I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION 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
APRIL30, 2025
Mr. S
MITHof New Jersey (for himself, Mr. CORREA, Mr. TRAN, and Ms. LOF-
GREN) 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 Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Vietnam Human Rights Act’’. 5
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(b) TABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 1
this Act is as follows: 2
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 meet-
ings.
Sec. 8. Definitions.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
3
Congress finds the following: 4
(1) The relationship between the United States 5
and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has grown 6
substantially since the end of the trade embargo in 7
1994, with annual trade between the countries 8
reaching $124,000,000,000 in 2023. 9
(2) Expanded economic activity and trade be-10
tween the United States and Vietnam, has not been 11
matched by greater political freedom or substantial 12
improvements in basic human rights for the people 13
of Vietnam. 14
(3) Vietnam remains an authoritarian state 15
ruled by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) 16
which continues to expand cooperation with the 17
Communist Party of China (CCP) for example re-18
cently joining General Secretary Xi Jinping’s anti- 19
United States ‘‘Community of Common Destiny’’. 20
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(4) According to the Department of State, the 1
Government of Vietnam engaged the arbitrary arrest 2
of political activists and individuals who protested 3
land seizures or other matters deemed politically 4
sensitive and detained at least 187 persons for polit-5
ical or human rights activism. 6
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 7
It is the policy of the United States to— 8
(1) embed human rights concerns across the 9
full spectrum of official interactions between the 10
Government of the United States and the Govern-11
ment of Vietnam to convey the entire spectrum of 12
United States interests in diplomatic engagement, 13
including that concrete human rights improvements 14
are key parts of trade, security, humanitarian co-15
operation, and economic development; 16
(2) assess Vietnam’s progress toward respecting 17
the basic rights of workers, as described the report 18
required by section 702 of the Foreign Relations Au-19
thorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107– 20
228; 22 U.S.C. 2151n note), to ensure that Amer-21
ican workers are not disadvantaged by unfair labor 22
practices in Vietnam, and press for Vietnam’s ratifi-23
cation of ILO Conventions No. 87 (Freedom of As-24
sociation and Protection of the Right to Organize) 25
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and No. 98 (Right to Organize and Collective Bar-1
gaining) and the recognition of independent labor 2
unions; 3
(3) bar from entry into the United States im-4
ports from Vietnam that include inputs made with 5
forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous 6
Region, such as cotton, aluminum, polysilicon, rayon 7
or other raw or finished materials identified by the 8
Department of Homeland Security, per the Uyghur 9
Forced Labor Prevention Act; and 10
(4) to protect United States nationals and 11
United States businesses by taking steps to address 12
cyber-espionage and transnational repression efforts 13
conducted by Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security. 14
SEC. 4. SANCTIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN 15
VIETNAM. 16
(a) S
TATEMENT OFPOLICY.—It is the policy of the 17
United States to regularly assess reporting from intel-18
ligence, diplomatic, open source, congressional, and non-19
governmental organization sources to identify and impose 20
travel and financial restrictions on officials of the Govern-21
ment of Vietnam and other foreign persons working di-22
rectly or indirectly for the Government of Vietnam who, 23
based on credible evidence— 24
(1) are— 25
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(A) responsible for, ordered, or are 1
complicit in the arbitrary detention, torture, en-2
forced disappearances of individuals in Vietnam 3
seeking to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote 4
internationally recognized human rights; or 5
(B) responsible for, ordered, or are 6
complicit in acts of significant corruption, in-7
cluding the expropriation of private or public 8
assets for personal gain, corruption related to 9
government contracts or the extraction of nat-10
ural resources, bribery, or the facilitation or 11
transfer of the proceeds of corruption to foreign 12
jurisdictions; 13
(2) are responsible for surveillance, censorship, 14
or detention of individuals in Vietnam for exercising 15
the right to the freedom of expression online or 16
those responsible for forcing United States compa-17
nies to censor or reveal personally identifiable infor-18
mation of any individual exercising this right; or 19
(3) are responsible for particularly severe viola-20
tions of religious freedom (as such term is defined 21
in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom 22
Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6402)). 23
(b) S
ANCTIONS.— 24
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(1) GLOBAL MAGNITSKY HUMAN RIGHTS AC -1
COUNTABILITY ACT.—The President should impose 2
sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human 3
Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note) 4
with respect to any person described in subsection 5
(a)(1). 6
(2) D
EPARTMENT OF STATE , FOREIGN OPER-7
ATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS 8
ACT, 2019.—The Secretary of State should impose 9
sanctions described in section 7031(c)(1)(A) of the 10
Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Re-11
lated Programs Appropriations Act, 2019 (division 12
F of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019; 13
Public Law 116–6) with respect to any person de-14
scribed in subsection (a)(2). 15
(3) I
MMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT .—The 16
Secretary of State should impose the sanctions de-17
scribed in section 212(a)(2)(G) of the Immigration 18
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(G)) to 19
any foreign person described in subsection (a)(3). 20
(c) R
EPORT.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall 22
submit to the appropriate congressional committees 23
a report on sanctions imposed on persons described 24
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in subsection (a) under the provisions of law de-1
scribed in subsection (b), including information on— 2
(A) the number of times sanctions were 3
imposed on such persons under such provisions 4
of law; 5
(B) the reasons for imposing such sanc-6
tions; and 7
(C) where appropriate, an identification of 8
the sanctioned persons. 9
(2) I
NCLUSION.—The report required by this 10
subsection shall be submitted as part of the report 11
required by section of the Foreign Relations Author-12
ization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107–228; 13
22 U.S.C. 2151n note). 14
SEC. 5. ACTIONS TO COMBAT ONLINE CENSORSHIP AND 15
SURVEILLANCE IN VIETNAM. 16
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 17
(1) Vietnam continues to have one of the 18
world’s most restrictive internet environments, with 19
pervasive filtering of content and the frequent ar-20
rests of bloggers and others whose only offense is to 21
advocate online for positions different than those 22
held by the government. 23
(2) Since 2013, the Government of Vietnam has 24
issued laws and decrees, including a cybersecurity 25
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law, that increased its ability to surveil its citizens 1
without judicial oversight or recourse. The cyberse-2
curity law has been used to charge Vietnamese citi-3
zens with vague crimes of ‘‘negating revolutionary 4
achievements’’ and distributing ‘‘misleading informa-5
tion among the people’’. Vietnam’s Penal Code and 6
Decree 15 have also been used to render many legiti-7
mate online activities illegal, leading to the arrest 8
and detentions of political prisoners. 9
(3) Vietnam has recently enacted Decree 147, 10
a stringent internet regulation that took effect on 11
December 25, 2024. Decree 147 significantly 12
tightens governmental control over the internet in 13
Vietnam, posing substantial threats to human rights 14
and freedom of speech by enforcing user identifica-15
tion, facilitating state surveillance, and enabling 16
rapid censorship of online content. 17
(4) The Government of Vietnam uses the cyber-18
security law to require United States companies to 19
store information in Vietnam, censor social media 20
posts on demand, and to turn over sensitive personal 21
information about users. Companies such as 22
Facebook and Google comply with these requests, in-23
cluding through the censorship of social media con-24
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tent of United States citizens and permanent resi-1
dent aliens. 2
(5) United States companies Facebook and 3
YouTube have been instrumental in this crackdown, 4
complying with Vietnam’s request to censor and 5
‘‘geoblock’’ content determined to violate local Viet-6
namese law, which often contradicts international 7
law and Vietnam’s treaty obligations. 8
(6) In the first half of 2020, Facebook in-9
creased its content restrictions in Vietnam by 983 10
percent, a dramatic increase from the second half of 11
2019. 12
(7) Facebook complied with 90 percent of Viet-13
nam’s censorship requests and YouTube with 95 14
percent of such requests, a fact the Government of 15
Vietnam noted with satisfaction. 16
(8) As of December 31, 2023, the local legal 17
provisions that directly enabled Facebook and 18
YouTube’s censorship, Articles 117 and 331 of Viet-19
nam’s Penal Code, were used to imprison most of 20
the 258 prisoners of conscience. 21
(9) A free and open internet and the free flow 22
of news and information— 23
(A) are fundamental components of United 24
States foreign policy because they foster eco-25
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nomic growth, protect individual liberties, and 1
advance national security; 2
(B) are critical to the advancement of both 3
United States economic interests and inter-4
nationally recognized human rights globally; 5
and 6
(C) are severely hindered by Vietnam’s cy-7
bersecurity law which would allow the Govern-8
ment of Vietnam to access private data, spy on 9
users, require United States businesses to turn 10
over personally identifiable information or block 11
content of users, including outside of Vietnam, 12
and further restrict already limited online 13
speech. 14
(b) S
TATEMENT OFPOLICY.—It is the policy of the 15
United States to— 16
(1) pursue an open and free internet in Viet-17
nam as an issue promoting United States economic 18
interests and advancing internationally-recognized 19
human rights; 20
(2) engage all appropriate United States Gov-21
ernment agencies to promote the free flow of news 22
and information in Vietnam; 23
(3) use all appropriate United States diplomatic 24
instruments to pressure the Government of Vietnam 25
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to halt requests to force social media companies to 1
disclose identity, or block accounts and content of 2
individuals whose content the Government dis-3
approves; 4
(4) use all available diplomatic instruments 5
available to pursue trade policies with Vietnam that 6
expand internet freedom and the information econ-7
omy in Vietnam by— 8
(A) ensuring the free flow of information 9
across the global network; 10
(B) promoting stronger international 11
transparency rules; and 12
(C) ensuring fair and equal treatment of 13
online services regardless of country of origin; 14
and 15
(5) require companies with contracts with the 16
United States Government that accede to requests of 17
the Government of Vietnam to engage in censorship 18
or to reveal sensitive personal information to report 19
such requests to the Department of State at the 20
time such requests occur and to report the nature of 21
such requests and the companies’ responses publicly. 22
(c) A
CTIONS.—The Secretary of State is authorized 23
to take such actions as may be necessary to— 24
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(1) prioritize the immediate distribution of cen-1
sorship circumvention tools for computers and 2
smartphones in Vietnam; and 3
(2) prioritize projects to ensure the safety and 4
privacy of bloggers and journalists and human rights 5
defenders in Vietnam. 6
(d) B
RIEFING.—The Secretary of State, in consulta-7
tion with the Secretary of Commerce and the United 8
States Trade Representative, should brief the appropriate 9
congressional committees on an action plan outlining ef-10
forts to— 11
(1) promote internet freedom and the free flow 12
of news and information in Vietnam; and 13
(2) promote efforts to assist United States 14
internet companies to fulfill their stated missions to 15
promote openness, transparency, and connectivity by 16
opposing requests by the Government of Vietnam to 17
remove political speech or content of journalists, es-18
pecially when content is removed from the accounts 19
of users in the United States. 20
SEC. 6. INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 21
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 22
(1) The promotion and protection of the univer-23
sally recognized right to the freedom of religion is a 24
priority of United States foreign policy as stated in 25
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section 402 of the International Religious Freedom 1
Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442) and the Bipartisan 2
Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability 3
Act of 2015 (title I of Public Law 114–26; 19 4
U.S.C. 4201 et seq.) which requires the Administra-5
tion to take religious freedom into account when ne-6
gotiating trade agreements. 7
(2) In 2024, the United States Commission on 8
International Religious Freedom recommended to 9
the United States Government to designate Vietnam 10
as a ‘‘country of particular concern’’, or CPC, for 11
engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious viola-12
tions of religious freedom, as defined by the Inter-13
national Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), and to sup-14
port legislative efforts to improve religious freedom 15
in Vietnam, including the Vietnam Human Rights 16
Act. 17
(3) On December 29, 2023, in accordance with 18
the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, 19
the Secretary of State, for the second consecutive 20
year, placed Vietnam on the Special Watch List for 21
having engaged in or tolerated severe violations of 22
religious freedom. 23
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-24
gress that— 25
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(1) the designation of Vietnam as a country of 1
particular concern for religious freedom pursuant to 2
section 402(b)(1) of the International Religious 3
Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)) would 4
be a powerful and effective tool in highlighting 5
abuses of religious freedom in Vietnam and in en-6
couraging improvement in the respect for human 7
rights in Vietnam; and 8
(2) the Secretary of State should, in accordance 9
with the recommendation of the United States Com-10
mission on International Religious Freedom, des-11
ignate Vietnam as a country of particular concern 12
for religious freedom. 13
SEC. 7. ANNUAL REPORTS ON UNITED STATES-VIETNAM 14
HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE MEETINGS. 15
Section 702 of the Foreign Relations Authorization 16
Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107–228; 22 U.S.C. 17
2151n note) is amended by adding at the end the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(9) Ending incidents of torture, police beat-20
ings, deaths in police custody, and mob or societal 21
violence targeting religious groups or dissidents. 22
‘‘(10) Returning properties of independent reli-23
gious communities or organizations that have been 24
reportedly expropriated by the Government of Viet-25
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nam or by government-sanctioned religious organiza-1
tions. 2
‘‘(11) Addressing individual claims by United 3
States citizens whose properties have been expropri-4
ated by the Government of Vietnam without effec-5
tive, prompt, and fair compensation. 6
‘‘(12) Implementing section 4 of the Girls 7
Count Act of (Public Law 114–24; 22 U.S.C. 2151 8
note) and how such section has been applied in Viet-9
nam. 10
‘‘(13) Ensuring internet freedom and specific 11
efforts to ensure the safety and privacy of Viet-12
namese bloggers and journalists on the internet or 13
other forms of electronic communication.’’. 14
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 15
In this Act: 16
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -17
TEES.—Except as otherwise provided, the term ‘‘ap-18
propriate congressional committees’’ means the 19
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep-20
resentatives and the Committee on Foreign Rela-21
tions of the Senate. 22
(2) I
NTERNET.—The term ‘‘internet’’ has the 23
meaning given such term in section 231(e)(3) of the 24
Communications Act of (47 U.S.C. 231(e)(3)). 25
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(3) PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMA -1
TION.—The term ‘‘personally identifiable informa-2
tion’’ means data in a form that identifies a par-3
ticular person. 4
Æ
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