[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 327 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 327
Expressing the sense of the Senate on United States efforts to
encourage the governments of foreign countries to investigate and
prosecute crimes committed in those countries in the name of family
honor and to provide relief for victims of those crimes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 22, 2000
Mr. Reid submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate on United States efforts to
encourage the governments of foreign countries to investigate and
prosecute crimes committed in those countries in the name of family
honor and to provide relief for victims of those crimes.
Whereas thousands of women around the world are killed and maimed each year in
the name of family ``honor'';
Whereas the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 56th Session, January
2000, working with the Special Rapporteurs on violence against women and
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, received reports of so-
called ``honor killings'' from numerous countries, including Bangladesh,
Jordan, India, Pakistan, Ecuador, Uganda, and Morocco, and noted that
such killings take many forms, such as flogging, forced suicide,
stoning, beheading, acid-throwing, and burning;
Whereas, according to the 1999 report of the Department of State on human
rights, so-called ``crimes of honor'' in Bangladesh include acid-
throwing and whipping of women accused of moral indiscretion;
Whereas authorities in Bangladesh expect as many as 200 honor killings in that
country in 2000;
Whereas thousands of Pakistani women, including young girls, are stabbed,
burned, or maimed every year by husbands, fathers, and brothers who
accuse them of dishonoring their family by being unfaithful, seeking a
divorce, or refusing an arranged marriage;
Whereas Jordan, which had 20 reported honor killings in 1998, still has laws
reducing the penalty for or exempting perpetrators of honor crimes, and
the Jordanian parliament has twice failed to repeal those laws;
Whereas the King of Jordan has taken the commendable action of establishing
Jordan's Royal Commission on Human Rights, chaired by the Queen of
Jordan, primarily to address obstacles, including the persistence of
honor crimes, that prevent women and children from exercising their
basic human rights;
Whereas more than 5,000 dowry deaths occur every year in India, according to the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which reported in 1997 that a
dozen women die each day in kitchen fires, disguised as accidents,
because their husbands' families are dissatisfied over the size of the
women's dowries;
Whereas women accused of adultery in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates,
Pakistan, and a host of other countries are subject to a maximum penalty
of death by stoning;
Whereas, even though honor killings may be outlawed, law enforcement and
judicial systems often fail properly to investigate, arrest, and
prosecute offenders, and laws frequently permit such reductions in
sentences or exemptions from prosecution to those who kill in the name
of honor that the results are typically token punishments, impunity, and
continued violence against women; and
Whereas the right to life is the most fundamental of all rights and must be
guaranteed to every individual without discrimination, and the
perpetuation of honor killings and dowry deaths is a deliberate
violation of women's human rights that should be universally condemned:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the President, through the United States Agency for
International Development, should work with law enforcement and
judicial agencies of foreign governments to encourage the
adoption of legal system reforms that provide for the effective
investigation and prosecution of crimes known as ``honor
crimes'';
(2) the President, through the United States Agency for
International Development, should make available to local
organizations in foreign countries sufficient resources to
provide refuge and rehabilitation for women who are victims of
honor crimes and to sustain their children;
(3) the Secretary of State, when preparing annual country
reports on human rights practices, should include information
relating to the incidence of honor violence in foreign
countries, the steps taken by foreign governments to address
the problem of honor violence, and all relevant actions taken
by the United States, whether through diplomacy or foreign
assistance programs, to reduce the incidence of honor violence
and increase investigations and prosecutions of such crimes;
(4) the President should--
(A) communicate to the United Nations the concern
over the high rate of honor-related violence toward
women in foreign countries worldwide; and
(B) request that the appropriate United Nations
bodies, in consultation with relevant nongovernmental
organizations, propose actions to be taken to encourage
those countries to demonstrate strong efforts to end
such violence; and
(5) the President and the Secretary of State should,
through direct communication with leaders of countries where
honor killings, dowry deaths, and related practices are
endemic--
(A) convey the most serious concerns of the United
States about these gross violations of human rights;
and
(B) urge the leaders of those countries to
investigate and prosecute as murders all such acts with
a view to punishing the perpetrators of those acts to
the maximum extent provided under law for other murders
in those countries.
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