1.This Act may be cited as
the Afghan Women and Girls Security
Promotion Act of 2012
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2.Strategy for
promoting the security of Afghan women and girls during the security transition
process
(a)Congress
makes the following findings:
(1)According to the
Department of Defense’s April 2012 Report on Progress Toward Security and
Stability in Afghanistan:
(A)U.S. and
coalition forces will continue to degrade the Taliban-led insurgency in order
to provide time and space to increase the capacity of the Afghan National
Security Forces and the Afghan Government so they can assume full
responsibility for Afghanistan’s security by the end of 2014.
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(B)Transition
to Afghan security lead began in July 2011 and transition to full Afghan
security responsibility will be complete country-wide by the end of
2014.
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(C)The
security of the Afghan people and the stability of the government are used to
judge provincial readiness to move to each successive stage of transition
implementation.
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(D)For each area
designated for transition, a transition implementation plan is developed by the
Government of Afghanistan, NATO, and ISAF and approved by the Joint Afghan-NATO
Inteqal Board (JANIB). JANIB is also responsible for recommending areas to
enter and exit the transition process.
(2)According to a
2002 study on Women, Peace and Security submitted by the Secretary-General of
the United Nations pursuant to Security Council resolution 1325 (2000),
the suspension of or restriction on women’s enjoyment of their human
rights
can act as an early-warning indicator of impending or renewed
conflict. In Afghanistan, restrictions on women’s mobility and rights can
signal the presence of extremist or insurgent elements in a community.
(3)The security of
Afghan women and girls in areas undergoing security transitions will be an
important gauge of the transition strategy’s success. Indicators by which to
measure women’s security include the mobility of women and girls, the
participation of women in local government bodies, the rate of school
attendance for girls, women’s access to government services, and the prevalence
of violence against women.
(4)Maintaining and
improving physical security for Afghan women and girls throughout the country
is critical in order for women and girls to take advantage of opportunities in
education, commerce, politics, and other areas of public life, which in turn is
essential for the future stability and prosperity of Afghanistan.
(5)Women who serve
as public officials at all levels of the Government of Afghanistan face serious
threats to their personal security and that of their families. Many female
officials have been the victims of violent crimes, but they are generally not
afforded official protection by the Government of Afghanistan or security
forces.
(6)Protecting the
security and human rights of Afghan women and girls requires the involvement of
Afghan men and boys through education about the important benefits of women’s
full participation in social, economic, and political life. Male officials and
security personnel can play a particularly important role in supporting and
protecting women and girls.
(7)The Chicago
Summit Declaration issued by NATO in May 2012 states: As the Afghan
National Police further develop and professionalize, they will evolve towards a
sustainable, credible, and accountable civilian law enforcement force that will
shoulder the main responsibility for domestic security. This force should be
capable of providing policing services to the Afghan population as part of the
broader Afghan rule of law system.
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(8)Women face
significant barriers to full participation in the ANA and ANP, including a
discriminatory or hostile work environment and the lack of separate facilities
designed for female personnel.
(9)As of September
2012, female recruitment and retention rates for the Afghan National Security
Forces are far below published targets, as follows:
(A)Approximately
1,700 women serve in the Afghan National Security Forces, or less than half of
one percent of the total force.
(B)In 2010,
President Hamid Karzai announced plans to recruit and train 5,000 women in the
Afghan National Police, or approximately 3 percent of the force, by 2014.
Currently, there are approximately 1,370 women in the ANP, or 0.87 percent of
the police force.
(C)Approximately 350
women currently serve in the Afghan National Army, representing only 0.17
percent of the force. The Government of Afghanistan has said that its goal is
to achieve a force that is 10 percent female. As of May 2012, approximately 3
percent of new ANA recruits were women.
(10)Male security
personnel often do not respond to threats or incidences of violence against
women, particularly at the local level. They largely lack the training and
understanding needed to respond appropriately and effectively to situations
involving women. According to the Department of Defense’s April 2012 Report on
Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan:
(A)The Afghan
Ministry of Defense lacks the combination of policies, procedures, and
execution to promote opportunity and fair and respectful treatment of women in
the force
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(B)The Afghan
Ministry of Interior faces significant challenges in fully integrating
and protecting women in the ANP workforce, especially among operational units
at the provincial and district levels
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(C)In the Afghan
National Police, Many Provincial Headquarters Commanders do not accept
policewomen, as they prefer male candidates and lack adequate facilities to
support females.
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(D)While
women are greatly needed to support police operations, a combination of
cultural impediments, weak recruitment, and uneven application of policies
hinder significant progress.
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(E)Although
stronger documentation, implementation, and enforcement of policies,
procedures, and guidance to better integrate women will help, time will be
needed to change the cultural mores that form the basis of many of the current
impediments.
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(11)The United
States, the North American Treaty Organization, and United States coalition
partners have made firm commitments to support the human rights of the women
and girls of Afghanistan, as evidenced by the following actions:
(A)According to the
United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security,
integrating women and gender considerations into peace-building
processes helps promote democratic governance and long-term stability,
which are key United States strategic goals in Afghanistan.
(B)The National
Action Plan also states that the engagement and protection of women as
agents of peace and stability will be central to United States efforts to
promote security, prevent, respond to, and resolve conflict, and rebuild
societies.
This policy applies to United States Government efforts in
Afghanistan, where addressing the security vulnerabilities of Afghan women and
girls during the period of security transition is an essential step toward
long-term stability.
(C)The Chicago
Summit Declaration issued by NATO in May 2012 states: We emphasize the
importance of full participation of all Afghan women in the reconstruction,
political, peace and reconciliation processes in Afghanistan and the need to
respect the institutional arrangements protecting their rights. We remain
committed to the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution
(UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security. We recognize also the need for the
protection of children from the damaging effects of armed conflict as required
in relevant UNSCRs.
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(12)The Strategic
Partnership Agreement signed between the United States and Afghanistan by
President Obama and President Karzai in June 2012 states, Consistent
with its Constitution and international obligations, Afghanistan shall ensure
and advance the essential role of women in society, so that they may fully
enjoy their economic, social, political, civil and cultural
rights.
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(b)Strategy To
promote security of Afghan women
(1)Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in concurrence with the Secretary of State,
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a strategy to be
implemented by the Department of Defense, working with the NATO Training
Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A) and Afghan partners, to promote the security of
Afghan women during the security transition process.
(2)The
strategy required under paragraph (1) shall include the following
elements:
(A)A strategy to
monitor and respond to changes in women’s security conditions in areas
undergoing transition, including the following actions:
(i)Seeking to
designate a Civilian Impact Advisor on the Joint Afghan-NATO Inteqal Board
(JANIB) to assess the impact of transition on male and female civilians and
ensure that efforts to protect women’s rights and security are included in each
area’s transition implementation plan.
(ii)Reviewing
existing indicators against which sex-disaggregated data is collected and, if
necessary, developing additional indicators, to ensure the availability of data
that can be used to measure women’s security, such as—
(I)the mobility of
women and girls;
(II)the
participation of women in local government bodies;
(III)the rate of
school attendance for girls;
(IV)women’s access
to government services; and
(V)the prevalence of
violence against women; and incorporating those indicators into ongoing efforts
to assess overall security conditions during the transition period.
(iii)Integrating
assessments of women’s security into current procedures used to determine an
area’s readiness to proceed through the transition process.
(iv)Working with
Afghan partners, coalition partners, and relevant United States Government
departments and agencies to take concrete action to support women’s rights and
security in cases of deterioration in women’s security conditions during the
transition period.
(B)A strategy to
increase gender awareness and responsiveness among Afghan National Army and
Afghan National Police personnel, including the following actions:
(i)Working with
Afghan and coalition partners to utilize training curricula and programming
that addresses the human rights of women and girls, appropriate responses to
threats against women and girls, and appropriate behavior toward female
colleagues and members of the community; assessing the quality and consistency
of this training across regional commands; and assessing the impact of this
training on trainee behavior.
(ii)Working with
national and local ANA and ANP leaders to develop and utilize enforcement and
accountability mechanisms for ANA and ANP personnel who violate codes of
conduct related to the human rights of women and girls.
(iii)Working with
Afghan and coalition partners to implement the above tools and develop uniform
methods and standards for training and enforcement among coalition partners and
across regions.
(C)A strategy to
increase the number of female members of the ANA and ANP, including the
following actions:
(i)Providing,
through consultation with Afghan partners, realistic and achievable objectives
for the recruitment and retention of women to the ANA and ANP by the end of the
security transition period in 2014.
(ii)Working with
national and local ANA and ANP leaders and coalition partners to address
physical and cultural challenges to the recruitment and retention of female ANA
and ANP personnel, including through targeted recruitment campaigns, expanded
training and mentorship opportunities, parity in pay and promotion rates with
male counterparts, and availability of facilities for female personnel.
(iii)Working with
national and local ANA and ANP leaders to increase understanding about the
unique ways in which women members of the security forces improve the force’s
overall effectiveness.
(iv)Working with
national and local ANA and ANP leaders to develop a plan for maintaining and
increasing the recruitment and retention of women in the ANA and ANP following
the completion of the security transition.
(3)The
Secretary of Defense shall include in each report on progress toward security
and stability in Afghanistan that is submitted to Congress under sections 1230
and 1231 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (Public
Law 110–181; 122 Stat. 385, 390) a section describing actions taken to
implement the strategy required under this subsection.
(c)Appropriate
congressional committees definedIn this section, the term
appropriate congressional committees means—
(1)the Committee on
Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
(2)the Committee on
Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives.