IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 218 
Calling on the Secretary of State to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 
as a ‘‘Country of Particular Concern’’ with respect to religious freedom. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 16, 2013 
Mr. ROYCE (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. 
PITTS, Ms. LOFGREN, and Mr. SCHIFF) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Calling on the Secretary of State to list the Socialist Republic 
of Vietnam as a ‘‘Country of Particular Concern’’ with 
respect to religious freedom. 
Whereas the Secretary of State, under the International Reli-
gious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), its amendment in 
1999, and authority delegated by the President, des-
ignates nations found guilty of ‘‘particularly severe viola-
tions of religious freedom as ‘Countries of Particular 
Concern’ ’’ (CPC); 
Whereas on September 15, 2004, the Secretary of State des-
ignated the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a CPC; 
Whereas to avoid possible sanctions or other ‘‘commensurate 
actions’’ recommended by section 405 (a) or (b) of IRFA, 
in May 2005 the United States and Vietnam reached a 
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•HRES 218 IH 
and other flagrant denial of the right of life, liberty, or 
the security of persons’’; 
Whereas, according to USCIRF, the CPC designation, when 
used in the past, brought about ‘‘some overall improve-
ments’’ and ‘‘prisoner releases’’ without hindering 
‘‘progress on other United States-Vietnam interests’’; 
Whereas, according to the Department of State’s Country 
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012, ‘‘Viet-
namese who exercise their right to freedom of religion 
continued to be subject to harassment, differing interpre-
tations and applications of the law, and inconsistent legal 
protection . . .’’ and ‘‘local police continued to use con-
tract thugs and citizen brigades to harass and beat polit-
ical activists and others, including religious worshiper’’; 
Whereas, according to USCIRF’s 2013 Annual Report, Viet-
nam continues to warrant a CPC designation because of 
‘‘systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious 
freedom’’ and the Vietnamese Government continues to 
‘‘view with suspicion the growth of Protestantism among 
ethnic minority’’ Hmong and Montagnards and has taken 
direct action to harass and arrest those meeting in inde-
pendent religious groups and to pressure new converts to 
Protestantism to renounce their faith; 
Whereas, according to Human Rights Watch, Vietnam ‘‘re-
stricts religious freedom through legislation, registration 
requirements, 
and 
harassing 
and 
intimidating 
unsanctioned religious groups, including independent 
Protestant home churches, and individuals and congrega-
tions of Hoa Hao Buddhists, Cao Dai, the Unified Bud-
dhist Church of Vietnam, and Falun Gong’’; 
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•HRES 218 IH 
Whereas, according to nongovernmental organizations, hun-
dreds of Montagnard Protestants remain in prison, ar-
rested after 2001 and 2004 demonstrations for land 
rights and religious freedom in the Central Highlands; 
Whereas, according to one human rights group, a ‘‘religious 
police’’ unit continues to carry out a campaign to capture 
and transform ‘‘reactionary operatives’’ and ‘‘Dega 
Protestants’’, resulting in beatings, detentions, deaths in 
custody, forced renunciations of faith, and disappear-
ances of Montagnards Protestants gathering in inde-
pendent congregations; 
Whereas on March 26, 2012, the People’s Court of Gia Lai 
city sentenced Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, the leader of 
the Christian Congregation of the Vietnamese Lutheran 
Church, to 11 years in prison; a higher court in July 
2012 upheld the heavy sentence; and the police continue 
to harass his wife and children, and on April 12, 2013, 
the police of Binh Duong Province detained his wife after 
a prison visit, stripped her naked, and beat her; 
Whereas on March 17, 2013, police in Dak Nong province ar-
rested 2 brothers, both Hmong Protestants, without 
charges and tortured one Hoang Van Ngai, a deacon at 
a Hmong house church to death; 
Whereas, according to USCIRF’s 2013 Annual Report, Viet-
namese ‘‘officials continued to target Catholic commu-
nities, including with destruction of properties, deten-
tions, and arrests . . . used force against Catholic clergy 
engaged in religious activities, and continued to restrict, 
harass, and detain members of the Redemptorist Order’’ 
for their religious freedom advocacy; 
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•HRES 218 IH 
Whereas the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), 
the Hoa Hao Buddhists, and the Cao Dai groups con-
tinue to face unwarranted abuses because of their at-
tempts to organize independently of the Vietnamese Gov-
ernment, including the detention and imprisonment of in-
dividual members and widespread discrimination against 
these religious communities; 
Whereas the UBCV, Vietnam’s largest religious organization, 
continues to face severe restrictions including the contin-
ued ‘‘pagoda detention’’ of Supreme Patriarch Thich 
Quang Do and on its youth and charitable work, con-
ducting religious ceremonies, and in police harassment of 
lay people attending recognized UBCV pagodas; 
Whereas, according to USCIRF’s 2013 Annual Report, over 
600 Hmong Protestant churches are refused legal rec-
ognition or affiliation, leaving them illegal and subject to 
harassment, detentions, and property destructions, and a 
government handbook on religion instructs government 
officials to control existing religious practice and ‘‘over-
come the extraordinary growth of Protestantism’’; 
Whereas in May 2011 the police in Dien Bien Province bru-
tally cracked down on thousands of Hmong Protestants 
who gathered near Muong Nhe Village reportedly to con-
duct various types of religious activities—the crackdown 
reportedly caused several deaths and scores of arrests, 
though no independent investigation has been allowed; 
and 
Whereas USCIRF, prominent nongovernmental organiza-
tions, and representative associations of Vietnamese- 
American, Montagnard-American, and Khmer-American 
organizations continue to call for the redesignation of 
Vietnam as a CPC: Now, therefore, be it 
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•HRES 218 IH 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) strongly encourages the Department of 
State to place Vietnam on the list of ‘‘Countries of 
Particular Concern’’ for particularly severe violations 
of religious freedom; 
(2) strongly condemns the ongoing and egre-
gious violations of religious freedom in Vietnam, in-
cluding the detention of religious leaders and the 
long-term imprisonment of individuals engaged in 
peaceful advocacy; 
(3) calls on Vietnam to lift restrictions on reli-
gious freedom, cease all expropriations of church 
properties, and implement necessary legal and polit-
ical reforms to protect religious freedom; and 
(4) urges the Department of State to dem-
onstrate clearly that the expansion of bilateral ties 
will depend on improvements in religious freedom 
and related rights. 
Æ 
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