HR 1897 RFS 
the Government of Vietnam was steadily improving 
its human rights record and would continue to do so. 
(4) Vietnam remains 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. 
(5) Although in recent years the National As-
sembly of Vietnam has played an increasingly active 
role as a forum for highlighting local concerns, cor-
ruption, and inefficiency, the National Assembly re-
mains subject to the direction of the CPV and the 
CPV maintains control over the selection of can-
didates in national and local elections. 
(6) The Government of Vietnam forbids public 
challenge to the legitimacy of the one-party state, re-
stricts freedoms of opinion, the press, and associa-
tion and tightly limits access to the Internet and 
telecommunication. 
(7) Since Vietnam’s accession to the WTO on 
January 11, 2007, the Government of Vietnam arbi-
trarily arrested and detained numerous individuals 
for their peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, de-
mocracy, and human rights, including Father 
Nguyen Van Ly, human rights lawyers Nguyen Van 
Dai, Le Thi Cong Nhan, Cu Huy Ha Vu, and Le 
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Cong Dinh, and bloggers Nguyen Van Hai, Ta 
Phong Tan, and Le Van Son. 
(8) The Government of Vietnam continues to 
detain, imprison, place under house arrest, convict, 
or otherwise restrict persons for the peaceful expres-
sion of dissenting political or religious views. 
(9) The Government of Vietnam continues to 
detain labor leaders and restricts the right to orga-
nize independently. 
(10) The Government of Vietnam continues to 
limit the freedom of religion, restrict the operations 
of independent religious organizations, and persecute 
believers whose religious activities the Government 
regards as a potential threat to its monopoly on 
power. 
(11) Despite reported progress in church open-
ings and legal registrations of religious venues, the 
Government of Vietnam has halted most positive ac-
tions since the Department of State lifted the ‘‘coun-
try of particular concern’’ (CPC) designation for 
Vietnam in November 2006. 
(12) Unregistered ethnic minority Protestant 
congregations, particularly Montagnards in the Cen-
tral and Northwest Highlands, suffer severe abuses 
because of actions by the Government of Vietnam, 
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which have included forced renunciations of faith, 
arrest and harassment, the withholding of social pro-
grams provided for the general population, confisca-
tion and destruction of property, subjection to severe 
beatings, and reported deaths. 
(13) There has been a pattern of violent re-
sponses by the Government to peaceful prayer vigils 
and demonstrations by Catholics for the return of 
Government-confiscated 
church 
properties. 
Pro-
testers have been harassed, beaten, and detained 
and church properties have been destroyed. Catholics 
also continue to face some restrictions on selection 
of clergy, the establishment of seminaries and semi-
nary candidates, and individual cases of travel and 
church registration. 
(14) In May 2010 the village of Con Dau, a 
Catholic parish in Da Nang, faced escalated violence 
during a funeral procession as police attempted to 
prohibit a religious burial in the village cemetery; 
more than 100 villagers were injured, 62 were ar-
rested, five were tortured, and at least three died. 
(15) The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam 
(UBCV) suffers persecution as the Government of 
Vietnam continues to restrict contacts and move-
ment of senior UBCV clergy for refusing to join the 
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HR 1897 RFS 
state-sponsored Buddhist organization, the Govern-
ment restricts expression and assembly, and the 
Government continues to harass and threaten UBCV 
monks, nuns, and youth leaders. 
(16) The Government of Vietnam continues to 
suppress the activities of other religious adherents, 
including Cao Dai and Hoa Hao Buddhists who lack 
official recognition or have chosen not to affiliate 
with the state-sanctioned groups, including through 
the use of detention, imprisonment, and strict Gov-
ernment oversight. 
(17) Many Montagnards and others are still 
serving long prison sentences for their involvement 
in peaceful demonstrations in 2001, 2002, 2004, 
and 2008. Montagnards continue to face threats, de-
tention, beatings, forced renunciation of faith, prop-
erty destruction, restricted movement, and reported 
deaths at the hands of Government officials. 
(18) Ethnic minority Hmong in Northern Viet-
nam, the Northwest Highlands, and the Central 
Highlands of Vietnam also suffer restrictions, confis-
cation of property, abuses, and persecution by the 
Government of Vietnam. 
(19) The Government of Vietnam restricts 
Khmer Krom expression, assembly, and association, 
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has confiscated nearly all the Theravada Buddhist 
temples, controls all Khmer Kaon Buddhist religious 
organizations and prohibits most peaceful protests. 
(20) The Government of Vietnam controls near-
ly all print and electronic media, including access to 
the Internet, jams the signals of some foreign radio 
stations, including Radio Free Asia, and has de-
tained and imprisoned individuals who have posted, 
published, sent, or otherwise distributed democracy- 
related materials. 
(21) People arrested in Vietnam because of 
their political or religious affiliations and activities 
often are not accorded due legal process as they lack 
full access to lawyers of their choice, may experience 
closed trials, have often been detained for years 
without trial, and have been subjected to the use of 
torture to admit crimes they did not commit or to 
falsely denounce their own leaders. 
(22) Vietnam continues to be a source country 
for the commercial sexual exploitation and forced 
labor of women and girls, as well as for men and 
women legally entering into international labor con-
tracts who subsequently face conditions of debt 
bondage or forced labor, and is a destination country 
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for child trafficking and continues to have internal 
human trafficking. 
(23) There are many reports of Vietnamese of-
ficials and employees participating in, facilitating, 
condoning, or otherwise being complicit in severe 
forms of human trafficking. 
(24) United States refugee resettlement pro-
grams, including the Humanitarian Resettlement 
(HR) Program, the Orderly Departure Program 
(ODP), Resettlement Opportunities for Vietnamese 
Returnees (ROVR) Program, general resettlement of 
boat people from refugee camps throughout South-
east Asia, the Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1988, 
and the Priority One Refugee resettlement category, 
have helped rescue Vietnamese nationals who have 
suffered persecution on account of their associations 
with the United States or, in many cases, because of 
such associations by their spouses, parents, or other 
family members, as well as other Vietnamese nation-
als who have been persecuted because of race, reli-
gion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in 
a particular social group. 
(25) While previous programs have served their 
purposes well, a significant number of eligible refu-
gees from Vietnam were unfairly denied or excluded, 
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including Amerasians, in some cases by vindictive or 
corrupt Vietnamese officials who controlled access to 
the programs, and in others by United States per-
sonnel who imposed unduly restrictive interpreta-
tions of program criteria. In addition, the Govern-
ment of Vietnam has denied passports to persons 
who the United States has found eligible for refugee 
admission. 
(26) The Government of Vietnam reportedly is 
detaining tens of thousands of people, with some as 
young as 12 years old, in government-run drug de-
tention centers and treating them as slave laborers. 
(27) In 2012, over 150,000 people signed an 
online petition calling on the Administration to not 
expand trade with communist Vietnam at the ex-
pense of human rights. 
(28) Congress has passed numerous resolutions 
condemning human rights abuses in Vietnam, indi-
cating 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 se-
rious violations of fundamental human rights in 
Vietnam. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to promote 
the development of freedom and democracy in Vietnam. 
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SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON INCREASED NONHUMANITARIAN 
ASSISTANCE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF VIET-
NAM. 
(a) ASSISTANCE.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-
section (b), the Federal Government may not pro-
vide nonhumanitarian assistance to the Government 
of Vietnam during any fiscal year in an amount that 
exceeds the amount of such assistance provided for 
fiscal year 2012 unless— 
(A) with respect to the limitation for fiscal 
year 2014, the President determines and cer-
tifies to Congress, not later than 30 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, that the 
requirements of subparagraphs (A) through (G) 
of paragraph (2) have been met during the 12- 
month period ending on the date of the certifi-
cation; and 
(B) with respect to the limitation for sub-
sequent fiscal years, the President determines 
and certifies to Congress, in the most recent 
annual report submitted pursuant to section 6, 
that the requirements of subparagraphs (A) 
through (G) of paragraph (2) have been met 
during the 12-month period covered by the re-
port. 
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HR 1897 RFS 
(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements of this 
paragraph are the following: 
(A) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward releasing all polit-
ical and religious prisoners from imprisonment, 
house arrest, and other forms of detention. 
(B) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward— 
(i) respecting the right to freedom of 
religion, including the right to participate 
in religious activities and institutions with-
out interference, harassment, or involve-
ment of the Government, for all of Viet-
nam’s diverse religious communities; and 
(ii) returning estates and properties 
confiscated from the churches and religious 
communities. 
(C) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward respecting the right 
to freedom of expression, assembly, and associa-
tion, including the release of independent jour-
nalists, bloggers, and democracy and labor ac-
tivists. 
(D) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward repealing or revis-
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ing laws that criminalize peaceful dissent, inde-
pendent media, unsanctioned religious activity, 
and nonviolent demonstrations and rallies, in 
accordance with international standards and 
treaties to which Vietnam is a party. 
(E) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward allowing Viet-
namese nationals free and open access to 
United States refugee programs. 
(F) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward respecting the 
human rights of members of all ethnic and mi-
nority groups. 
(G) 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 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 NA-
TIONAL INTEREST.—Notwithstanding the failure of 
the Government of Vietnam to meet the require-
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