IIB 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 1410 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
AN ACT 
To promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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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 
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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 
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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 
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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-
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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-
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struction, restricted movement, and reported deaths 
at the hands of Government officials. 
(18) Ethnic minority Hmong in the Northwest 
Highlands of Vietnam also suffer restrictions, 
abuses, and persecution by the Government of Viet-
nam, and although the Government is now allowing 
some Hmong Protestants to organize and conduct 
religious activities, some Government officials con-
tinue to deny or ignore additional applications for 
registration, and to persecute churches and believers 
who do not wish to affiliate with Government-con-
trolled religious entities. 
(19) In 2007, the Government of Vietnam ar-
rested, beat, and defrocked several ethnic Khmer 
Buddhists in response to a peaceful religious protest. 
The Government continues to restrict Khmer Krom 
expression, assembly, association, and controls all re-
ligious organizations and prohibits most peaceful 
protests. 
(20) The Government of Vietnam controls all 
print and electronic media, including access to the 
Internet, jams the signals of some foreign radio sta-
tions, including Radio Free Asia, and has detained 
and imprisoned individuals who have posted, pub-
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lished, sent, or otherwise distributed democracy-re-
lated 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 
for child trafficking and continues to have internal 
human trafficking. 
(23) Although the Government of Vietnam re-
ports progress in combating human trafficking, it 
does not fully comply with the minimum standards 
for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making 
substantial efforts to comply. 
(24) United States refugee resettlement pro-
grams, including the Humanitarian Resettlement 
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(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, 
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. 
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(26) The Government of Vietnam holds tens of 
thousands of people in government-run drug deten-
tion centers and treats them as slave laborers. 
(27) To date, over 60,000 people have signed a 
petition calling on the Administration to not expand 
trade with communist Vietnam at the expense 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. 
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 
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exceeds the amount of such assistance provided dur-
ing fiscal year 2011 unless— 
(A) the Federal Government provides as-
sistance, in addition to the assistance author-
ized under section 4, supporting the creation 
and facilitation of human rights training, civil 
society capacity building, noncommercial rule of 
law programming, and exchange programs be-
tween the Vietnamese National Assembly and 
the United States Congress at levels commensu-
rate with, or exceeding, any increases in non-
humanitarian assistance to Vietnam; 
(B) with respect to the limitation for fiscal 
year 2012, 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 
(C) 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 5, 
that the requirements of subparagraphs (A) 
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through (G) of paragraph (2) have been met 
during the 12-month period covered by the re-
port. 
(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-
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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. 
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(b) EXCEPTION.— 
(1) CONTINUATION OF ASSISTANCE IN THE NA-
TIONAL INTEREST.—Notwithstanding the failure of 
the Government of Vietnam to meet the require-
ments of subsection (a)(2), the President may waive 
the application of subsection (a) for any fiscal year 
if the President determines that the provision to the 
Government of Vietnam of increased nonhumani-
tarian assistance would promote the purpose of this 
Act or is otherwise in the national interest of the 
United States. 
(2) EXERCISE
OF
WAIVER
AUTHORITY.—The 
President may exercise the authority under para-
graph (1) with respect to— 
(A) all United States nonhumanitarian as-
sistance to Vietnam; or 
(B) one or more programs, projects, or ac-
tivities of such assistance. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) 
NONHUMANITARIAN
ASSISTANCE.—The 
term ‘‘nonhumanitarian assistance’’ means— 
(A) any assistance under the Foreign As-
sistance Act of 1961 (including programs under 
title IV of chapter 2 of part I of that Act, relat-
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ing to the Overseas Private Investment Cor-
poration), other than— 
(i) disaster relief assistance, including 
any assistance under chapter 9 of part I of 
that Act; 
(ii) assistance which involves the pro-
vision of food (including monetization of 
food) or medicine; 
(iii) assistance for environmental re-
mediation of dioxin-contaminated sites and 
related health activities; 
(iv) assistance to combat severe forms 
of trafficking in persons; 
(v) assistance to combat pandemic 
diseases; 
(vi) assistance for refugees; and 
(vii) assistance to combat HIV/AIDS, 
including any assistance under section 
104A of that Act; and 
(B) sales, or financing on any terms, under 
the Arms Export Control Act. 
(2) SEVERE FORM OF TRAFFICKING IN PER-
SONS.—The term ‘‘severe form of trafficking in per-
sons’’ means any activity described in section 103(8) 
of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 
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(Public Law 106–386 (114 Stat. 1470); 22 U.S.C. 
7102(8)). 
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take effect 
on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply 
with respect to the provision of nonhumanitarian assist-
ance to the Government of Vietnam during fiscal year 
2013 and subsequent fiscal years. 
SEC. 4. UNITED STATES PUBLIC DIPLOMACY. 
(a) RADIO FREE ASIA TRANSMISSIONS
TO VIET-
NAM.—It is the sense of Congress that the United States 
should take measures to overcome the jamming of Radio 
Free Asia by the Government of Vietnam and that the 
Broadcasting Board of Governors should not cut staffing, 
funding, or broadcast hours for the Vietnamese language 
services of the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, 
which shall be done without reducing any other broadcast 
language services. 
(b) UNITED STATES EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL 
EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WITH VIETNAM.—It is the sense 
of Congress that any programs of educational and cultural 
exchange between the United States and Vietnam should 
actively promote progress toward freedom and democracy 
in Vietnam by providing opportunities to Vietnamese na-
tionals from a wide range of occupations and perspectives 
to see freedom and democracy in action and, also, by en-
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suring that Vietnamese nationals who have already dem-
onstrated a commitment to these values are included in 
such programs. 
SEC. 5. ANNUAL REPORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after the 
date of the enactment of this Act and every 12 months 
thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Con-
gress a report on the following: 
(1) The determination and certification of the 
President that the requirements of subparagraphs 
(A) through (G) of section 3(a)(2) have been met, 
if applicable. 
(2) Steps taken to carry out section 3(a)(1)(A), 
if applicable. 
(3) Efforts by the United States Government to 
promote access by the Vietnamese people to Radio 
Free Asia transmissions. 
(4) Efforts to ensure that programs with Viet-
nam promote the policy set forth in section 102 of 
the Human Rights, Refugee, and Other Foreign Pol-
icy Provisions Act of 1996 regarding participation in 
programs of educational and cultural exchange. 
(5) Lists of persons believed to be imprisoned, 
detained, or placed under house arrest, tortured, or 
otherwise persecuted by the Government of Vietnam 
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due to their pursuit of internationally recognized 
human rights. In compiling such lists, the Secretary 
shall exercise appropriate discretion, including con-
cerns regarding the safety and security of, and ben-
efit to, the persons who may be included on the lists 
and their families. In addition, the Secretary shall 
include a list of such persons and their families who 
may qualify for protections under United States ref-
ugee programs. 
(6) A description of the development of the rule 
of law in Vietnam, including— 
(A) progress toward the development of in-
stitutions of democratic governance; 
(B) processes by which statutes, regula-
tions, rules, and other legal acts of the Govern-
ment of Vietnam are developed and become 
binding within Vietnam; 
(C) the extent to which statutes, regula-
tions, rules, administrative and judicial deci-
sions, and other legal acts of the Government of 
Vietnam are published and are made accessible 
to the public; 
(D) the extent to which administrative and 
judicial decisions are supported by statements 
of reasons that are based upon written statutes, 
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regulations, rules, and other legal acts of the 
Government of Vietnam; 
(E) the extent to which individuals are 
treated equally under the laws of Vietnam with-
out regard to citizenship, race, religion, political 
opinion, or current or former associations; 
(F) the extent to which administrative and 
judicial decisions are independent of political 
pressure or governmental interference and are 
reviewed by entities of appellate jurisdiction; 
and 
(G) the extent to which laws in Vietnam 
are written and administered in ways that are 
consistent with international human rights 
standards, including the requirements of the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights. 
(b) CONTACTS WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS.—In 
preparing the report under subsection (a), the Secretary 
shall, as appropriate, seek out and maintain contacts with 
nongovernmental organizations and human rights advo-
cates (including Vietnamese-Americans and human rights 
advocates in Vietnam), including receiving reports and up-
dates from such organizations and evaluating such re-
ports. The Secretary shall also seek to consult with the 
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United States Commission on International Religious 
Freedom for appropriate sections of the report. 
Passed the House of Representatives September 11, 
2012. 
Attest: 
KAREN L. HAAS, 
Clerk. 
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