[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 167 (Thursday, December 16, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CALLING ON STATE DEPARTMENT TO LIST VIETNAM AS A RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 
                                VIOLATOR

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 15, 2010

  Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my 
support for H. Res. 20, calling on the State Department to list the 
Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a ``Country of Particular Concern'' 
with respect to religious freedom.
  The State Department removed Vietnam from the CPC list in 2006, and 
since then, the human rights situation in that country has deteriorated 
significantly. After a brief improvement while Vietnam was seeking 
membership in the World Trade Organization, the Vietnamese government 
returned to its former ways--intimidation and repression of basic human 
freedoms. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious 
Freedom's (USCIRF) recently released annual report, ``The government of 
Vietnam continues to control government-approved religious communities, 
severely restrict independent religious practice, and repress 
individuals and groups viewed as challenging political authority.''
  Vietnam remains a severe violator of religious freedoms, and the CPC 
designation is a potentially powerful tool that should be used to 
highlight this shortcoming and encourage action. USCIRF has recommended 
CPC status for Vietnam every year since 2001, and continues to do so 
this year, advising that ``[g]iven these ongoing and serious 
violations, the uneven pace of religious freedom progress after the CPC 
designation was lifted, the continued detention of prisoners of 
concern, and new evidence of severe religious freedom abuses, USCIRF 
again recommends that Vietnam be designated as a CPC in 2010.''
  I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I strongly urge 
the State Department to follow the advice of the Commission and 
redesignate Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern.

                          ____________________