[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6373-6374]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN WEEK AND INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                    HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 13, 2005

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, Stop Violence Against Women week 
affords us the opportunity to recognize the tremendous strides we have 
made in the decade since the Violence Against Women Act was passed. We 
have begun to educate our communities. We are slowly changing attitudes 
about domestic violence from seeing it as a family problem, a private 
issue that the government should not interfere with to a public 
interest issue that affects victims, their families and the nation as a 
whole. We have put in place nationwide, state and local programs that 
use a multifaceted approach to eradicating this plague on our society.
  Violence against women has decreased in the last ten years in the 
United States, but it is still at epidemic proportions throughout the 
developing world. It is projected that in 2005 over 1 million women 
will be the victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence knows no 
racial, ethnic or socio-economic boundaries. Its social and economic 
consequences are incalculable.
  Women who are the victims of domestic violence, and nearly one in 
three women experiences at least one physical assault by an intimate 
partner in her adult lifetime, are more likely to miss work and under 
perform, affecting their ability to support themselves and their 
children. Children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to be 
the victims themselves and are more likely to perpetuate this behavior 
when they are grown. The detrimental affects are far-reaching and 
severe.
  Going forward we need to build on the foundation put in place over 
the past decade. We need to promote awareness. We need to provide 
viable alternatives. We need to make sure the world knows that in the 
United States we do not tolerate violence against women.
  As we celebrate International Women's Day this week, we focus our 
attention on the challenges women face abroad. As cultural attitudes 
about women change across the world, foreign governments must also set 
the stage and take affirmative steps to protect women from violence. 
The increasing number of murders and rapes is an especially critical 
problem in the developing world. We must let our voices be heard: 
America and the global community will no longer tolerate these crimes 
against women. We urge foreign governments to hear our call.
  We also need to combat the international trafficking of women and 
children. Between six hundred and eight hundred thousand people are 
trafficked across international borders. Eighty percent of these 
victims are women and up to 50 percent are minors. These victims are 
bought and sold daily and forced to perform unspeakable acts for 
others' financial gain. They are exposed to torture, sexual violence, 
fatal sexually transmitted diseases. This is modern-day slavery, this 
is the epitome of violence against women and it has to stop.

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  I want to thank Lifetime Television and others involved with Stop 
Violence Against Women Week. The more we talk about these problems, the 
closer we get to viable solutions.

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