[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 105 (Thursday, July 30, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9488-S9489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND 
    HUMANITARIAN SITUATION FACING THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF AFGHANISTAN

  (The text of the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 97), with its 
preamble, as agreed to by the Senate on July 29, 1998, is as follows:)

                            S. Con. Res. 97

       Whereas the legacy of the war in Afghanistan has had a 
     devastating impact on the civilian population, and a 
     particularly negative impact on the rights and security of 
     women and girls;
       Whereas the current environment is one in which the rights 
     of women and girls are routinely violated, leading the 
     Department of State in its 1997 Country Report on Human 
     Rights, released January 30, 1998, to conclude that women are 
     beaten for violating increasingly restrictive Taliban dress 
     codes, which require women to be covered from head to toe, 
     women are strictly prohibited from working outside the home, 
     women and girls are denied the right to an education, women 
     are forbidden from appearing outside the home unless 
     accompanied by a male family member, and beatings and death 
     result from a failure to observe these restrictions;
       Whereas the Secretary of State stated, in November 1997 at 
     the Nasir Bagh Refugee Camp in Pakistan, that if a society is 
     to move forward, women and girls must have access to schools 
     and health care, be able to participate in the economy, and 
     be protected from physical exploitation and abuse;
       Whereas Afghanistan recognizes international human rights 
     conventions such as the Convention on the Prevention and 
     Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International 
     Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on the 
     Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All 
     Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the International 
     Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which 
     espouses respect for basic human rights of all individuals 
     without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, or gender;
       Whereas the use of rape as an instrument of war is 
     considered a grave breach of the Geneva Convention and a 
     crime against humanity;
       Whereas people who commit grave breaches of the Geneva 
     Convention are to be apprehended and subject to trial;
       Whereas there is significant credible evidence that warring 
     parties, factions, and powers in Afghanistan are responsible 
     for numerous human rights violations, including the 
     systematic rape of women and girls;
       Whereas in recent years Afghan maternal mortality rates 
     have increased dramatically, and the level of women's health 
     care has declined significantly;
       Whereas there has been a marked upswing in human rights 
     violations against women and girls since the Taliban 
     coalition seized Kabul in 1996, including Taliban edicts 
     denying women and girls the right to an education, 
     employment, access to adequate health care, and direct access 
     to humanitarian aid; and
       Whereas peace and security in Afghanistan are conducive to 
     the full restoration of all human rights and fundamental 
     freedom, the voluntary repatriation of refugees to their 
     homeland in safety and dignity, the clearance of mine fields, 
     and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That Congress--
       (1) deplores the continued human rights violations by all 
     parties, factions, and powers in Afghanistan;
       (2) condemns targeted discrimination against women and 
     girls and expresses deep concern regarding the prohibitions 
     on employment and education;
       (3) strongly condemns the use of rape or other forms of 
     systematic gender discrimination by any party, faction, or 
     power in Afghanistan as an instrument of war;
       (4) calls on all parties, factions, and powers in 
     Afghanistan to respect international norms and standards of 
     human rights;
       (5) calls on all Afghan parties to bring an end without 
     delay to--

[[Page S9489]]

       (A) discrimination on the basis of gender; and
       (B) deprivation of human rights of women;
       (6) calls on all Afghan parties in particular to take 
     measures to ensure--
       (A) the effective participation of women in civil, 
     economic, political, and social life throughout the country;
       (B) respect for the right of women to work;
       (C) the right of women and girls to an education without 
     discrimination, reopening schools to women and girls at all 
     levels of education;
       (D) respect for the right of women to physical security;
       (E) those responsible for physical attacks on women are 
     brought to justice;
       (F) respect for freedom of movement of women and their 
     effective access to health care; and
       (G) equal access of women to health facilities;
       (7) supports the work of nongovernmental organizations 
     advocating respect for human rights in Afghanistan and an 
     improvement in the status of women and their access to 
     humanitarian and development assistance and programs;
       (8) calls on the international community to provide, on a 
     nondiscriminatory basis, adequate humanitarian assistance to 
     the people of Afghanistan and Afghan refugees in neighboring 
     countries pending their voluntary repatriation, and requests 
     all parties in Afghanistan to lift the restrictions imposed 
     on international aid and to cease any action which may 
     prevent or impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance;
       (9) welcomes the appointment of Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi 
     as special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for 
     Afghanistan, and encourages United Nations efforts to produce 
     a durable peace in Afghanistan consistent with the goal of a 
     broad-based national government respectful of human rights; 
     and
       (10) calls on all warring parties, factions, and powers to 
     participate with Ambassador Brahimi in an intra-Afghan 
     dialogue regarding the peace process.

     SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL ACTION BY PRESIDENT.

       It is the sense of Congress that the President and 
     Secretary of State should--
       (1) work with the United Nations High Commissioner for 
     Refugees and the international community to--
       (A) guarantee the safety of, and provide international 
     development assistance for, Afghan women's groups in Pakistan 
     and Afghanistan;
       (B) increase support for refugee programs in Pakistan 
     providing assistance to Afghan women and children with an 
     emphasis on health, education, and income-generating 
     programs; and
       (C) explore options for the resettlement of those Afghan 
     women, particularly war widows and their families, who are 
     under threat or who fear for their safety or the safety of 
     their families;
       (2) establish an Afghanistan Women's Initiative, based on 
     the successful model of the Bosnian Women's Initiative and 
     the Rwandan Women's Initiative, that is targeted at Afghan 
     women's groups, in order to--
       (A) facilitate organization among Afghan women's groups in 
     Pakistan and Afghanistan;
       (B) provide humanitarian and development services to the 
     women and the families most in need; and
       (C) promote women's economic security;
       (3) make a policy determination that--
       (A) recognition of any government in Afghanistan by the 
     United States should depend, among other things, on the human 
     rights policies towards women adopted by that government;
       (B) the United States should not recognize any government 
     which systematically maltreats women; and
       (C) any nonemergency economic or development assistance 
     will be based on respect for human rights; and
       (4) call for the creation of--
       (A) an international commission to establish a record of 
     the criminal culpability of any individual or party in 
     Afghanistan employing rape or other crimes against humanity 
     considered a grave breach of the Geneva Convention as an 
     instrument of war; and
       (B) an ad hoc international criminal tribunal by the United 
     Nations for the purposes of indicting, prosecuting, and 
     imprisoning any individual responsible for crimes against 
     humanity in Afghanistan.

     SEC. 3. REPORT.

       It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State 
     should submit a report to Congress not later than 6 months 
     after the date of the adoption of this resolution regarding 
     actions that have been taken to implement this resolution.

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