[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3122 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3122
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
April 30, 2025
Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Correa, Mr. Tran, and Ms.
Lofgren) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the
Judiciary, 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 Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Vietnam Human
Rights Act''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Statement of policy.
Sec. 4. Sanctions for human rights violations in Vietnam.
Sec. 5. Actions to combat online censorship and surveillance in
Vietnam.
Sec. 6. International religious freedom.
Sec. 7. Annual reports on United States-Vietnam human rights dialogue
meetings.
Sec. 8. Definitions.
SEC. 2. 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
countries reaching $124,000,000,000 in 2023.
(2) Expanded economic activity and trade between the United
States and Vietnam, has not been matched by greater political
freedom or substantial improvements in basic human rights for
the people of Vietnam.
(3) Vietnam remains an authoritarian state ruled by the
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) which continues to expand
cooperation with the Communist Party of China (CCP) for example
recently joining General Secretary Xi Jinping's anti-United
States ``Community of Common Destiny''.
(4) According to the Department of State, the Government of
Vietnam engaged the arbitrary arrest of political activists and
individuals who protested land seizures or other matters deemed
politically sensitive and detained at least 187 persons for
political or human rights activism.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States to--
(1) embed human rights concerns across the full spectrum of
official interactions between the Government of the United
States and the Government of Vietnam to convey the entire
spectrum of United States interests in diplomatic engagement,
including that concrete human rights improvements are key parts
of trade, security, humanitarian cooperation, and economic
development;
(2) assess Vietnam's progress toward respecting the basic
rights of workers, as described the report required by section
702 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year
2003 (Public Law 107-228; 22 U.S.C. 2151n note), to ensure that
American workers are not disadvantaged by unfair labor
practices in Vietnam, and press for Vietnam's ratification of
ILO Conventions No. 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection
of the Right to Organize) and No. 98 (Right to Organize and
Collective Bargaining) and the recognition of independent labor
unions;
(3) bar from entry into the United States imports from
Vietnam that include inputs made with forced labor from the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, such as cotton, aluminum,
polysilicon, rayon or other raw or finished materials
identified by the Department of Homeland Security, per the
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act; and
(4) to protect United States nationals and United States
businesses by taking steps to address cyber-espionage and
transnational repression efforts conducted by Vietnam's
Ministry of Public Security.
SEC. 4. SANCTIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN VIETNAM.
(a) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United States to
regularly assess reporting from intelligence, diplomatic, open source,
congressional, and nongovernmental organization sources to identify and
impose travel and financial restrictions on officials of the Government
of Vietnam and other foreign persons working directly or indirectly for
the Government of Vietnam who, based on credible evidence--
(1) are--
(A) responsible for, ordered, or are complicit in
the arbitrary detention, torture, enforced
disappearances of individuals in Vietnam seeking to
obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally
recognized human rights; or
(B) responsible for, ordered, or are complicit in
acts of significant corruption, including the
expropriation of private or public assets for personal
gain, corruption related to government contracts or the
extraction of natural resources, bribery, or the
facilitation or transfer of the proceeds of corruption
to foreign jurisdictions;
(2) are responsible for surveillance, censorship, or
detention of individuals in Vietnam for exercising the right to
the freedom of expression online or those responsible for
forcing United States companies to censor or reveal personally
identifiable information of any individual exercising this
right; or
(3) are responsible for particularly severe violations of
religious freedom (as such term is defined in section 3 of the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6402)).
(b) Sanctions.--
(1) Global magnitsky human rights accountability act.--The
President should impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky
Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note) with
respect to any person described in subsection (a)(1).
(2) Department of state, foreign operations, and related
programs appropriations act, 2019.--The Secretary of State
should impose sanctions described in section 7031(c)(1)(A) of
the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related
Programs Appropriations Act, 2019 (division F of the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019; Public Law 116-6) with
respect to any person described in subsection (a)(2).
(3) Immigration and nationality act.--The Secretary of
State should impose the sanctions described in section
212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(2)(G)) to any foreign person described in subsection
(a)(3).
(c) Report.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of State shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report on sanctions
imposed on persons described in subsection (a) under the
provisions of law described in subsection (b), including
information on--
(A) the number of times sanctions were imposed on
such persons under such provisions of law;
(B) the reasons for imposing such sanctions; and
(C) where appropriate, an identification of the
sanctioned persons.
(2) Inclusion.--The report required by this subsection
shall be submitted as part of the report required by section of
the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003
(Public Law 107-228; 22 U.S.C. 2151n note).
SEC. 5. ACTIONS TO COMBAT ONLINE CENSORSHIP AND SURVEILLANCE IN
VIETNAM.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) Vietnam continues to have one of the world's most
restrictive internet environments, with pervasive filtering of
content and the frequent arrests of bloggers and others whose
only offense is to advocate online for positions different than
those held by the government.
(2) Since 2013, the Government of Vietnam has issued laws
and decrees, including a cybersecurity law, that increased its
ability to surveil its citizens without judicial oversight or
recourse. The cybersecurity law has been used to charge
Vietnamese citizens with vague crimes of ``negating
revolutionary achievements'' and distributing ``misleading
information among the people''. Vietnam's Penal Code and Decree
15 have also been used to render many legitimate online
activities illegal, leading to the arrest and detentions of
political prisoners.
(3) Vietnam has recently enacted Decree 147, a stringent
internet regulation that took effect on December 25, 2024.
Decree 147 significantly tightens governmental control over the
internet in Vietnam, posing substantial threats to human rights
and freedom of speech by enforcing user identification,
facilitating state surveillance, and enabling rapid censorship
of online content.
(4) The Government of Vietnam uses the cybersecurity law to
require United States companies to store information in
Vietnam, censor social media posts on demand, and to turn over
sensitive personal information about users. Companies such as
Facebook and Google comply with these requests, including
through the censorship of social media content of United States
citizens and permanent resident aliens.
(5) United States companies Facebook and YouTube have been
instrumental in this crackdown, complying with Vietnam's
request to censor and ``geoblock'' content determined to
violate local Vietnamese law, which often contradicts
international law and Vietnam's treaty obligations.
(6) In the first half of 2020, Facebook increased its
content restrictions in Vietnam by 983 percent, a dramatic
increase from the second half of 2019.
(7) Facebook complied with 90 percent of Vietnam's
censorship requests and YouTube with 95 percent of such
requests, a fact the Government of Vietnam noted with
satisfaction.
(8) As of December 31, 2023, the local legal provisions
that directly enabled Facebook and YouTube's censorship,
Articles 117 and 331 of Vietnam's Penal Code, were used to
imprison most of the 258 prisoners of conscience.
(9) A free and open internet and the free flow of news and
information--
(A) are fundamental components of United States
foreign policy because they foster economic growth,
protect individual liberties, and advance national
security;
(B) are critical to the advancement of both United
States economic interests and internationally
recognized human rights globally; and
(C) are severely hindered by Vietnam's
cybersecurity law which would allow the Government of
Vietnam to access private data, spy on users, require
United States businesses to turn over personally
identifiable information or block content of users,
including outside of Vietnam, and further restrict
already limited online speech.
(b) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United States
to--
(1) pursue an open and free internet in Vietnam as an issue
promoting United States economic interests and advancing
internationally-recognized human rights;
(2) engage all appropriate United States Government
agencies to promote the free flow of news and information in
Vietnam;
(3) use all appropriate United States diplomatic
instruments to pressure the Government of Vietnam to halt
requests to force social media companies to disclose identity,
or block accounts and content of individuals whose content the
Government disapproves;
(4) use all available diplomatic instruments available to
pursue trade policies with Vietnam that expand internet freedom
and the information economy in Vietnam by--
(A) ensuring the free flow of information across
the global network;
(B) promoting stronger international transparency
rules; and
(C) ensuring fair and equal treatment of online
services regardless of country of origin; and
(5) require companies with contracts with the United States
Government that accede to requests of the Government of Vietnam
to engage in censorship or to reveal sensitive personal
information to report such requests to the Department of State
at the time such requests occur and to report the nature of
such requests and the companies' responses publicly.
(c) Actions.--The Secretary of State is authorized to take such
actions as may be necessary to--
(1) prioritize the immediate distribution of censorship
circumvention tools for computers and smartphones in Vietnam;
and
(2) prioritize projects to ensure the safety and privacy of
bloggers and journalists and human rights defenders in Vietnam.
(d) Briefing.--The Secretary of State, in consultation with the
Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative,
should brief the appropriate congressional committees on an action plan
outlining efforts to--
(1) promote internet freedom and the free flow of news and
information in Vietnam; and
(2) promote efforts to assist United States internet
companies to fulfill their stated missions to promote openness,
transparency, and connectivity by opposing requests by the
Government of Vietnam to remove political speech or content of
journalists, especially when content is removed from the
accounts of users in the United States.
SEC. 6. INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) The promotion and protection of the universally
recognized right to the freedom of religion is a priority of
United States foreign policy as stated in section 402 of the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442)
and the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and
Accountability Act of 2015 (title I of Public Law 114-26; 19
U.S.C. 4201 et seq.) which requires the Administration to take
religious freedom into account when negotiating trade
agreements.
(2) In 2024, the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom recommended to the United States Government
to designate Vietnam as a ``country of particular concern'', or
CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious
violations of religious freedom, as defined by the
International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), and to support
legislative efforts to improve religious freedom in Vietnam,
including the Vietnam Human Rights Act.
(3) On December 29, 2023, in accordance with the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the Secretary of
State, for the second consecutive year, placed Vietnam on the
Special Watch List for having engaged in or tolerated severe
violations of religious freedom.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the designation of Vietnam as a country of particular
concern for religious freedom pursuant to section 402(b)(1) of
the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C.
6442(b)(1)) would be a powerful and effective tool in
highlighting abuses of religious freedom in Vietnam and in
encouraging improvement in the respect for human rights in
Vietnam; and
(2) the Secretary of State should, in accordance with the
recommendation of the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom, designate Vietnam as a country of particular
concern for religious freedom.
SEC. 7. ANNUAL REPORTS ON UNITED STATES-VIETNAM HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE
MEETINGS.
Section 702 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year
2003 (Public Law 107-228; 22 U.S.C. 2151n note) is amended by adding at
the end the following:
``(9) Ending incidents of torture, police beatings, deaths
in police custody, and mob or societal violence targeting
religious groups or dissidents.
``(10) Returning properties of independent religious
communities or organizations that have been reportedly
expropriated by the Government of Vietnam or by government-
sanctioned religious organizations.
``(11) Addressing individual claims by United States
citizens whose properties have been expropriated by the
Government of Vietnam without effective, prompt, and fair
compensation.
``(12) Implementing section 4 of the Girls Count Act of
(Public Law 114-24; 22 U.S.C. 2151 note) and how such section
has been applied in Vietnam.
``(13) Ensuring internet freedom and specific efforts to
ensure the safety and privacy of Vietnamese bloggers and
journalists on the internet or other forms of electronic
communication.''.
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--Except as
otherwise provided, the term ``appropriate congressional
committees'' means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations
of the Senate.
(2) Internet.--The term ``internet'' has the meaning given
such term in section 231(e)(3) of the Communications Act of (47
U.S.C. 231(e)(3)).
(3) Personally identifiable information.--The term
``personally identifiable information'' means data in a form
that identifies a particular person.
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