Resolution to Support HR 2833: The Vietnam Human Rights Act

WHEREAS, the NAACP supports the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP knows and understands "harassment, discrimination and intimidation, and sometimes of imprisonment and other forms of detention, against those who peacefully express dissent from government…policy;" and

WHEREAS, the "Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the largest religious denomination in Vietnam, has been declared illegal by the Government, and over the last twenty-five years its clergy have often been imprisoned and subjected to other forms of persecution;" and

WHEREAS, "Independent Protestants, most of whom are members of ethnic minority groups, are subjected to particularly harsh treatment by the government of Vietnam. According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, such treatment includes 'police raids on homes and house churches, detention, imprisonment, confiscation of religious and personal property, physical and psychological abuse, and fines for engagement in unapproved religious activities (such as collective worship, public religious expression and distribution of religious literature, and performing baptisms, marriages, or funeral services);" and

WHEREAS, the NAACP affirms the rights of freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly and the rule of law; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP supports a democratic society without discrimination because of race, gender or religion where the voice of its citizens are heard and their voices counted; and

WHEREAS, HR 2833 – the Vietnam Human Rights Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a resounding vote of 410-1 in September 2001.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP supports HR 2833 – the Vietnam Human Rights Act and will lobby the U.S. Senate and the President of the United States to pass and sign HR 2833.