1.Short title; table of
contents
(a)This Act may be cited as the International Violence Against Women Act of
2012
.
(b)The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Statement of policy.
Sec. 4. Office for Global Women’s Issues.
Sec. 5. Comprehensive international strategy and assistance to
reduce and prevent violence against women and girls.
Sec. 6. Assistance to prevent and respond to violence against
women and girls internationally.
Sec. 7. Ensuring accountability of the United States response
to violence against women and girls internationally.
Sec. 8. Enhancing United States training of foreign military
and police forces and judicial officials on violence against women and
girls.
Sec. 9. Addressing violence against women and girls in
humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, conflict, and postconflict
settings.
2.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)Approximately 1
out of every 3 women throughout the world will be beaten, experience physical
or sexual violence, or be otherwise abused in her lifetime. The World Health
Organization (WHO) has reported that up to 70 percent of women in some
countries report having been victims of domestic violence at some stage in
their lives.
(2)The status of
women is an indicator for the overall direction of society, serving as a
valuable barometer for social unrest and instability.
(3)Addressing women’s
and girls’ rights can improve security as World Bank data shows a strong
correlation between gender inequality and violence within a state.
(4)Violence against
women and girls dramatically impedes progress in meeting all of our global
health goals, including efforts to stem maternal mortality and the spread of
HIV/AIDS. Approximately 1 in 4 women are abused during pregnancy, which,
according to WHO, has been linked to miscarriage, preterm labor, low birth
weight, fetal distress, and death. Women who have experienced violence are also
at higher risk for contracting HIV, and women living with HIV may be up to 3
times more likely to experience violence than other women. Fear of violence
also prevents women from accessing HIV/AIDS information and receiving treatment
and counseling.
(5)Increasing women’s
access to economic opportunities is crucial to preventing and responding to
domestic and sexual violence. Microfinance-based interventions and increased
asset control reduce levels of intimate partner violence and provide economic
independence for survivors.
(6)Displaced,
refugee, and stateless women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, conflict
settings, and natural disasters face extreme violence and threats because of
power inequities, including—
(A)being forced to
exchange sex for food and humanitarian supplies; and
(B)being at increased
risk of rape, sexual exploitation, and abuse.
(7)Rape and sexual
assault against women and girls are used to torture, intimidate, and terrorize
women and their communities.
(8)Research shows that working with men and
boys to change attitudes towards women can have a profound impact on reducing
violence against women.
(9)According to the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), child marriage—
(A)is a harmful
practice that deprives girls of their dignity and human rights;
(B)can result in
bonded labor or enslavement, commercial sexual exploitation, and violence
against the victims;
(C)significantly
increases the risk of maternal death and morbidity, infant mortality and
morbidity, obstetric fistula, and sexually transmitted diseases, including
HIV/AIDS; and
(D)is perpetuated by
poverty, a lack of educational or employment opportunities for girls, parental
concerns to ensure sexual relations within marriage, the dowry system, and the
perceived lack of value of girls.
3.It is the policy of the
United States to—
(1)systematically
integrate and coordinate efforts to prevent and respond to violence against
women and girls internationally into United States foreign policy and foreign
assistance programs;
(2)promote women’s
political, economic, educational, social, cultural, civil, and human rights and
opportunities throughout the world;
(3)support and build
capacity of indigenous nongovernmental organizations that are working to
prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally,
particularly women’s nongovernmental organizations and groups involving male
advocates;
(4)prevent and
respond to violence against women and girls internationally through
multisectoral methods, working at individual, family, community, local,
national, and international levels and incorporating service, prevention,
training, and advocacy activities and economic, education, health, legal, and
protective intervention services;
(5)enhance training
and other prevention and response to violence against women and girls
internationally in humanitarian relief, conflict, and post-conflict
settings;
(6)enhance training
by United States personnel of professional foreign military and police forces
and judicial officials to include specific and thorough instruction on
preventing and responding to violence against women and girls
internationally;
(7)more regularly
engage men and boys as community leaders, partners, and advocates in ending
violence against women and girls;
(8)support efforts to
end child marriage as an important part of preventing violence against girls by
promoting education and skills building for girls, community programs, and
increased economic opportunities for women to achieve development objectives;
and
(9)ensure that
private security firms contracted for service in conflict, humanitarian, and
postconflict settings appropriately report on, and respond to, violence against
women and girls internationally.
4.Office for Global
Women’s Issues
(a)The
Secretary of State shall establish in the Office of the Secretary of the
Department of State an Office for Global Women’s Issues (in this section
referred to as the Office
). The Office shall be headed by an
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues (in this section referred to as
the Ambassador-at-Large
), who shall be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The
Ambassador-at-Large shall report directly to the Secretary and shall have the
rank and status of Ambassador-at-Large.
(b)In
addition to the duties described in subsection (c) and those duties determined
by the Secretary of State, the Office shall coordinate efforts of the United
States Government regarding gender integration and empowerment of women in
United States foreign policy.
(c)
(1)The Ambassador-at-Large—
(A)shall coordinate and advise on activities,
policies, programs, and funding relating to gender integration and empowerment
of women internationally, including those intended to prevent and respond to
violence against women, for all bureaus and offices of the Department of State
and in the international programs of other United States Government departments
and agencies;
(B)shall actively
promote and advance the full integration of gender analysis into the programs,
structures, processes, and capacities of all bureaus and offices of the
Department of State and in the international programs of other United States
Government departments and agencies;
(C)shall direct, as
appropriate, United States Government resources to respond to needs for gender
integration and empowerment of women in United States Government foreign
policies and international programs, including to prevent and respond to
violence against women and girls internationally; and
(D)may design,
support, and implement activities regarding empowerment of women
internationally, including for the prevention and response of violence against
women and girls internationally.
(2)The Ambassador-at-Large shall coordinate and consult with
all relevant United States Government departments and agencies, particularly
the United States Agency for International Development, the Millennium
Challenge Corporation, and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, on all
policies, programs, and funding of such departments and agencies relating to
gender integration and empowerment of women, including ending violence against
women and girls internationally.
(3)Diplomatic
representationSubject to the direction of the President and the
Secretary of State, the Ambassador-at-Large is authorized to represent the
United States in matters relevant to the status of women, including violence
against women and girls internationally.
(d)Subject
to the guidance of the Ambassador-at-Large, the heads of all bureaus and
offices of the Department of State, as appropriate, shall evaluate and monitor
all empowerment of women programs administered by such bureaus and offices and
annually submit to the Ambassador-at-Large reports containing an accounting of
such programs and their effectiveness.
(e)The Secretary of
State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development shall fully integrate gender into all diplomatic and development
efforts of the Department of State and the United States Agency for
International Development, respectively, through the inclusion of gender in
strategic planning and budget allocations, and the development of indicators
and evaluation mechanisms to measure the impact of United States policies and
programs on women and girls in foreign countries.
(f)Monitoring and
evaluation
(1)The Office shall seek to coordinate with United States
Government departments and agencies and should provide advice and guidance, as
necessary, to United States Government departments and agencies engaged in
international programs, to monitor and evaluate empowerment of women programs
and outcomes and impacts of such programs, including programs such departments
and agencies administer for prevention and response to violence against women
and girls internationally.
(2)The
heads of United States Government departments and agencies with international
programs described in paragraph (1) shall provide to the Office on an annual
basis information on empowerment of women programs and outcomes and impacts of
such programs, including for prevention and response to violence against women
and girls internationally, in order to contribute to the development and
implementation of the comprehensive strategy required under section 5.
(g)Authorization of
appropriationsThere is authorized to be appropriated such sums
as may be necessary, under the heading Diplomatic and Consular
Programs
, to carry out activities under this section. Funds
appropriated pursuant to this subsection are in addition to amounts otherwise
available for such purposes.
5.Comprehensive
international strategy and assistance to reduce and prevent violence against
women and girls
(a)Development and
implementation of strategyNot later than 1 year after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, with the assistance of
the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development,
shall—
(1)develop a
comprehensive, 5-year international strategy to prevent and respond to violence
against women and girls internationally;
(2)submit the
strategy developed under paragraph (1) to the Committee on Foreign Relations of
the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives; and
(3)make the strategy
available to the public.
(b)Collaboration
and coordinationIn developing the strategy under subsection (a),
the Secretary of State shall consult with—
(1)Federal
departments and agencies that have expertise in preventing and responding to
violence against women and girls or administering international programs;
and
(2)representatives of
civil society organizations with demonstrated experience in combating violence
against women and girls or promoting women’s health or women’s development
issues internationally.
(c)The
strategy developed under subsection (a) shall—
(1)identify eligible countries (not classified
as high-income countries in the most recent edition of the World Development
Report for Reconstruction and Development, published by the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development) with significant levels of violence against
women and girls that have the government or nongovernmental organizational
capacity to manage and implement gender-based violence prevention and response
program activities and should, when possible, be geographically, ethnically,
and culturally diverse from one another;
(2)select at least 5
of the eligible countries identified under paragraph (1) in which to develop a
comprehensive and holistic individual country plan that incorporates at least 2
of the program activities listed in subsection (d);
(3)assess and
describe the current or potential capacity of the government of each eligible
country selected under paragraph (2) and civil society organizations in each
such eligible country to address and respond to violence against women and
girls;
(4)identify and
coordinate with Federal departments and agencies that—
(A)have existing
programs relevant to the strategy;
(B)will be involved
in new program activities; and
(C)coordinate with
broader United States strategies around development;
(5)describe the
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms established for each eligible country, and
their use in assessing overall progress in prevention and response;
(6)project general
levels of resources needed to achieve the stated objectives in each eligible
country, including an accounting of—
(A)activities and
funding already expended by the Department of State, the United States Agency
for International Development, other Federal departments and agencies, other
donor country governments, and other multilateral institutions; and
(B)leveraged private
sector resources;
(7)include
capacity-building and technical assistance for community-based women’s
nongovernmental organizations and community-based organizations with
demonstrated experience relating to prevention and response, including
combating violence against women and girls internationally;
(8)identify and
coordinate with existing nongovernmental and multilateral programs,
initiatives, and groups with demonstrated experience in prevention and response
internationally, particularly coordinating with women’s organizations and
community-based groups;
(9)integrate gender
analysis into the strategy for each country to ensure that the roles of women,
girls, men, and boys are appropriately addressed; and
(10)include, as
appropriate, strategies designed to accommodate the needs of stateless,
internally displaced, refugee, religious, or ethnic minority women and
girls.
(d)Program
activities supportedThe strategy developed under subsection (a)
for an eligible country shall contain a country plan that incorporates at least
two of the following program activities:
(1)Development and
enforcement of civil and criminal legal and judicial sanctions, protections,
training, and capacity.
(2)Development and
implementation of programs, including programs targeting men and boys and media
campaigns, that work to change social norms and attitudes so that violence
against women and girls is neither condoned nor tolerated.
(3)Ensuring
accessible quality educational and literacy opportunities for women and
girls.
(4)Promotion of
access to economic opportunity projects, including increasing distribution,
credit, property, and inheritance rights for women and girls.
(5)Enhancing the
capacity of the health sector to prevent and respond to violence against women
and girls.
(6)Supporting the
elimination of obstacles faced by women to political participation to encourage
democratic principles.
6.Assistance to
prevent and respond to violence against women and girls
internationally
(a)The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the
United States Agency for International Development are authorized to provide
assistance pursuant to the comprehensive international strategy developed under
section 5 for eligible countries identified and selected under such section,
including to support program activities described in subsection (d) of such
section. Assistance under this section shall be provided through Department of
State and United States Agency for International Development implementing
agencies, including local and international civil society organizations,
multilateral institutions, and governments of eligible countries, in accordance
with existing procedures.
(b)Coordination of
existing assistance programsThe Secretary of State and the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall,
to the maximum extent practicable, coordinate programs, projects, and
activities under this section with other programs, projects, and activities to
prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally under
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) and other foreign
assistance laws, as applicable.
(c)Any funds made
available under this section to nongovernmental or civil society organizations
should be made available to organizations that—
(1)have demonstrated
experience regarding violence against women and girls internationally or have
entered into a partnership with an organization with such experience;
and
(2)have demonstrated
capabilities or experience in a particular program activity described in
section 5(d).
(d)The Secretary of
State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development shall brief Congress upon request, on the transparent mechanisms
used to ensure that funds made available under this section through
nongovernmental organizations are awarded to organizations described in
subsection (c).
(e)Grants to
women’s nongovernmental organizations and community-Based
organizationsTo the extent
possible, 10 percent of the amount of assistance provided to an eligible
country under this section should be provided to community-based organizations,
including community-based women’s nongovernmental organizations. The
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall
brief Congress, upon request, on efforts made to assist such organizations to
be eligible for such assistance.
(f)Assistance provided under this section shall be provided
through an open, competitive, and transparent process to the extent
possible.
(g)A
recipient of assistance under this section—
(1)where possible,
shall allocate a reasonable portion of such grants for data collection and the
evaluation of program effectiveness;
(2)shall be
responsible for developing and reporting on outcomes and impacts relating to
preventing and responding to violence against women and girls
internationally;
(3)should gather
input from women’s nongovernmental organizations or community-based
organizations in recipient countries, including organizations with experience
in working with men and boys to prevent violence; and
(4)shall consider the
safety of women and girls as a primary concern in deciding how to design,
implement, monitor, and evaluate programs.
7.Ensuring
accountability of the United States response to violence against women and
girls internationally
(a)The
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is amended—
(1)in section 116(d)
(22 U.S.C. 2151n(d)), by adding at the end the following:
(g)The report required by subsection (d) shall
include, wherever applicable, the nature and extent of violence against women
and girls.
(h)The report required by subsection (d) shall
include, for each country in which child marriage is prevalent, a description
of the status of the practice of child marriage in such country. In this
subsection, the term child marriage means the marriage of a girl
or boy, who has not attained the age of 18 but who has attained the minimum age
for marriage stipulated in law or who has not attained the age of 18 if no such
law exists, in the country in which such girl or boy is a
resident.
;
and
(2)in section 502B
(22 U.S.C. 2304), by adding at the end the following:
(j)The report
required by subsection (b) shall include, wherever applicable, the nature and
extent of violence against women and girls.
(k)The report required by subsection (b) shall
include, for each country in which child marriage is prevalent, a description
of the status of the practice of child marriage in such country. In this
subsection, the term child marriage means the marriage of a girl
or boy, who has not attained the age of 18 but who has attained the minimum age
for marriage stipulated in law or who has not attained the age of 18 if no such
law exists, in the country in which such girl or boy is a
resident.
.
(b)Upon
request, the Secretary of State shall provide to Congress the information made
available under sections 5(b) and 6(b), including outcomes and impacts related
to prevention and response to violence against women and girls internationally
submitted by contractors, subcontractors, grantees, and subgrantees, unless
such disclosure would inhibit the security or effectiveness of such
entities.
(c)Research and
data collectionThe Secretary
of State, with assistance from the Administrator of the United States Agency
for International Development and in consultation with the Secretary of Health
and Human Services and the Attorney General—
(1)shall seek to
coordinate data collection and evaluations of international violence against
women and girls programs; and
(2)may provide
financial assistance for original research or analysis of effective
interventions to prevent or respond to violence against women and girls
internationally.
(d)Amounts authorized to be appropriated in this section may
be used to—
(1)collect and
analyze new or existing data on the scope and extent of all forms of violence
against women and girls internationally, including under documented forms of
violence and violence against marginalized groups;
(2)conduct research
on effective interventions to respond to violence against women and girls
internationally, including efforts to scaleup effective programming; and
(3)support systemic
data collection using internationally comparable indicators, norms, and
methodologies for measuring the scope, prevalence, and incidence of violence
against women and girls internationally.
8.Enhancing United
States training of foreign military and police forces and judicial officials on
violence against women and girls
(a)The
purpose of this section is to ensure that United States programs to train
foreign military, police, and judicial officials include instruction on
prevention of and response to violence against women and girls.
(b)The
Secretary of State is authorized to provide guidance to the Secretary of
Defense, as appropriate, on how to—
(1)incorporate training on prevention and
response to violence against women and girls into the basic training curricula
of foreign military forces, police forces, and judicial officials under covered
programs;
(2)ensure that assistance under covered
programs to units involved in regional or multilateral peacekeeping operations
includes training on prevention and response to violence against women and
girls; and
(3)engage community-based nongovernmental
organizations in the monitoring of actions taken by foreign military forces,
police forces, and judicial officials to prevent and respond to violence
against women and girls.
(c)The programs referred to in subsection (a)
include—
(1)programs carried
out by the Secretary of Defense under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2151 et seq.); and
(2)programs
authorized under section 1206 of the National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2006 (Public Law 109–163; Stat. 3456).
9.Addressing
violence against women and girls in humanitarian relief, peacekeeping,
conflict, and postconflict settings
(a)Activities of
the department of state with USAIDThe Secretary of State and the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall
ensure that—
(1)assistance made
available for humanitarian relief, conflict mitigation, and post-conflict
reconstruction—
(A)prevents and
responds to violence against women and girls;
(B)builds the
capacity of local partners to address the special protection needs of women and
children;
(C)supports survivors
of violence through education, essential medical and psychosocial assistance,
trauma counseling, family and community reinsertion and reunification, and
economic opportunity programs; and
(D)provides legal
services for women and girls who are victims of violence;
(2)assistance made
available for disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation, and
reintegration—
(A)provides
protection and suitable separate facilities in demobilization and transit
centers for women and girls formerly involved in, or associated with, fighting
forces;
(B)offers equitable
opportunities for such women and girls, including access to schooling,
vocational training, employment, and childcare;
(C)provides essential
medical care and psychosocial support for such women and girls; and
(D)incorporates
efforts to prevent future violence against women and girls by former
combatants;
(3)specialists in
violence against women and girls are designated and deployed, as appropriate,
as an integral part of Disaster Assistance Response Teams to ensure the
integration of prevention and response to violence against women and girls
internationally in strategies and programming; and
(4)contractors,
grantees, and governments that carry out programs with United States
assistance—
(A)train humanitarian
workers in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls,
including in the use of mechanisms to report violence against women and
girls;
(B)conduct
appropriate public outreach to make known to the host community the mechanisms
to report violence against women and girls; and
(C)promptly and
appropriately respond to reports of violence against women and girls and treat
survivors in accordance with best practices regarding confidentiality.
(b)Coordination of
united states government effortsThe Secretary of State shall
regularly consult with the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General to
coordinate design and implementation of programs relevant to the purposes of
this section.
(c)Sense of
congress regarding accountability of united nations peacekeeping and police
forces and their capacity To address violence against women and
girlsIt is the sense of
Congress that the Secretary of State should encourage the Secretary-General of
the United Nations to continue to strengthen the ability of the United Nations
Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support to
prevent and respond to violence against women and girls by—
(1)requiring troop
and police contributing countries to properly train their forces deployed in
United Nations peacekeeping operations on the United Nations guidance regarding
violence against women and girls, including sexual exploitation and
abuse;
(2)ensuring effective
implementation of the zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse in
United Nations peacekeeping and humanitarian operations; and
(3)supporting the
expansion of the role and number of female officers in all United Nations
peacekeeping missions, whether as military or police forces, civilian staff or
military observers.
(d)Emergency
response to credible reports of critical or widespread violence against women
and girls
(1)The Secretary of State, acting through the heads of
relevant bureaus and offices of the Department of State, shall—
(A)identify critical
or widespread incidents of violence against women and girls in situations of
armed conflict when such incidents occur, through consultation with other
Federal departments and agencies, the United Nations, international
organizations, and nongovernmental organizations;
(B)determine
emergency response measures not later than 45 days after such identification;
and
(C)brief Congress,
upon request, on the implementation of such emergency response measures and
outcomes not later than 90 days after such determination.
(2)The
emergency measures developed under paragraph (1) shall include a description of
bilateral diplomatic efforts with—
(A)the government of
the country in which the violence is occurring;
(B)governments in the
region in which the violence is occurring; and
(C)other donor
governments.