[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 97 Referred in House (RFH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. CON. RES. 97


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 30, 1998

          Referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of Congress concerning the human rights and 
   humanitarian situation facing the women and girls of Afghanistan.

Whereas the legacy of the war in Afghanistan has had a devastating impact on the 
        civilian population, and a particularly negative impact on the rights 
        and security of women and girls;
Whereas the current environment is one in which the rights of women and girls 
        are routinely violated, leading the Department of State in its 1997 
        Country Report on Human Rights, released January 30, 1998, to conclude 
        that women are beaten for violating increasingly restrictive Taliban 
        dress codes, which require women to be covered from head to toe, women 
        are strictly prohibited from working outside the home, women and girls 
        are denied the right to an education, women are forbidden from appearing 
        outside the home unless accompanied by a male family member, and 
        beatings and death result from a failure to observe these restrictions;
Whereas the Secretary of State stated, in November 1997 at the Nasir Bagh 
        Refugee Camp in Pakistan, that if a society is to move forward, women 
        and girls must have access to schools and health care, be able to 
        participate in the economy, and be protected from physical exploitation 
        and abuse;
Whereas Afghanistan recognizes international human rights conventions such as 
        the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
        Genocide, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 
        Covenant on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination 
        of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the International 
        Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which espouses 
        respect for basic human rights of all individuals without regard to 
        race, religion, ethnicity, or gender;
Whereas the use of rape as an instrument of war is considered a grave breach of 
        the Geneva Convention and a crime against humanity;
Whereas people who commit grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are to be 
        apprehended and subject to trial;
Whereas there is significant credible evidence that warring parties, factions, 
        and powers in Afghanistan are responsible for numerous human rights 
        violations, including the systematic rape of women and girls;
Whereas in recent years Afghan maternal mortality rates have increased 
        dramatically, and the level of women's health care has declined 
        significantly;
Whereas there has been a marked upswing in human rights violations against women 
        and girls since the Taliban coalition seized Kabul in 1996, including 
        Taliban edicts denying women and girls the right to an education, 
        employment, access to adequate health care, and direct access to 
        humanitarian aid; and
Whereas peace and security in Afghanistan are conducive to the full restoration 
        of all human rights and fundamental freedom, the voluntary repatriation 
        of refugees to their homeland in safety and dignity, the clearance of 
        mine fields, and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) deplores the continued human rights violations by all 
        parties, factions, and powers in Afghanistan;
            (2) condemns targeted discrimination against women and 
        girls and expresses deep concern regarding the prohibitions on 
        employment and education;
            (3) strongly condemns the use of rape or other forms of 
        systematic gender discrimination by any party, faction, or 
        power in Afghanistan as an instrument of war;
            (4) calls on all parties, factions, and powers in 
        Afghanistan to respect international norms and standards of 
        human rights;
            (5) calls on all Afghan parties to bring an end without 
        delay to--
                    (A) discrimination on the basis of gender; and
                    (B) deprivation of human rights of women;
            (6) calls on all Afghan parties in particular to take 
        measures to ensure--
                    (A) the effective participation of women in civil, 
                economic, political, and social life throughout the 
                country;
                    (B) respect for the right of women to work;
                    (C) the right of women and girls to an education 
                without discrimination, reopening schools to women and 
                girls at all levels of education;
                    (D) respect for the right of women to physical 
                security;
                    (E) those responsible for physical attacks on women 
                are brought to justice;
                    (F) respect for freedom of movement of women and 
                their effective access to health care; and
                    (G) equal access of women to health facilities;
            (7) supports the work of nongovernmental organizations 
        advocating respect for human rights in Afghanistan and an 
        improvement in the status of women and their access to 
        humanitarian and development assistance and programs;
            (8) calls on the international community to provide, on a 
        nondiscriminatory basis, adequate humanitarian assistance to 
        the people of Afghanistan and Afghan refugees in neighboring 
        countries pending their voluntary repatriation, and requests 
        all parties in Afghanistan to lift the restrictions imposed on 
        international aid and to cease any action which may prevent or 
        impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance;
            (9) welcomes the appointment of Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi 
        as special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for 
        Afghanistan, and encourages United Nations efforts to produce a 
        durable peace in Afghanistan consistent with the goal of a 
        broad-based national government respectful of human rights; and
            (10) calls on all warring parties, factions, and powers to 
        participate with Ambassador Brahimi in an intra-Afghan dialogue 
        regarding the peace process.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL ACTION BY PRESIDENT.

    It is the sense of Congress that the President and Secretary of 
State should--
            (1) work with the United Nations High Commissioner for 
        Refugees and the international community to--
                    (A) guarantee the safety of, and provide 
                international development assistance for, Afghan 
                women's groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan;
                    (B) increase support for refugee programs in 
                Pakistan providing assistance to Afghan women and 
                children with an emphasis on health, education, and 
                income-generating programs; and
                    (C) explore options for the resettlement of those 
                Afghan women, particularly war widows and their 
                families, who are under threat or who fear for their 
                safety or the safety of their families;
            (2) establish an Afghanistan Women's Initiative, based on 
        the successful model of the Bosnian Women's Initiative and the 
        Rwandan Women's Initiative, that is targeted at Afghan women's 
        groups, in order to--
                    (A) facilitate organization among Afghan women's 
                groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan;
                    (B) provide humanitarian and development services 
                to the women and the families most in need; and
                    (C) promote women's economic security;
            (3) make a policy determination that--
                    (A) recognition of any government in Afghanistan by 
                the United States should depend, among other things, on 
                the human rights policies towards women adopted by that 
                government;
                    (B) the United States should not recognize any 
                government which systematically maltreats women; and
                    (C) any nonemergency economic or development 
                assistance will be based on respect for human rights; 
                and
            (4) call for the creation of--
                    (A) an international commission to establish a 
                record of the criminal culpability of any individual or 
                party in Afghanistan employing rape or other crimes 
                against humanity considered a grave breach of the 
                Geneva Convention as an instrument of war; and
                    (B) an ad hoc international criminal tribunal by 
                the United Nations for the purposes of indicting, 
                prosecuting, and imprisoning any individual responsible 
                for crimes against humanity in Afghanistan.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

    It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State should 
submit a report to Congress not later than 6 months after the date of 
the adoption of this resolution regarding actions that have been taken 
to implement this resolution.

            Passed the Senate July 29, 1998.

            Attest:

                                                    GARY SISCO,

                                                             Secretary.