Chris Smith

Continuing to allow this sort of brutality to go on by saying nothing is the same as saying something loud and clear.

Why is the international community allowing China this cost-free deployment of soft power without any push-back, without any conditions, without any critical scrutiny?

I pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, we will all take action today for our brother and hero, Chen Guangcheng, to bring him to safety and freedom.

I would respectfully argue the overt efforts on human rights have never been tried.

The gravity of the current matter calls for urgent, immediate action from our Commander-in-Chief.

I'm hoping that this Commission will be a light.

I will actually be sitting on this side of the dais tomorrow. I'll be joining Chai Ling before the Judiciary Committee as a witness on behalf of H.R. 2121.

We urge President Obama to deny visa requests to visit America for all those who were, and are, involved in persecuting, torturing, and harassing Chen and his family.

The cruelty and extreme violence against Chen and his family brings dishonor to the Government of China, and must end.

The idea behind this bill... is to hold Lukashenko's barbaric regime in Belarus to account using every tool we could possibly think of.

I would just, before going to my good friend and colleague, just ask, has the Human Rights Council... raised the issue of Chen Guangcheng by name?

But as Michele Clark said--let me interrupt you briefly--from certain jaundiced view on the part of some, they get two things out of it. They get a wife who then they give out like she is some kind of property or commodity. And secondly…

I look forward to hearing, discussing with our witnesses today, exactly why the administration is convinced these countries need yet another year to get their acts together.

the magnet for human trafficking is in ascendancy in China.

the naming and ranking of countries based on compliance with the establishment of commonsense minimum standards

With regards to Cuba, a Tier III country which was granted a waiver on September 30 for cultural and educational exchanges, my question is how does granting that waiver actually promote democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights?

Ten years after the Taliban, not a single public Christian church remains in Afghanistan.

And for that reason, you do have very strong NGOs, you have very strong opposition parties, all of whom are more than happy to highlight these problems and try to get them addressed.

I think we are going to see bride selling and, frankly, kidnapping.

the battle is far from over

The U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom said that the situation for Christians 'worsened in the past year.'

the term 'trafficking' applied almost exclusively to illegal drugs or weapons

I have tried, me personally, to get a visa to go to Cuba, primarily to go to the prisons and to try, if possible, to meet with the political prisoners there, to meet with Fidel Castro to raise directly--or his brother Raul--the issue of…

it has made sisters scarce.

This deteriorating situation on religious freedom, that as we all know a fundamental tenet of human rights, is getting worse.