Vietnam Human Rights Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3172 To advance United States national interests by prioritizing the protection of internationally recognized human rights and development of the rule of law in relations between the United States and Vietnam, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 10, 2023 Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Ms. LOFGREN, Mrs. STEEL, and Mr. CORREA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judi- ciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To advance United States national interests by prioritizing the protection of internationally recognized human rights and development of the rule of law in relations between the United States and Vietnam, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4 ‘‘Vietnam Human Rights Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 3172 IH (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 1 this Act is as follows: 2 Sec. 1. Short title. Sec. 2. Statement of policy. Sec. 3. Assistance for political and religious prisoners in Vietnam. Sec. 4. Sanctions with respect to human rights violations in Vietnam. Sec. 5. Actions to combat online censorship and surveillance in Vietnam. Sec. 6. Annual country reports on human rights practices. Sec. 7. Prohibition on funding for the Ministry of Public Security of the Gov- ernment of Vietnam. Sec. 8. International religious freedom. Sec. 9. United States assistance to support counting of women and girls in Vietnam. Sec. 10. Annual reports on United States-Vietnam human rights dialogue meet- ings. Sec. 11. Restrictions on nonhumanitarian assistance to the Government of Viet- nam. Sec. 12. Definitions. SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 3 It is the policy of the United States to— 4 (1) prioritize as a matter of strategic impor- 5 tance the Government of Vietnam’s violations of uni- 6 versally recognized human rights, fundamental free- 7 doms, and the rule of law to ensure the long-term 8 sustainability of the United States-Vietnam strategic 9 partnership; 10 (2) embed human rights concerns across the 11 full spectrum of official interactions between the 12 Government of the United States and the Govern- 13 ment of Vietnam and convey during diplomatic en- 14 gagements that concrete human rights improvements 15 are key parts of any discussions on trade, security, 16 humanitarian cooperation, and economic develop- 17 ment; 18 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 3172 IH (3) assess Vietnam’s progress toward respecting 1 the basic rights of workers, as described in each re- 2 port required by section 702 of the Foreign Rela- 3 tions Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public 4 Law 107–228; 22 U.S.C. 2151n note) and in light 5 of the commitments specified in the United States- 6 Vietnam Plan for Enhancement of Trade and Labor 7 Relations, notwithstanding the fact that the Trans 8 Pacific Partnership did not go into effect; 9 (4) press for Vietnam’s ratification of ILO Con- 10 ventions No. 87 (Freedom of Association and Pro- 11 tection of the Right to Organize) and No. 98 (Right 12 to Organize and Collective Bargaining) and the rec- 13 ognition of independent labor unions; and 14 (5) evaluate future trade negotiations with the 15 Government of Vietnam in accordance with the cri- 16 teria set forth for country eligibility under sub- 17 sections (b)(2) and (c) of section 502 of the Trade 18 Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2462), relating to the Gen- 19 eralized System of Preferences, and in accordance 20 with the provisions of the Bipartisan Congressional 21 Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 22 (title I of Public Law 114–26; 19 U.S.C. 4201 et 23 seq.). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 3172 IH SEC. 3. ASSISTANCE FOR POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS PRIS- 1 ONERS IN VIETNAM. 2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 3 (1) There are over 160 Vietnamese political and 4 religious prisoners currently detained in Vietnam, 5 nearly half of whom were arrested due to expression 6 or activities online. 7 (2) Prisoners include human rights defenders, 8 bloggers, lawyers, religious leaders, trade unionists, 9 land rights activists, political dissidents, environ- 10 mental campaigners, and others arrested for exer- 11 cising their internationally guaranteed rights or to 12 promote and protect the rights of others. 13 (b) ASSISTANCE.— 14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall 15 provide assistance to individuals in Vietnam and ap- 16 propriate civil society organizations outside Vietnam 17 that work to secure the release of political and reli- 18 gious prisoners in Vietnam, and to current and 19 former political and religious prisoners in Vietnam. 20 (2) ACTIVITIES.—Assistance required by this 21 subsection shall include the following activities: 22 (A) Support for the documentation of 23 human rights violations with respect to political 24 and religious prisoners. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 3172 IH (B) Support for advocacy to raise aware- 1 ness of issues relating to political and religious 2 prisoners. 3 (C) Support for efforts to repeal or amend 4 laws or regulations used to detain individuals 5 seeking to exercise internationally recognized 6 human rights. 7 (D) Support, including travel costs, legal 8 fees, and other appropriate expenses, for fami- 9 lies of religious and political prisoners. 10 (E) Support for health, including mental 11 health, and post-incarceration assistance in 12 gaining access to education and employment op- 13 portunities or other forms of reparation to en- 14 able former political and religious prisoners to 15 resume a normal life. 16 (c) DISCUSSIONS.—As part of a ‘‘whole of govern- 17 ment’’ approach to human rights improvements in Viet- 18 nam, the Secretary of State and other United States offi- 19 cials, in discussions with the Government of Vietnam, 20 should seek, as a critical condition of stronger United 21 States-Vietnam relations, the repeal of laws and regula- 22 tions used to detain political and religious prisoners and 23 the immediate and unconditional release of all political 24 and religious prisoners. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 3172 IH SEC. 4. SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO HUMAN RIGHTS VIO- 1 LATIONS IN VIETNAM. 2 (a) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—It is the policy of the 3 United States to regularly assess reporting from intel- 4 ligence, diplomatic, open source, congressional, and non- 5 governmental organization sources to identify and impose 6 travel and financial restrictions on officials of the Govern- 7 ment of Vietnam and other foreign persons working di- 8 rectly or indirectly for the Government of Vietnam who, 9 based on credible evidence— 10 (1) are— 11 (A) responsible for, ordered, or are 12 complicit in the arbitrary detention, torture, en- 13 forced disappearances of individuals in Vietnam 14 seeking to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote 15 internationally recognized human rights; or 16 (B) responsible for, ordered, or are 17 complicit in acts of significant corruption, in- 18 cluding the expropriation of private or public 19 assets for personal gain, corruption related to 20 government contracts or the extraction of nat- 21 ural resources, bribery, or the facilitation or 22 transfer of the proceeds of corruption to foreign 23 jurisdictions; 24 (2) are responsible for surveillance, censorship, 25 or detention of individuals in Vietnam for exercising 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 3172 IH the right to the freedom of expression online or 1 those responsible for forcing United States compa- 2 nies to censor or reveal personally identifiable infor- 3 mation of any individual exercising this right; or 4 (3) are responsible for particularly severe viola- 5 tions of religious freedom (as such term is defined 6 in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom 7 Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6402)). 8 (b) SANCTIONS.— 9 (1) GLOBAL MAGNITSKY HUMAN RIGHTS AC- 10 COUNTABILITY ACT.—The President should impose 11 sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human 12 Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note) 13 with respect to any person described in subsection 14 (a)(1). 15 (2) DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPER- 16 ATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS 17 ACT, 2019.—The Secretary of State should impose 18 sanctions described in section 7031(c)(1)(A) of the 19 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Re- 20 lated Programs Appropriations Act, 2019 (division 21 F of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019; 22 Public Law 116–6) with respect to any person de- 23 scribed in subsection (a)(2). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 3172 IH (3) IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT.—The 1 Secretary of State should impose the sanctions de- 2 scribed in section 212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration 3 and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)) to 4 any foreign person described in subsection (a)(3). 5 (c) REPORT.— 6 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall 7 submit to the appropriate congressional committees 8 a report on sanctions imposed on persons described 9 in subsection (a) under the provisions of law de- 10 scribed in subsection (b), including information on— 11 (A) the number of times sanctions were 12 imposed on such persons under such provisions 13 of law; 14 (B) the reasons for imposing such sanc- 15 tions; and 16 (C) where appropriate, an identification of 17 the sanctioned persons. 18 (2) INCLUSION.—The report required by this 19 subsection shall be submitted as part of the report 20 required by section 702 of the Foreign Relations Au- 21 thorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107– 22 228; 22 U.S.C. 2151n note) (as amended by section 23 10 of this Act). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •HR 3172 IH SEC. 5. ACTIONS TO COMBAT ONLINE CENSORSHIP AND 1 SURVEILLANCE IN VIETNAM. 2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 3 (1) Vietnam continues to have one of the 4 world’s most restrictive internet environments, with 5 pervasive filtering of content and the frequent ar- 6 rests of bloggers and others whose only offense is to 7 advocate online for positions different than those 8 held by the government. 9 (2) Since 2013, the Government of Vietnam has 10 issued laws and decrees, including a cybersecurity 11 law, that increased its ability to surveil its citizens 12 without judicial oversight or recourse. The cyberse- 13 curity law has been used to charge Vietnamese citi- 14 zens with vague crimes of ‘‘negating revolutionary 15 achievements’’ and distributing ‘‘misleading informa- 16 tion among the people’’. Vietnam’s Penal Code and 17 Decree 15 have also been used to render many legiti- 18 mate online activities illegal, leading to the arrest 19 and detentions of political prisoners. 20 (3) The Government of Vietnam uses the cyber- 21 security law to require United States companies to 22 store information in Vietnam, censor social media 23 posts on demand, and to turn over sensitive personal 24 information about users. Companies such as 25 Facebook and Google comply with these requests, in- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •HR 3172 IH cluding through the censorship of social media con- 1 tent of United States citizens and permanent resi- 2 dent aliens. 3 (4) United States companies Facebook and 4 YouTube have been instrumental in this crackdown, 5 complying with Vietnam’s request to censor and 6 ‘‘geoblock’’ content determined to violate local Viet- 7 namese law, which often contradicts international 8 law and Vietnam’s treaty obligations. 9 (5) In the first half of 2020, Facebook in- 10 creased its content restrictions in Vietnam by 983 11 percent, a dramatic increase from the second half of 12 2019. 13 (6) Facebook complied with 90 percent of Viet- 14 nam’s censorship requests in 2020 and YouTube 15 with 95 percent of such requests, a fact the Govern- 16 ment of Vietnam noted with satisfaction. 17 (7) The local legal provisions that directly en- 18 abled Facebook and YouTube’s censorship, articles 19 117 and 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, also were 20 used to imprison most of the 27 prisoners of con- 21 science who were jailed in 2020. 22 (8) A free and open internet and the free flow 23 of news and information— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:59 Jul 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3172.IH H3172 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 11 •HR 3172 IH (A) are fundamental components of United 1 States foreign policy because they foster eco- 2 nomic growth, protect individual liberties, and 3 advance national security; 4 (B) are critical to the advancement of both 5 United States economic interests and inter- 6 nationally recognized human rights globally; 7 and 8 (C) are severely hindered by Vietnam’s cy- 9 bersecurity law which would allow the Govern- 10 ment of Vietnam to access private data, spy on 11 users, require United States businesses to turn 12 over personally identifiable information or block 13 content of users, including outside of Vietnam, 14 and further restrict already limited online 15 speech. 16 (b) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—It is the policy of the 17 United States to— 18 (1) pursue an open and free internet in Viet- 19 nam as an issue promoting United States economic 20 interests and advancing internationally recognized 21 human rights; 22 (2) engage all appropriate United States Gov- 23 ernment agencies to promote the free flow of news 24 and information in Viet [Text truncated for display. 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