SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2012’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings and purpose. 
Sec. 3. Prohibition on increased nonhumanitarian assistance to the Government 
of Vietnam. 
Sec. 4. United States public diplomacy. 
Sec. 5. Annual report. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(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 two countries 
reaching over $20,000,000,000 in 2011. 
(2) The Government of Vietnam’s transition to-
ward greater economic freedom and trade has not 
been matched by greater political freedom and sub-
stantial improvements in basic human rights for Vi-
etnamese citizens, including freedom of religion, ex-
pression, association, and assembly. 
(3) The United States Congress agreed to Viet-
nam 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) 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 imprisoned numerous individ-
uals for their peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, 
democracy, and human rights, including Father 
Nguyen Van Ly, human rights lawyers Nguyen Van 
Dai, Le Thi Cong Nhan, Cu Huy Ha Vu, and Le
Cong Dinh, and bloggers Nguyen Van Hai and Phan 
Thanh Hai. 
(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 has also failed 
to improve labor rights, continues to arrest and har-
ass labor leaders, and restricts the right to organize 
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, 
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 
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) 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 restric-
tions on religious activities. Credible reports indicate 
that the protests were met with violent response as 
many demonstrators were arrested, injured, or went 
into hiding, and that others were killed. Many of 
these Montagnards and others are still serving long 
sentences for their involvement in peaceful dem-
onstrations in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2008. 
Montagnards continue to face threats, detention, 
beatings, forced renunciation of faith, property de-
nalists, bloggers, and democracy and labor ac-
tivists. 
(D) The Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress toward repealing or revis-
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.