[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 894 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 894

Expressing the continued commitment of the House of Representatives to 
  condemn and prevent the use of sexual and gender-based violence in 
armed conflict as a weapon of war and fully implement the Women, Peace, 
                          and Security Agenda.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 10, 2020

 Mr. Keating submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                    the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the continued commitment of the House of Representatives to 
  condemn and prevent the use of sexual and gender-based violence in 
armed conflict as a weapon of war and fully implement the Women, Peace, 
                          and Security Agenda.

Whereas, in April 2019, the Republic of Germany submitted a draft version of 
        United Nations Security Council Resolution 2467, reaffirming its 
        commitment to the continuation and full implementation of resolutions 
        1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 
        (2013), 2122 (2013), and 2242 (2015) on women, peace, and security;
Whereas, as reported by the Guardian and other news outlets, the United States 
        delegation opposed the original draft language on the grounds that 
        ambiguity in the language could be interpreted as supporting abortion, 
        and threatened to veto the resolution unless the paragraph was 
        eliminated entirely;
Whereas this is not the first instance in which the Trump administration has 
        attempted to dilute human rights language and reporting related to 
        reproductive health;
Whereas the resolution was intended to be a declaration of global opposition to 
        the use of sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict;
Whereas the resolution was intended to strengthen the Women, Peace, and Security 
        Agenda in the lead up to October 2020, the 20th anniversary of United 
        Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace, and 
        security, which recognized the disproportional impact that armed 
        conflict has had on women and girls and called for the inclusion of a 
        gender perspective in conflict resolution;
Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 was the first 
        recommendation by the United Nations Security Council to parties 
        involved in an armed conflict to prevent the use of sexual and gender-
        based violence in armed conflict as well as ensure the inclusion of 
        women in peace negotiations and postconflict reconstruction;
Whereas the initial draft resolution submitted by Germany in April 2019 urged 
        ``United Nations entities and donors to provide nondiscriminatory and 
        comprehensive health services, including sexual and reproductive health, 
        psychosocial, legal, and livelihood support and other multisectoral 
        services for survivors of sexual violence, taking into account the 
        specific needs of persons with disabilities.'';
Whereas the language included in the initial draft resolution was previously 
        agreed by consensus in the United Nations Security Council and was 
        intended to send a clear message of the need to support survivors and 
        that the use of rape as a weapon of war is not condoned by the global 
        community;
Whereas the inclusion of reproductive health care data as an indicator of a 
        broader human rights assessment signals the purposeful inclusion of 
        women and girls, as well as their health, in the global human rights 
        conversation;
Whereas, in spring 2019, for the second year in a row, the Trump administration 
        omitted data on reproductive health care previously included in the 
        Department of State's annual report on human rights globally;
Whereas, in September 2019, the United States led a joint statement delivered at 
        the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage 
        attacking sexual and reproductive health and rights, misrepresenting the 
        term as an attack on ``the family'';
Whereas women's security has been a priority of the House of Representatives of 
        the 116th Congress, having recently reintroduced the International 
        Violence Against Women Act;
Whereas the work of human rights defenders, including women human rights 
        defenders, in promoting civil, political, economic, social, and cultural 
        rights positively impacts the lives of women and girls around the world;
Whereas women human rights defenders are at risk of and suffer from violations 
        and abuses, including systematic violations and abuses of their 
        fundamental rights to life, liberty, and security of person, to 
        psychological and physical integrity, to privacy and respect for private 
        and family life, and to freedom of opinion and expression, association, 
        and peaceful assembly, and in addition these defenders can experience 
        gender-based violence, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, 
        harassment, and verbal abuse and attacks on reputation, online and 
        offline, by state actors, including law enforcement personnel and 
        security forces, and nonstate actors, such as those related to family 
        and community, in both public and private spheres;
Whereas historical and structural inequalities in power relations and 
        discrimination against women, as well as various forms of extremism, 
        have direct implications for the status and treatment of women; and
Whereas, as documented in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights 
        Defenders, the rights of women human rights defenders, including those 
        working on sexual and reproductive health and rights, have been violated 
        or abused and their work stigmatized owing to discriminatory practices 
        and social norms or patterns that serve to condone violence against 
        women or perpetuate practices involving such violence: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) it is the policy of the United States to ensure and 
        promote the full, equal, meaningful, and effective 
        participation of women in all aspects of overseas conflict 
        prevention, management, and resolution, and postconflict relief 
        and recovery efforts;
            (2) it is the policy of the United States to work toward 
        preventing the use of gender-based violence in armed conflict 
        and work toward ensuring accountability for victims and 
        survivors of gender-based violence;
            (3) it is the policy of the United States to promote the 
        principles espoused in United Nations Security Council 
        Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace, and security, and all 
        subsequent United Nations Security Council resolutions on 
        women, peace, and security;
            (4) the United States should adopt, as a precondition for 
        the achievement of our wider foreign development, assistance, 
        and security policy objectives, a feminist foreign policy, 
        defined as a strategy that places the promotion of gender 
        equality and the empowerment of women and girls at the center 
        of its initiatives and investment and that focuses on promoting 
        the rights of women and girls, challenging gender-based 
        discrimination, and fighting gender inequality, which includes 
        preventing gender-based violence and all forms of conflict-
        related sexual violence; and
            (5) the United States should--
                    (A) respect, protect, and fulfill the rights of 
                women and girls to bodily autonomy;
                    (B) support all future efforts by international 
                institutions and organizations to ensure universal 
                access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health 
                information and services, free of discrimination, 
                coercion, and violence;
                    (C) update and implement the United States National 
                Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, to include 
                an increased focus on the full health of women and 
                girls, including sexual and reproductive health and 
                rights;
                    (D) actively support and promote international 
                efforts to prioritize the rights and needs of women and 
                girls and ensure their full, equal, meaningful, and 
                effective participation in all areas that affect them; 
                and
                    (E) create an enabling environment to--
                            (i) ensure that women and girls human 
                        rights defenders can perform their important 
                        role of holding the government accountable to 
                        its legal obligations under international law, 
                        including under international human rights law;
                            (ii) prevent violations, abuses, threats, 
                        harassment, and violence against women and 
                        girls human rights defenders, who face 
                        particular risk because of their gender and 
                        their work;
                            (iii) combat impunity by ensuring that 
                        those responsible for violations and abuses, 
                        including gender-based violence and threats 
                        against women and girls human rights defenders, 
                        committed by state and nonstate actors, 
                        including online, are promptly brought to 
                        justice through impartial investigations; and
                            (iv) ensure accountability by respecting, 
                        protecting, and fulfilling victims' and 
                        survivors' right to an effective remedy.
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