[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 41 (Thursday, March 4, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1122-S1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 95--RECOGNIZING THE DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT OF COVID-
                     19 ON WOMEN AND GIRLS GLOBALLY

  Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mrs. Murray, and Mr. Wyden) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                               S. Res. 95

       Whereas the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates existing 
     vulnerabilities for women and girls and has an outsized 
     effect on health, safety, and livelihoods for marginalized 
     communities;
       Whereas it is estimated that the disruption of sexual and 
     reproductive health care services and supply chains caused by 
     the COVID-19 crisis caused an estimated 49,000,000 women to 
     stop using contraceptives during just the first 6 months of 
     the crisis, likely resulting in approximately 7,000,000 
     unintended pregnancies, 1,700,000 major obstetric 
     complications, 28,000 maternal deaths, 168,000 newborn 
     deaths, and 3,300,000 unsafe abortions;
       Whereas lockdowns, quarantines, and other movement 
     restrictions related to COVID-19 have disrupted access to 
     legal and social services, as well as access to counseling, 
     safe shelters, and medical treatment, exacerbating 
     vulnerabilities for women and girls;
       Whereas gender-based violence, such as domestic violence, 
     child marriage, and female genital mutilation, has increased, 
     and is expected to continue to increase, as a result of the 
     COVID-19 crisis, including--
       (1) an estimated 31,000,000 more gender-based violence 
     cases during the first 6 months of shutdowns;
       (2) an additional 13,000,000 child marriages by 2030; and
       (3) an increase of approximately 2,000,000 cases of female 
     genital mutilation between 2020 and 2030;
       Whereas women play significant roles in the health care 
     workforce, comprising 70 percent of health care workers 
     globally, yet often are not prioritized for the receipt of 
     personal protective equipment, disproportionately exposing 
     them to contracting COVID-19;
       Whereas women and girls perform 3 times the amount of 
     unpaid care work in homes and in their communities as men, a 
     burden that has increased during the COVID-19 crisis as women 
     and girls are disproportionately responsible for caring for 
     sick and elderly family and community members and children 
     who are out of school, limiting the ability of women and 
     girls to perform income-generating work, pursue education or 
     skills building, or avoid exposure to COVID-19;
       Whereas, globally, women living in poverty will endure 
     specific economic effects as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, 
     largely due to the overrepresentation of those women in the 
     informal economy, the increase in their unpaid care burdens, 
     and the particular hardships facing female entrepreneurs, 
     such as--
       (1) loss of jobs or pressure to turn to exploitative work, 
     as women workers dominate in industries most affected by 
     layoffs caused by the COVID-19 crisis, including hospitality, 
     childcare, and tourism, and comprise

[[Page S1123]]

     92 percent of individuals in the informal sector, which lacks 
     social and legal protections in most countries;
       (2) loss of business, as market closures, disruptions in 
     global trading, and the collapse of supply chains have 
     disproportionate effects on female-led businesses and female 
     farmers, and enduring gaps in financial inclusion will have 
     significant ramifications as women entrepreneurs continue to 
     be considered high risk for bank services, formal loans, and 
     credit;
       (3) financial insecurity, as women have much lower, if any, 
     pensions, retirement savings, or other assets to mitigate 
     shocks as compared to men; and
       (4) loss of necessary income that female-headed households 
     depend on, such as remittances, which the World Bank expects 
     will decrease by nearly 20 percent in 2020;
       Whereas the COVID-19 crisis will uniquely affect women in 
     agriculture, who provide more than 43 percent of the 
     agricultural labor around the world and more than 60 percent 
     of such labor in Africa yet whose ability to harvest, sell, 
     and buy food and other products necessary for their food 
     security and nutrition will worsen due to travel restrictions 
     related to the crisis, ongoing discrimination in access to 
     agricultural inputs and markets, and wage gaps and 
     disproportionate unpaid care burdens for female farmers;
       Whereas food insecurity will have unique effects on the 
     nutrition and health of women and girls, who already comprise 
     60 percent of individuals experiencing hunger in the world, 
     often rely on getting at least 1 nutritious meal each day 
     from feeding programs at schools that may be shut down due to 
     the COVID-19 crisis, and face shortages in nutritious food 
     and nutrients given social norms that dictate that women and 
     girls eat last and least when food is scarce;
       Whereas girls, particularly adolescent girls, will be 
     especially affected by the closures of schools resulting from 
     the COVID-19 crisis, and it is estimated that, as of March 
     2020, nearly 743,000,000 girls, not including the 
     approximately 132,000,000 girls who were already out of 
     school before the onset of the crisis, are out of school due 
     to such closures, and an additional 11,000,000 girls may 
     leave school by the end of the COVID-19 crisis, with evidence 
     suggesting that many will not return to school;
       Whereas closures of schools due to the COVID-19 crisis will 
     decrease the ability of girls to access education and skills 
     building, increase the exposure of girls to gender-based 
     violence, such as child marriage, exacerbate the 
     vulnerability of girls to early pregnancy and childbirth-
     related complications, and impede access of girls to 
     information about the prevention of COVID-19, protection 
     services, and pathways to report abuse;
       Whereas the COVID-19 crisis will place particular burdens 
     on women and girls in humanitarian emergencies given 
     challenges including overcrowded conditions, restrictions on 
     travel and movement, already strained health, hygiene, and 
     sanitation infrastructure, food shortages and malnutrition, 
     already heightened exposure to gender-based violence, 
     systematic and targeted attacks on health infrastructure and 
     aid workers by parties to conflicts, politicization of aid 
     and service delivery, and restricted humanitarian access, all 
     of which exacerbates the spread and effect of infectious 
     diseases;
       Whereas the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 
     (UNODC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 
     and the Department of State have expressed concern about an 
     increase in human trafficking and smuggling as traffickers 
     take advantage of increased vulnerabilities and chaos during 
     the COVID-19 crisis;
       Whereas the diversion of resources and services away from 
     existing primary health care needs to address the COVID-19 
     crisis and contain the spread of COVID-19 will have 
     particular effects on women and girls, including disruptions 
     in the provision of life-saving health services unrelated to 
     COVID-19, such as maternal health care and sexual and 
     reproductive health services, and the loss of critical 
     services and support to respond to gender-based violence;
       Whereas the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan 
     coordinated by the United Nations is only 17 percent funded, 
     leaving significant gaps in the response to immediate health 
     and non-health needs of women and girls and other vulnerable 
     populations, and ongoing humanitarian response plans, 
     identified as a top priority by the United Nations given that 
     people targeted in those plans will be the most affected by 
     the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 crisis, 
     remain only 17.3 percent funded;
       Whereas estimates show that, globally, women are included 
     in only 24 percent of national response plans for the COVID-
     19 crisis, and women and girls have been largely excluded 
     from leadership and decision making related to responses to 
     the crisis, resulting in response measures that may not fully 
     account for how COVID-19 affects women and girls;
       Whereas studies show that structural gender inequities, 
     including low social status and unequal access to education, 
     and lack of autonomous decision-making power negatively 
     affects the ability of women to access vaccines for 
     themselves and their children; and
       Whereas humanitarian exemptions to sanctions and 
     counterterrorism measures are vital for ensuring states and 
     principled humanitarian actors are able to reach vulnerable 
     women and girls with efficient, needs-based assistance, 
     including COVID-19 response activities consistent with 
     obligations under international humanitarian law, regardless 
     of the location of those women and girls: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) reaffirms the critical importance of gender balance and 
     inclusivity in bodies responsible for coordination and 
     decision making related to the COVID-19 crisis, including in 
     structures and task forces of the United States Government 
     charged with developing policies and responses to the crisis;
       (2) promotes integrating a gender lens throughout the 
     response to the COVID-19 crisis by analyzing and tracking the 
     effect of and response to the crisis on gender, including 
     gathering evidence from data that is disaggregated by gender, 
     age, and other specific variables;
       (3) supports measures to ensure that life-saving health 
     services including sexual and reproductive health and gender-
     based violence prevention and response are well resourced and 
     supported, including within the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian 
     Response Plan coordinated by the United Nations, and that 
     funding earmarked for those services is not reduced, 
     canceled, or diverted to other COVID-19 response activities;
       (4) supports measures to ensure the continuation of 
     adequate food and nutrition security for women and girls 
     around the world affected by COVID-19, including women 
     smallholder farmers and other women working in agriculture, 
     in light of the unique challenges described in the preamble 
     of this resolution;
       (5) reinforces the need to ensure that short-term relief 
     programming and longer-term economic strategies address the 
     specific effects of COVID-19 on women globally, especially 
     lower income, migrant, displaced, and other marginalized 
     women;
       (6) commends the executive branch for--
       (A) rescinding the global gag rule, also known as the 
     Mexico City Policy, which has been shown to lead to poorer 
     health outcomes for women;
       (B) resuming support for the United Nations Population Fund 
     (UNFPA); and
       (C) clearly stating the executive branch's policy of 
     supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights around 
     the world;
       (7) urges the executive branch to uphold the rights of 
     crisis-affected and forcibly displaced populations, including 
     women and girls, further affected by COVID-19, by promoting 
     compliance with international humanitarian and human rights 
     legal obligations and engaging parties to conflicts to ensure 
     unhindered access to health care, medical supplies, and other 
     vital aid and protection;
       (8) supports robust funding contributions by the United 
     States for the international response to the COVID-19 crisis 
     in addition to further funding for ongoing humanitarian 
     appeals in support of vulnerable women and girls affected by 
     COVID-19 and underlying emergencies;
       (9) commits to continuously assess and eliminate any 
     impediment to the delivery of and access to humanitarian 
     assistance;
       (10) urges the executive branch--
       (A) to reaffirm United States leadership on gender-based 
     violence in foreign assistance, including by championing and 
     providing comprehensive mental and physical health care 
     services for survivors; and
       (B) to reestablish leadership and global standing on this 
     critical issue; and
       (11) urges the executive branch to address barriers to 
     equitable COVID-19 treatment and vaccine access for women, 
     girls, and marginalized communities as part of a holistic 
     response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

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