The CPPA is a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on foreign policy, national security, human rights, refugee and international humanitarian issues.
[2] The CPPA focuses on key domestic and international public policy issues, including those in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.
The organization is described as an "outspoken supporter" and human rights proponent for ethnic, minority Laotian and Hmong people in Laos and Vietnam.
It says it organizes research and fact-finding missions in the United States and abroad with US policymakers to gain first-hand information about key issues, developments and events.
The intimidation, persecution and killing of journalists in Mindanao and the restive Southern areas of the Philippines have been give special attention by the CPPA in recent years.[7][8][when?]
During key years prior and after 9/11, Philip Smith also served as executive director, board member and officer of the Afghanistan Foundation.
In the days and weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud, Smith, the CPPA and Afghanistan Foundation worked jointly in Washington, D.C., and Capitol Hill to advocate for, and assist the Northern Alliance and moderate Pushtun, Tajik, and Ismali religious and tribal leaders in combating terrorism in Afghanistan, as well as Afghan Uzbek leader Rashid Dostum, and Uzbek ethnic forces in the Mazar-e-Sharif area and elsewhere.
The upswing in illegal logging in Southeast Asia has caused concern in many quarters about environmental destruction and human rights violations against minority jungle-dwelling peoples.
[27][28] The CPPA has issued a number of high-level joint international communiques, and appeals, with leading non-governmental organizations, especially regarding the plight of political and religious dissidents and Indochinese refugees and asylum seekers.
The communique raised concerns about United Nations findings about racial discrimination against the ethnic Hmong minority in Laos and violations of the Viet-Lao "Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" by the government and military leaders in Hanoi.
In February 2013, Smith and the CPPA wrote and editorial published by The Nation newspaper in Bangkok, Thailand (Thailand's second largest English Language Daily), urging the Lao government to abide by resolutions passed by the European Parliament calling for the release of Sombath Somphone and Hmong and Laotian political prisoners, dissidents and refugees.
From 1989-2013, Philip Smith and the CPPA were involved in major efforts to halt, stop, and reverse the forced repatriation of tens of thousands of Laotian and Hmong political refugees and asylum seekers in Southeast Asia, and were successful in having tens of thousands granted political asylum in the United States and in other third countries, including Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.
In 1995, the Center for Public Policy Analysis played a key role in commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War at ceremonies held with the Southeast Asian-American and Lao- and Hmong-American community in the Central Valley and Fresno, California.
The CPPA's Philip Smith has commented publicly, on a number of occasions, about U.S. intelligence community and Central Intelligence Agency figures, and operations, including Vietnam and Cold War era figures and activities, undertaken by both Democratic and Republican Administrations, including such officials as William Colby, Tony Poe, Lawrence Devlin and others.
[55][56][57] In 2011, the CPPA campaigned for former Hmong leader and Royal Lao Army Lieutenant General Vang Pao to be given a memorial service in Arlington National Cemetery after US authorities refused to grant him the right to be buried there.
[58] The CPPA's Executive Director, Philip Smith, wrote an editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune outlining Vang Pao's contribution to U.S. national security interests during the Vietnam War following the Lao-Hmong leaders death in 2011.
Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mark Begich (D-AK), introduced legislation seeking to grant burial honors to the Lao- and Hmong-American veterans.
Consequently, the Hmong and Lao Veterans of the Vietnam War, and their families, continue to be recognized and honored by the U.S. Congress, White House, Obama Administration, and Arlington National Cemetery.
Moreover, despite delays and some setbacks, the Lao Hmong veterans burial honors legislation continues to gather support and co-sponsors, including official co-sponsorship by U.S.