A resolution authored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) that calls on Russian President Vladimir Putin to step-up efforts to investigate a decade-long string of mysterious murders of journalists in Russia was overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives today. Read more

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, having personally visited Uganda in April 2006, I chaired a hearing on the endangered children of northern Uganda for the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations. We heard from a number of witnesses and we raised it and continue to raise it with the administration. But one of our witnesses was a particularly noteworthy person, Grace Akallo. Grace is, or was, a child soldier, an abducted ... Read more

The State Department yesterday added seven countries, including four Arab allies, to its list of worst offenders in failing to suppress human trafficking and forced labor, which it called "a modern day form of slavery." Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the author of the nation’s historic Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and two subsequent expansions of the law, today warned that the US State Department’s annual report on human trafficking reveals a “creeping complacency that must be nipped in the bud since the thugs who traffic in human beings never grow tired of exploiting women and children for profit, they have to be hunted down and prosecuted.” Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) called on governments around the world—including the U.S.—to expand Holocaust education and renew their commitments to eradicating anti-Semitism in the remarks he delivered at the closing session of an anti-Semitism conference in Bucharest, Romania this weekend. Read more

On behalf of the United States delegation, I would like to thank our Romanian hosts and you, the ministers, ambassadors, NGOs and my fellow delegates for engaging in a discussion of how to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance in the OSCE. Let me also commend the Romanian Foreign Minister, Mr. Adrian Cioroianu for proposing to host a regional anti-Semitism meeting. That is a magnificent gesture from Romania. Read more

June 5, 2007 Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend and colleague for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Ms. Lee for introducing H. Res. 422, which calls on the government of the People's Republic of China to use its unique influence and economic leverage to stop the atrocities being committed in Darfur. This measure builds on numerous steps that this Congress and the United States Government, through the White House and the executive branch, have taken over the past several ... Read more

A resolution authored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) that calls on Russian President Vladimir Putin to step-up efforts to investigate a decade-long string of mysterious murders of journalists in Russia was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday and became a focal point of discussion during a U.S. Helsinki Commission hearing today. Read more

Last year, 244 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in New Jersey — more than in any state other than New York. This made for a slight decline since 2005, but any act of anti-Semitism is unacceptable. Read more

A Catholic priest who has already spent over 13 years in prison is rearrested and sentenced to eight more years for serving as an advisor to a democracy movement and a new political party. A woman, whose husband had recently been released from jail after serving time for spreading pro-democracy material, is hit by a car -- believed to be driven and occupied by plainclothes police officers -- in an effort to intimidate her and prevent her from meeting with the U.S. Ambassador. A lawyer who travels to the U.S. to serve as a Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy is arrested within a week of his return home, and charged with engaging in activities aimed at overthrowing the government. Read more