Responding to reports of an agreement between Ukrainian President Yanukovych and opposition leaders, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chairman of the House panel that legislates on international human rights, released the following statement: “The agreement deserves our full support. Its main elements – return to the 2004 constitution, national unity government, and early presidential elections – are all just. They provide a framework in which the deep conflicts in Ukrainian government and society... Read more

A Congressional hearing on the persecution of Christians exposes the horrors many people are facing worldwide for their religious beliefs. According to a new Pew Research study, hostility against religious groups has reached a high in recent years. The study cites violence across the world, including attacks on Christian-owned businesses, homes and churches. Republican Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) said during today’s hearing that he has seen the problem firsthand. Watch the latest video at video... Read more

The global persecution of Christians has gone from bad to worse, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday (Feb. 11). Smith, a New Jersey Republican, along with other U.S. House subcommittee members and various speakers gave testimony about religious hostilities against Christians worldwide. Speakers noted that religious persecution violates basic human rights. Smith likened the persecution of Christians in Iraq to genocide. “Christians remain the most persecu... Read more

By Melissa Attias (Roll Call Staff) - Advocates for the roughly 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s and their families had something to cheer when the recent fiscal 2014 spending bill was signed into law. The measure included hard-fought funding to help address the disease at a level that the Alzheimer’s Association called unprecedented. In the grand scheme of things, however, advocates acknowledge that those funds are only a modest step toward their goal of finding a cure. The top barrier to d... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees global human rights, and author of the landmark law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, appeared on the ABC daytime show Katie with host Katie Couric, and other media outlets such as CNN and BBC to discuss sex trafficking. Smith held a hearing this week entitled “Lessons Learned from Super Bowl Preparations: Preventing International Human Trafficking at Major Sporting Events,” featuring witnesses from t... Read more

By: Katie Zezima and Samantha Henry Associated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Law enforcement agents in New Jersey have redoubled efforts to fight what they worry could be one of the biggest menaces to come with next month's Super Bowl: sex trafficking. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to descend on New Jersey for the Feb. 2 football game. Many believe the state's sprawling highway system, proximity to New York City and diverse population make it an attractive base of operati... Read more

SEAN GOLDMAN was 4 years old when his Brazilian-born mother took him from their New Jersey home for what Sean’s father, David Goldman, thought would be a two-week vacation. Five years passed before the father again laid eyes on his son. “It was very painful,’’ David Goldman recalled. “The first time I saw him after nearly five years, he looked at me and asked me where have I been all this time. . . . He was told that I didn’t love him, that I abandoned him, that I never wanted him.” The only unu... Read more

By Sherrina Navani, The Trentonian - All Bindu Philips wants for Christmas are her two young sons back, and thanks to a new bill passed by the House of Representatives, she may be closer than ever to getting her wish granted. Members of the House voted unanimously, in early December, to pass a bill to help bring home American children abducted to overseas destinations. The legislation, dubbed, the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act of 2013, will help l... Read more

By Susanne Cervenka, Asbury Park Press staff -- It could be another Christmas surprise for David Goldman, the former Tinton Falls man whose son, Sean, was returned to him on Christmas Eve four years ago. This time, the gift would be the passage of a law named for Goldman and his son that would help other families whose children have been kidnapped to foreign countries. After three years of negotiations, the “Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act” is head... Read more

Given David Goldman's well-chronicled five-year ordeal to be reunited with his son, who was abducted and taken to Brazil by his mother, it might seem odd to call him lucky. But considering how difficult it is for parents whose children were taken from them by a spouse or other family member to another country to succeed in having them returned, he is lucky indeed. Despite a 1980 international treaty that prohibits parents from fleeing to other countries until custody is decided, Sean is among a ... Read more