Washington, D.C. – During a meeting this afternoon with Ted Osius, the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) discussed the need for serious human rights reforms in Vietnam.  The communist country continues to restrict human rights, in particular political and religious rights.  Human Rights Watch has described Vietnam’s human rights record as ‘dismal’ and the State Department described Vietnam’s most recent elections as ‘neither free nor fair.’  During the meeting Chairman Royce insisted that if the U.S. and Vietnam are to build a stronger relationship, the Vietnamese government must honor the basic human rights of the Vietnamese people.

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