[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 69 (Thursday, May 8, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2876-S2877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. BOXER (for herself, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Collins, Mr. Kirk, 
        and Mrs. Shaheen):
  S. 2307. A bill to prevent international violence against women, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to join with my colleagues, 
Senators Boxer, Kirk, Menendez, and Shaheen, in introducing the 
International Violence Against Women Act of 2014. This bill makes 
ending violence against women and girls a top diplomatic priority. It 
would permanently authorize the State Department's Office of Global 
Women's Issues and the position of the Ambassador-at-Large for Global 
Women's Issues.
  It requires the administration to develop and implement an annual 
strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls for 
each of the next 5 years. This legislation will ensure that the efforts 
begun under President George W. Bush and continued by President Barack 
Obama to combat gender-based violence will be a priority for future 
administrations as well.
  We have witnessed great strides in women's equality in our own 
country and in much of the developed world over the past century. 
Across vast swaths of the globe, however, violence against women and 
forced marriages are everyday occurrences. One out of three women 
worldwide will be physically, sexually or otherwise abused during her 
lifetime, with rates reaching 70 percent in some countries.
  This violence ranges from domestic violence to rape and acid 
burnings, to dowry deaths and so-called honor killings. Such violence 
is often exacerbated in humanitarian emergencies and conflict settings. 
Violence against women and girls is a human rights issue, a public 
health epidemic, and a barrier to solving global challenges such as 
extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, and conflict.
  The world has just seen an appalling example of women and girls being 
treated as property and bargaining chips in Nigeria, where the 
terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 school girls and is 
threatening to sell them into sexual slavery and into forced marriages. 
Tragically, there are reports that some have already been sold into 
child marriages. Boko Haram's leaders said the girls should get married 
and never be educated. He has said:


[[Page S2877]]


       I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off 
     a girl at the age of 9.

  In fact, the very name of this terrorist group roughly translates to 
the phrase ``Western education is sinful.'' Sadly, this is a viewpoint 
that is not just limited to terrorist leaders, though it is difficult 
to think of a more egregious example of abuse against girls than what 
we have just witnessed in Nigeria. The International Center for 
Research on Women says that one in nine girls around the world is 
married before the age of 15, a harmful practice that deprives girls of 
their dignity and often their education, increases their health risks, 
and perpetuates poverty. The practice of preventing women from 
attaining their full potential by targeting them for violence and early 
marriage is still far too common in far too many countries around the 
world.
  The International Violence Against Women Act ensures that our country 
will take a leadership role in combating these problems. It establishes 
that it is the policy of the United States to take action to prevent 
and respond to violence against women and girls around the globe and to 
integrate and coordinate efforts to address gender-based violence into 
U.S. foreign policy and foreign assistance programs.
  Specifically, our bill will foster efforts in four areas. First, it 
will increase legal and judicial protections by supporting laws and 
legal structures that prevent and appropriately respond to all forms of 
violence against women and girls, including honor killings and forced 
marriages. For example, our bill will support our State Department's 
work with other countries to help those nations reform their legal 
systems by providing technical expertise and model laws and building 
the capacity of their police and judges.
  Second, our bill will increase efforts to build health sector 
capacity, integrating programs to address violence against women and 
girls into existing health care programs focused on children's 
survival, women's health, and HIV/AIDS prevention.
  Third, our legislation will focus on preventing violence by changing 
community norms and attitudes against the acceptability of violence 
against women and girls.
  Fourth, our bill will focus on reducing females' vulnerability to 
violence by improving their economic status and educational 
opportunities. Efforts would include ensuring that women have access to 
job training and employment opportunities and increasing their right to 
own land and property, allowing them potentially to support themselves 
and their children.
  Our bill will require the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to 
Gender-Based Violence Globally to identify 5 to 20 eligible low- and 
middle-income countries for which comprehensive individual country 
plans would be developed. The bill requires that at least 10 percent of 
U.S. assistance to prevent and respond to violence against females be 
provided to nongovernmental organizations, with priority given to those 
headed by women.
  As the Presiding Officer well knows, violence has a profoundly 
negative impact on the lives of women and girls. In addition to being a 
pressing human rights issue, such violence contributes to inequality 
and political instability, making it a security issue as well as a 
moral issue for all of us.
  I am committed to working with my colleagues to end violence against 
women and girls and to provide the assistance and resources necessary 
to achieve this goal, and I am pleased to be the principal cosponsor of 
Senator Boxer's bill.
                                 ______