[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 726 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 726

  Calling on the President of the United States and the international 
  community to take immediate steps to respond to and prevent acts of 
  rape and sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur, Sudan, 
             eastern Chad and the Central African Republic.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 10, 2007

    Ms. DeLauro (for herself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Miller of North 
 Carolina, Ms. Norton, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Fortuno, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Lee, 
    Mr. Olver, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Ms. 
  Bordallo, Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. Lantos, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. 
  Israel, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Chabot, Mr. McCaul of Texas, Mr. 
  Fortenberry, Mr. Wexler, Ms. Watson, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. 
   Doggett, Mr. McDermott, Ms. Woolsey, Ms. Giffords, Mr. Honda, Ms. 
  Sutton, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Delahunt, Ms. McCollum of Minnesota, Mr. 
Fattah, Mr. Shays, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Shea-Porter, Mr. 
  Michaud, Mr. Crowley, Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California, Ms. Eddie 
  Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Lynch, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, Mr. 
Payne, Mr. Allen, and Mr. Chandler) submitted the following resolution; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Calling on the President of the United States and the international 
  community to take immediate steps to respond to and prevent acts of 
  rape and sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur, Sudan, 
             eastern Chad and the Central African Republic.

Whereas, during war, rape and sexual violence are often used systematically as a 
        weapon of intimidation, humiliation, terror and ethnic cleansing;
Whereas it is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women and girls were 
        raped during the genocide in Rwanda;
Whereas, on September 2, 1998, the United National International Criminal 
        Tribunal for Rwanda found Jean Paul Akayesu guilty of rape and held that 
        rape and sexual assault constitute crimes against humanity;
Whereas, on October 31, 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted 
        Security Council Resolution 1325, calling on all parties to an armed 
        conflict to take, ``special measures to protect women and girls from 
        gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual 
        abuse'';
Whereas the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which entered into 
        force on July 1, 2002, states that rape and ``any other form of sexual 
        violence of comparable gravity'' may constitute both ``crimes against 
        humanity'' and ``war crimes'';
Whereas since 2003, mass rape committed by members of the Sudanese armed forces 
        and affiliated militias with the support of the Government of Sudan has 
        been a central component of the Government of Sudan's violence and 
        ethnic cleansing in Darfur;
Whereas women and girls leaving Internally Displaced Persons camps in Darfur and 
        refugee camps in eastern Chad, to seek firewood, water or outside 
        sources of income are often attacked and subjected to rape and sexual 
        violence perpetrated by members of the Sudanese armed forces and 
        associated Janjaweed militia and other armed combatants;
Whereas, on July 19, 2004, Amnesty International reported that it collected the 
        names of 250 women who had been raped in Darfur and information on 250 
        additional rapes;
Whereas, on January 25, 2005, the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, 
        in a report to the United Nations Secretary General, reported numerous 
        cases of mass rape throughout Darfur including an incident in which a 
        large number of Janjaweed attacked a boarding school, and raped as many 
        as 110 girls;
Whereas, on March 8, 2005, Doctors Without Borders reported that between October 
        2004 and the first half of February 2005, doctors from the organization 
        treated almost 500 rape victims in numerous locations in South and West 
        Darfur;
Whereas, on March 9, 2007, members of the United Nations High-Level Mission on 
        the situation of human rights in Darfur reported that ``rape and sexual 
        assualt have been widespread and systematic, terrorizing women and 
        breaking down families and communities'' and that ``women are also 
        attacked in and around refugee camps in eastern Chad'';
Whereas, on April 27, 2007, the International Criminal Court, acting under the 
        authority provided in Security Council Resolution 1593, issued arrest 
        warrants for Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun 
        and Janjaweed Colonel Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Raham seeking their arrest 
        for 51 counts including 6 counts involving rape;
Whereas under Sudanese law victims of rape have virtually no legal recourse and 
        may in fact be charged with the crime of zina, or sexual intercourse 
        outside of marriage, punishable by one hundred lashes if the victim is 
        unmarried and death by stoning if she is married;
Whereas, on July 31, 2007, the United Nations Security Council adopted Security 
        Council Resolution 1769 authorizing the deployment of a United Nations-
        African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) to Darfur and expressing 
        strong concern about ``on-going attacks on the civilian population and 
        humanitarian workers and continued and widespread sexual violence'' 
        while ``emphasising the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of 
        such crimes''; and
Whereas, on August 20, 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
        Rights, reported on attacks, abductions and systematic rapes of women by 
        the Sudanese armed forces and associated militias occurring in Darfur, 
        as well as the resulting pregnancies, ``grave health risks,'' and 
        ``psychological trauma'' and declared that these acts may constitute war 
        crimes: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) calls upon the President of the United States to 
        develop within the United States Department of State and the 
        United States Agency for International Development a Women and 
        Girls of Darfur Initiative to improve assistance to victims and 
        potential victims of rape and sexual violence in Darfur, Sudan, 
        eastern Chad and the Central African Republic by--
                    (A) offering specialized grants to non-governmental 
                organizations, operating within IDP and refugee camps 
                in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic that 
                can provide all necessary comprehensive and quality 
                health care services and medical supplies, 
                psychological and social counseling, and legal advice 
                to Darfuri victims of rape and sexual violence;
                    (B) providing treatment for the prevention of 
                sexually transmitted diseases, including antiretroviral 
                drugs to prevent HIV infections, and specialized care 
                for rape victims already infected with HIV/AIDS and 
                other sexually transmitted diseases;
                    (C) meeting the psychological, social and 
                educational needs of victimized women, girls, children 
                born as a result of rape, their family and the 
                community in order to limit the stigmatization 
                associated with rape; and
                    (D) providing financial, technical and other forms 
                of assistance to support women's peace initiatives;
            (2) calls upon the Secretary General of the United Nations, 
        the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, 
        the African Union, the European Union, the Arab League and 
        other nations to immediately take steps to--
                    (A) ensure that a fully funded and fully equipped 
                UNAMID is deployed to Darfur, Sudan;
                    (B) mandate that UNAMID employ all necessary 
                measures to protect women and girls from acts of rape 
                and sexual violence both outside and within Darfuri 
                refugee and IDP camps;
                    (C) provide sufficient resources and training to 
                UNAMID troops and police to ensure a capability to 
                properly respond to acts of rape and sexual violence;
                    (D) provide for firewood patrols and other 
                safeguarding measures to protect women and girls 
                leaving refugee and IDP camps; and
                    (E) include an adequate number of female troops and 
                police in UNAMID to properly manage incidents of rape 
                and sexual violence;
            (3) calls on the United Nations Security Council to 
        immediately--
                    (A) find the Government of Sudan in noncompliance 
                with Security Council Resolution 1325;
                    (B) call on the Government of Sudan to provide full 
                legal protections to victims of rape and sexual 
                violence and to bring to justice individuals 
                responsible for such crimes; and
                    (C) adopt under Chapter VII of the United Nations 
                Charter a Security Council Resolution calling on the 
                Government of Sudan to respect all related Security 
                Council Resolutions, including Security Council 
                Resolution 1593, enforce the arrest warrants for Ahmad 
                Muhammad Harun and Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Raham, and 
                further recognize the systematic rape of women and 
                girls in Darfur as crimes against humanity and war 
                crimes.
                                 <all>