The purpose of today’s hearing is to examine the action taken by the British and Irish governments in order to comply with the Cory Collusion Inquiry Reports. Read more

The Subcommittee will come to order. The Subcommittee will today hear testimony concerning the continuing problem of human trafficking. The U.S. Government now estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 women, children and men are bought and sold across international borders each year and exploited through forced labor or commercial sex exploitation, potentially millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries. Eighty percent of the victims are women and girls. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign citizens are trafficked into the United States each year. Read more

Good Afternoon. With the concurrence of Chairman Burton, this joint Subcommittee will now come to order. This afternoon, we will examine “Year Two of Castro’s Brutal Crackdown in Cuba.” I want to thank the Chairman of our Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Dan Burton, for agreeing to this joint hearing. I also want to thank our respective Ranking Democratic Members, Mr. Payne and Mr. Menendez, for their support in organizing this important hearing. Read more

The Subcommittee will come to order. I am pleased today to welcome you to the first meeting of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations in the 109th Congress. This new subcommittee brings together three previously separate jurisdictions –Africa, the promotion of human rights around the world, and authorization of U.S. funding of the State Department and other international organizations – into one “super” subcommittee. We have before us a powerful tool to promote basic human rights, defend oppressed people, and ensure that America’s foreign aid programs truly help create jobs for the poor, promote better health for those suffering from diseases like AIDS, malaria, TB and malnutrition, and secure protections for women and children at risk of abuse or exploitation. I am also pleased that my friend and colleague from New Jersey, Rep. Don Payne, is serving as Ranking Member. Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Vice-Chairman of the House International Relations Committee today welcomed news from the Vietnamese government announcing the planned release of Fr. Nguyen Van Ly and Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, two internationally famous Vietnamese political prisoners who have been held unjustly in prison for the last several years. Read more

While surveying humanitarian relief efforts in Sri Lanka, Congressman Smith met with Howell, New Jersey resident, Lance Corporal Richard Moran who was deployed to Sri Lanka to operate Marine Corps Water Purification Units capable of treating nearly any water source and turning it into clean water at the rate of thousands of gallons per day. Congressman Smith is pictured here with Lance Corporal Moran outside of Colombo, Sri Lanka. In addition to Sri Lanka, Smith toured Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and Phuket, Thailand as part of a congressional delegation preparing new legislation aimed at helping tsunami victims rebuild their lives. The legislation will provide specific protections for children who are susceptible to water-born disease and most vulnerable to sex traffickers who prey on poor, abandoned or orphaned children. Read more

During his recent trip to the tsunami-devastated region, Congressman Smith also visited areas that were destroyed by the giant waves that came ashore without warning on December 26, killing over 30,000 people in Sri Lanka alone. Smith is pictured here visiting a US-funded school, in which over 2/3 of the students perished in the disaster. One of Smith’s priorities is to back development of an early warning system and expand microloan programs, which will help poor families and municipalities rebuild their businesses and livelihoods. Read more

During Congressman Chris Smith’s recent survey of humanitarian relief efforts in South Asia, he visited a relocation center in Sri Lanka for tsunami survivors. Smith is pictured here listening to the stories of tsunami victims at the center. Many had lost multiple family members, including their children. Smith is supporting Congressional legislation which will provide additional funding for emergency food and shelter, assist with family reunification efforts, and help the recovery of lives and livelihoods. In particular, the legislation will help protect orphaned children at risk of abuse from sex traffickers by providing for the physical, social and educational needs of children and preventing sex trafficking rings from setting up operations in post-conflict and natural disaster situations. Read more

Today the Committee on International Relations is meeting to examine the appalling issue of the continued and systematic use of coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the implementation of its “One-Child” policy. In particular, we will hear testimony about the deplorable case of Mao Hengfeng, a victim of a forced abortion whose ongoing attempts to receive justice have resulted in her sentencing to 18 months of hard labor, during which she has been tortured, denied vitally-needed medicine, and whose life is in danger today. Read more

Human rights experts, State Department officials and a surviving victim of China’s one-child per couple policy came to Capitol Hill today to further expose the ongoing brutality of China’s coercive population program and its disregard for fundamental human rights. Read more