[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 80 (Thursday, June 22, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5686-S5687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 327--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE ON UNITED 
  STATES EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE THE GOVERNMENTS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO 
 INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE CRIMES COMMITTED IN THOSE COUNTRIES IN THE 
 NAME OF FAMILY HONOR AND TO PROVIDE RELIEF FOR VICTIMS OF THOSE CRIMES

  Mr. REID submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 327

       Whereas thousands of women around the world are killed and 
     maimed each year in the name of family ``honor'';
       Whereas the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 56th 
     Session, January 2000, working with the Special Rapporteurs 
     on violence against women and extrajudicial,

[[Page S5687]]

     summary or arbitrary executions, received reports of so-
     called ``honor killings'' from numerous countries, including 
     Bangladesh, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Ecuador, Uganda, and 
     Morocco, and noted that such killings take many forms, such 
     as flogging, forced suicide, stoning, beheading, acid-
     throwing, and burning;
       Whereas, according to the 1999 report of the Department of 
     State on human rights, so-called ``crimes of honor'' in 
     Bangladesh include acid-throwing and whipping of women 
     accused of moral indiscretion;
       Whereas authorities in Bangladesh expect as many as 200 
     honor killings in that country in 2000;
       Whereas thousands of Pakistani women, including young 
     girls, are stabbed, burned, or maimed every year by husbands, 
     fathers, and brothers who accuse them of dishonoring their 
     family by being unfaithful, seeking a divorce, or refusing an 
     arranged marriage;
       Whereas Jordan, which had 20 reported honor killings in 
     1998, still has laws reducing the penalty for or exempting 
     perpetrators of honor crimes, and the Jordanian parliament 
     has twice failed to repeal those laws;
       Whereas the King of Jordan has taken the commendable action 
     of establishing Jordan's Royal Commission on Human Rights, 
     chaired by the Queen of Jordan, primarily to address 
     obstacles, including the persistence of honor crimes, that 
     prevent women and children from exercising their basic human 
     rights;
       Whereas more than 5,000 dowry deaths occur every year in 
     India, according to the United Nations Children's Fund 
     (UNICEF), which reported in 1997 that a dozen women die each 
     day in kitchen fires, disguised as accidents, because their 
     husbands' families are dissatisfied over the size of the 
     women's dowries;
       Whereas women accused of adultery in Afghanistan, the 
     United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and a host of other countries 
     are subject to a maximum penalty of death by stoning;
       Whereas, even though honor killings may be outlawed, law 
     enforcement and judicial systems often fail properly to 
     investigate, arrest, and prosecute offenders, and laws 
     frequently permit such reductions in sentences or exemptions 
     from prosecution to those who kill in the name of honor that 
     the results are typically token punishments, impunity, and 
     continued violence against women; and
       Whereas the right to life is the most fundamental of all 
     rights and must be guaranteed to every individual without 
     discrimination, and the perpetuation of honor killings and 
     dowry deaths is a deliberate violation of women's human 
     rights that should be universally condemned: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the President, through the United States Agency for 
     International Development, should work with law enforcement 
     and judicial agencies of foreign governments to encourage the 
     adoption of legal system reforms that provide for the 
     effective investigation and prosecution of crimes known as 
     ``honor crimes'';
       (2) the President, through the United States Agency for 
     International Development, should make available to local 
     organizations in foreign countries sufficient resources to 
     provide refuge and rehabilitation for women who are victims 
     of honor crimes and to sustain their children;
       (3) the Secretary of State, when preparing annual country 
     reports on human rights practices, should include information 
     relating to the incidence of honor violence in foreign 
     countries, the steps taken by foreign governments to address 
     the problem of honor violence, and all relevant actions taken 
     by the United States, whether through diplomacy or foreign 
     assistance programs, to reduce the incidence of honor 
     violence and increase investigations and prosecutions of such 
     crimes;
       (4) the President should--
       (A) communicate to the United Nations the concern over the 
     high rate of honor-related violence toward women in foreign 
     countries worldwide; and
       (B) request that the appropriate United Nations bodies, in 
     consultation with relevant nongovernmental organizations, 
     propose actions to be taken to encourage those countries to 
     demonstrate strong efforts to end such violence; and
       (5) the President and the Secretary of State should, 
     through direct communication with leaders of countries where 
     honor killings, dowry deaths, and related practices are 
     endemic--
       (A) convey the most serious concerns of the United States 
     about these gross violations of human rights; and
       (B) urge the leaders of those countries to investigate and 
     prosecute as murders all such acts with a view to punishing 
     the perpetrators of those acts to the maximum extent provided 
     under law for other murders in those countries.

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