Supporting HR 1587 - The Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2003

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 imprisonment and other forms of detention, against those peacefully express dissent from government…policy;" and

WHEREAS, the "Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the largest religious denomination in the country, 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, and other forms of persecution"; and

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

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

WHEREAS, HR 2833, the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2003, and will lobby the U.S. Congress and the President of the United States to pass HR 1587.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP support HR 1587 – the Vietnam Human Rights Act 2003 and will lobby the U.S. Congress and the President of the United States to pass HR 1587.