[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3602-S3603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING, HONORING, AND COMMENDING THE WOMEN OF UKRAINE WHO HAVE
CONTRIBUTED TO THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND THE DEFENSE OF UKRAINE
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 412, S. Res.
589.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 589) recognizing, honoring, and
commending the women of Ukraine who have contributed to the
fight for freedom and the defense of Ukraine.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution, which had been reported from the Committee on Foreign
Relations, with an amendment to strike all after the resolving clause
and insert the part in italic, and with an amendment to strike the
preamble and insert the part printed in italic, as follows:
S. Res. 589
Whereas, on February 24, 2022, Russian Federation President
Vladimir Putin instigated an unprovoked, unjustified, and
unlawful war violating the territorial integrity of the
sovereign country of Ukraine;
Whereas, in response to this invasion, the people of
Ukraine marshaled their will to defend their country and
shared belief in a sovereign Ukraine in order to resist the
imperialist ambitions of Vladimir Putin;
Whereas countless Ukrainian men, women, and children have
done their part to defend democracy and freedom in Ukraine;
Whereas women have played a key role in defending Ukraine,
keeping their families and innocent children safe and
responding to the invasion by the Russian Federation;
Whereas, in the first 3 months of fighting in Ukraine, more
than 6,100,000 Ukrainians, of which the majority are women
and children, fled the country in response to Putin's war;
Whereas women play a critical role in facilitating the
transit of children to safety, including by escorting the
children of parents and guardians who cannot leave Ukraine so
that such children are able to find safety in neighboring
countries;
Whereas the women who remain in Ukraine contribute to all
aspects of warfighting, including by fighting on the front
lines and as part of the territorial defense, delivering
supplies and weapons, and preparing cities for assaults by
the Russian Federation;
Whereas between 15 and 17 percent of the armed forces of
Ukraine are women;
[[Page S3603]]
Whereas the women of Ukraine have a long history of
defending Ukraine and standing up for their rights and
freedoms;
Whereas, following the 2014 invasion of the sovereign and
independent state of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the
women of Ukraine joined the fight to preserve their
independence;
Whereas, despite significant contributions to the war
effort now and since 2014, outdated legislation in Ukraine
classifies women as cooks, tailors, and administrative
assistants;
Whereas women are an integral part of the armed forces of
Ukraine and continue to defend their homes and their country;
Whereas, on March 9, the armed forces of the Russian
Federation deliberately attacked civilian targets in
Mariupol, Ukraine, which destroyed a hospital that served as
both a maternity ward and a children's hospital, killing two
women and a baby;
Whereas, following the devastating attack on the well-known
and established hospital, the world watched in horror as
pregnant women, mothers carrying newborn babies, and young
children fled the rubble of what should have been a safe
place;
Whereas the women at the hospital should have been
celebrating new life and looking toward raising their
children in peace and safety, instead, those women are
seeking shelter in subways, giving birth in bunkers, and
worrying for the safety of their children and the future of
Ukraine;
Whereas the attack on the maternity ward and children's
hospital in Mariupol was the fourth such attack on a
maternity ward in Ukraine by the Russian Federation since the
beginning of the invasion on February 24;
Whereas, according to Save the Children, more than 63,000
women have given birth since the start of the war, while the
United Nations estimates that 80,000 Ukrainian women will
give birth in between April and June of 2022;
Whereas all women, in every situation, have the right to a
safe birth and access to crucial supplies necessary for the
management of pregnancy complications, including oxygen and
medical supplies, which are running dangerously low in
Ukraine because of the ongoing violence and refusal on the
part of the Russian Federation to allow for safe passage for
humanitarian purposes;
Whereas, on March 17, 2022, Secretary of State Antony
Blinken described the deliberate targeting of civilians in
Ukraine as a war crime, which should be investigated as such;
Whereas, on March 23, 2022, Secretary Blinken announced
that it was the assessment of the United States Government
that ``members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes
in Ukraine'' based on ``a careful review of available
information from public and intelligence sources'';
Whereas the Russian Federation has deliberately attacked
civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including
schools, hospitals, businesses, apartment buildings, and
utility services;
Whereas the initial days of the invasion of Ukraine by the
Russian Federation have resulted in a disproportionate number
of women and children seeking safety outside of Ukraine;
Whereas Ukrainian women and girls, like women and girls in
all humanitarian emergencies, including women and girls
forced to leave their homes in conflict settings, face
increased and exacerbated vulnerabilities to--
(1) gender-based violence, including rape, child marriage,
domestic violence, and sexual exploitation and assault;
(2) all forms of human trafficking;
(3) disruptions in education and livelihood;
(4) lack of access to health care; and
(5) food insecurity and malnutrition;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council adopted United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on October 31, 2000,
acknowledging the impact of conflict and security decisions
on women and calling on all member states to include ``women
at all decision-making levels in national, regional and
international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention,
management, and resolution of conflict'';
Whereas, according to the United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women (commonly referred to
as ``UN Women''), peace negotiations are more likely to end
in a peace agreement when women and women's groups play a
meaningful role in the negotiation process, and according to
the International Peace Institute, a peace agreement is 35
percent more likely to last at least 15 years if women
participate in the development of the peace agreement;
Whereas, in 2016, Ukraine adopted its first National Action
Plan for the implementation of United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1325, and, on October 28, 2020, Ukraine
approved a new National Action Plan for 2021 through 2025 in
order to address the impact on women of the aggression of the
Russian Federation against Ukraine and to ensure gender
equality in the security and defense sectors of Ukraine;
Whereas representation of women in politics in Ukraine has
increased steadily since the first parliament of an
independent Ukraine met in 1990;
Whereas more than 20 percent of seats in the ninth and
current Verkhovna Rada are held by women, the most in
Ukrainian history;
Whereas women across Ukraine have made political gains in
recent years, including in local elections on October 25,
2020, where 38 percent of deputies elected were women; and
Whereas women in Ukraine should be involved at all levels
and in all aspects of leadership, negotiation, conflict
resolution, and peacekeeping in order to ensure the most
enduring peace for Ukraine and the region: Now, therefore, be
it
[Resolved,]
That the Senate--
(1) recognizes, honors, and commends the women of Ukraine
who have contributed to the fight for freedom and the defense
of Ukraine, including women who--
(A) are members of the Armed Forces and the Territorial
Defense Forces of Ukraine;
(B) are volunteers, organizing and operating humanitarian
organizations;
(C) are doctors, nurses, paramedics, and support personnel,
providing life-saving services across Ukraine;
(D) have mobilized to assist the safe transfer of the
children and other vulnerable individuals from Ukraine; and
(E) are public leaders, politicians, and diplomats;
(2) stands with the people of Ukraine in support of their
fight for freedom against the Russian Federation;
(3) acknowledges the women who have risked their lives to
travel through territory controlled by the Russian
Federation, break siege tactics surrounding cities, and to
ensure the safety of children and the elderly;
(4) commends--
(A) the bordering countries of Ukraine, including Poland,
Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Moldova, who are
accommodating more than 6,000,000 refugees; and
(B) the broader European Union for committing to provide
support during the growing humanitarian crisis;
(5) calls on all countries to ensure that aid provided in
support of refugees fleeing Ukraine and internally displaced
persons within Ukraine takes into account the needs of women
and the gender-specific risks that women face in seeking
safety;
(6) acknowledges the important role women must play in
resolving the conflict between Ukraine and the Russian
Federation as outlined in United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1325 (2016) and required by the laws of the United
States and regulations of Ukraine;
(7) further calls on all countries to promote the
meaningful inclusion of women in negotiations and decision-
making at all levels, including security decisions; and
(8) commits to supporting the women of Ukraine wherever
they are as they fight back against tyranny and work for the
free and democratic future of Ukraine.
Mr. CARDIN. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute
amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended,
be agreed to; the committee-reported substitute amendment to the
preamble be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and the
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The committee-reported amendment in the nature of a substitute was
agreed to.
The resolution (S. Res. 589), as amended, was agreed to.
The committee-reported amendment to the preamble in the nature of a
substitute was agreed to.
The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
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