of their associations
with the United States as well as nationals of Vietnam who have
been persecuted because of race, religion, nationality,
political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
(26) While previous programs have served their purposes
well, a significant number of eligible refugees from Vietnam
were unfairly denied or excluded, including Amerasians and
Montagnards, in some cases by vindictive or corrupt officials
of Vietnam who controlled access to the programs, and in others
by United States personnel who imposed unduly restrictive
interpretations of program criteria. In addition, the
Government of Vietnam has denied passports to persons whom the
United States has found eligible for refugee admission.
(27) Congress has passed numerous resolutions condemning
human rights violations in Vietnam, indicating that although
there has been an expansion of relations with the Government of
Vietnam, it should not be construed as approval of the ongoing
and serious violations of fundamental human rights in Vietnam,
particularly those enshrined in the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, of which Vietnam is a signatory.
(28) Enhancement of relations between the United States and
Vietnam has provided an opportunity for a human rights
dialogue, but is unlikely to lead to future progress on human
rights issues in Vietnam unless the United States makes clear
that such progress is an essential prerequisite for further
enhancements in the bilateral relationship.
SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS ON CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE
COMPLICIT IN HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES COMMITTED AGAINST
NATIONALS OF VIETNAM OR THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS.
(a) In General.--Except as provided in subsections (d) and (e), the
President shall impose sanctions described in subsection (c) with
respect to each individual on the list required by subsection (b).
(b) List of Individuals Who Are Complicit in Certain Human Rights
Abuses.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a list of individuals who
are nationals of Vietnam that the President determines are
complicit in human rights abuses committed against nationals of
Vietnam or their family members, regardless of whether such
abuses occurred in Vietnam.
(2) Updates of list.--The President shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees an updated list under
paragraph (1) as new information becomes available and not less
frequently than annually.
(3) Public availability.--The list required by paragraph
(1) shall be made available to the public and posted on the
websites of the Department of the Treasury and the Department
of State.
(4) Consideration of data from other countries and
nongovernmental organizations.--In preparing the list required
by paragraph (1), the President shall consider data already
obtained by other countries and nongovernmental organizations,
including organizations in Vietnam, that monitor the human
rights abuses of the Government of Vietnam.
(c) Sanctions Described.--The sanctions described in this
subsection are the following:
(1) Prohibition on entry and admission to the united
states.--An individual whose name appears on the list required
by subsection (b) may not--
(A) be admitted to, enter, or transit through the
United States;
(B) receive any lawful immigration status in the
United States under the immigration laws, including any
relief under the Convention Against Torture; or
(C) file any application or petition to obtain such
admission, entry, or status.
(2) Financial sanctions.--The President shall impose
sanctions authorized pursuant to section 203 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702)
with respect to an individual whose name appears on the list
required by subsection (b), including blocking of the property
of, and restricting or prohibiting financial transactions and
the exportation and importation of property by, the individual.
(d) Exceptions To Comply With International Agreements.--The
President may, by regulation, authorize exceptions to the imposition of
sanctions under this section to permit the United States to comply with
the Agreement between the United Nations and the United States of
America regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed June
26, 1947, and entered into force November 21, 1947, and other
applicable international agreements.
(e) Waiver.--The President may waive the requirement to impose or
maintain sanctions with respect to an individual under subsection (a)
or the requirement to include an individual on the list required by
subsection (b) if the President--
(1) determines that such a waiver is in the national
interest of the United States; and
(2) submits to the appropriate congressional committees a
report describing the reasons for the determination.
(f) Termination of Sanctions.--The provisions of this section shall
cease to have force and effect on the date on which the President
determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees
that the Government of Vietnam has--
(1) unconditionally released all political prisoners;
(2) ceased its practices of violence, unlawful detention,
torture, and abuse of citizens of Vietnam while engaging in
peaceful political activity; and
(3) conducted a transparent investigation into the
killings, arrest, and abuse of peaceful political activists in
Vietnam and prosecuted those responsible.
(g) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Finance, the Committee on
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the Committee
on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Ways and Means, the Committee
on Financial Services, and the Committee on Foreign
Affairs of the House of Representatives.
(2) Convention against torture.--The term ``Convention
Against Torture'' means the United Nations Convention Against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, done at New York on December 10, 1984.
(3) Immigration laws; national.--The terms ``immigration
laws'' and ``national'' have the meanings given those terms in
section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1101).
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