“The President’s Visit to Vietnam: A Missed Opportunity to Advance Human Rights” is the topic of a hearing set for June 22 that will focus on human rights abuses by the Vietnamese Government on its own people. Boat People SOS, Amnesty International and religious freedom advocates will come to testify at the congressional hearing on Capitol Hill planned for Wednesday by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), chair of the House panel that oversees global human rights.

Who:   Chairman Smith, (NJ-04) Senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chair of its Subcommittee on Global Human Rights; other members of the committee, and human rights leaders:

• Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D., Executive Director of Boat People SOS

• Pastor Rmah Loan, former head of the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam in Dak Nong Province

• Katie Duong, Overseas Representative, Popular Bloc of Cao Dai Religion

• T. Kumar, Director of International Advocacy at Amnesty International

What:   House hearing on President Obama’s recent visit to Vietnam, and the Vietnamese government’s human rights violations.

Where:  2200 Rayburn Building (second floor).

When:    June 22, 2016  @ 2 p.m.

"Members of Congress have repeatedly urged the President to condition expansion of trade benefits and security partnerships on significant, verifiable, and irreversible improvements in human rights in Vietnam,” Smith said. “Despite this, President Obama has given Vietnam lucrative economic and security benefits and got very little in return. This hearing will put a spotlight on the Vietnam government’s human rights record and will consider ways for Congress to restore the right priorities to U.S.-Vietnam relations."

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