BILL NUMBER: SJR 24	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	ADOPTED IN SENATE  JUNE 28, 2010
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 17, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 17, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 21, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Yee
   (Coauthors: Senators Correa, DeSaulnier, Kehoe, Liu, and Padilla)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Blumenfield, Brownley, Davis,
Gilmore, Hall, Hill, Jones, Lieu, Monning, Nava, Saldana, Adams,
Arambula, Beall, Block, Bradford, Buchanan, Caballero, Carter,
Chesbro, Cook, Coto, De La Torre, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gatto, Hayashi, Hernandez, Huber, Huffman,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V.
Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Skinner, Solorio, Audra
Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Tran, and Yamada)

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2010

   Relative to violence against women.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SJR 24, Yee. Proposed federal International Violence Against Women
Act.
   This measure would urge the United States Congress to pass the
International Violence Against Women Act, and establish the offices
and policies therein.



   WHEREAS, Violence against women and girls is rooted in multiple
causes and takes many forms, including physical, sexual, and
psychological. It affects all countries, social groups, ethnicities,
religions, and socioeconomic classes and is a global health, economic
development, and human rights problem of epidemic proportions; and
   WHEREAS, According to the World Health Organization, approximately
one in three women in the world will experience violence in her
lifetime, with rates of up to 70 percent in some countries, and one
in five of the women in the world will be the victim of rape or
attempted rape in her lifetime; and
   WHEREAS, According to the 2006 United Nations Secretary General's
report entitled Ending Violence Against Women, 102 member states have
no specific laws on domestic violence; and
   WHEREAS, Women and girls face many different types of gender-based
violence, including forced or child marriage, so-called "honor
killings," dowry-related murder, human trafficking, and female
genital mutilation. The United Nations estimates that at least 5,000
so-called "honor killings" take place each year around the world and
that more than 130 million girls and young women worldwide have been
subjected to female genital mutilation; and
   WHEREAS, The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief 2006
Report on Gender-Based Violence and HIV/AIDS reports that violence
against women is a public health and development problem that
significantly increases susceptibility to HIV/AIDS. A United Nations
study on the global AIDS epidemic found that in sub-Saharan Africa,
women who are 15 to 24 years of age can be infected at rates that are
up to six times higher than men of the same age; and
   WHEREAS, Recent studies in Africa indicate that many girls in
primary and secondary school report sexual abuse or harassment by
male teachers or classmates. Girls who experience sexual violence at
school are also more likely to experience unintended pregnancies or
become infected with a sexually transmitted infection, including
HIV/AIDS; and
   WHEREAS, Rape and sexual assault are weapons of war used to
torture, intimidate, and terrorize women and communities. Amnesty
International reports that women have suffered from sexual violence
during conflicts in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and
most recently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where women
have suffered from brutal and systematic sexual assaults; and
   WHEREAS, Displaced, refugee, and stateless women and girls in
humanitarian emergencies, conflict settings, and natural disasters
face extreme violence and threats because of power inequities,
including being forced to exchange sex for food and humanitarian
supplies, and being at increased risk of rape, sexual exploitation,
and abuse; and
   WHEREAS, According to the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID): 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people worldwide
living in poverty are women and children, two-thirds of the 876
million illiterate adults in the world are women, two-thirds of the
125 million schoolaged children who are not in school are girls, more
than three-quarters of the 27 million refugees in the world are
women and children, and 1,600 women die unnecessarily every day
during pregnancy and childbirth; and
   WHEREAS, In 2003, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Violence Against Women concluded that violence against women violates
the basic human rights of women, results in "devastating
consequences for women who experience it, traumatic impact on those
who witness it, de-legitimization of states that fail to prevent it
and the impoverishment of entire societies that tolerate it"; and
   WHEREAS, Violence against women is an impediment to the health,
opportunity, and development of women and society. According to an
October 2006 study of the United Nations Secretary General entitled
Ending Violence Against Women, "Violence against women impoverishes
women, their families, communities and nations. It lowers economic
production, drains resources from public services and employers, and
reduces human capital formation"; and
   WHEREAS, The World Bank recognizes that women's health, education,
and economic opportunities directly impact the development and
well-being of their families and society. A 2001 World Bank Report,
entitled Engendering Development, reports that greater gender
equality leads to improved nutrition, lower child mortality, less
government corruption, higher productivity, and reduced HIV infection
rates; and
   WHEREAS, Increased access to economic opportunities is crucial to
the prevention of and response to domestic and sexual violence. Both
microfinance-based interventions and increased asset control have
been shown to reduce levels of intimate partner violence in addition
to providing economic independence for survivors; and
   WHEREAS, Campaigns to change social norms, including community
organizing, media campaigns, and efforts to engage and educate men
and boys, have been shown to change attitudes that condone and
tolerate violence against women and girls and reduce violence and
abuse; and
   WHEREAS, The International Violence Against Women Act would create
within the United States Agency for International Development, the
Office of Women's Global Development, and would establish the Office
of Women's Global Initiatives and the Advisory Commission on
International Violence Against Women within the U.S. Department of
State, to develop a strategy and direct resources to prevent and
respond to violence against women and girls throughout the world; and

   WHEREAS, The act would establish policies to prevent and respond
to violence against women, including directing the preparation of a
five-year international strategy to prevent and respond to violence
against women and girls internationally, collecting data and
conducting research about efforts to prevent and respond to violence,
including information on violence against women and girls in human
rights reports, enhancing the training of foreign military and police
forces on violence against women and girls, and authorizing the
appropriation of $5,000,000 annually through fiscal year 2012 to
support the United Nations Development Fund for Women Trust Fund in
Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California
hereby urges the United States Congress to pass the International
Violence Against Women Act, and establish the offices and policies
therein; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to each Senator and Representative from California in the
United States Congress, and to the author for appropriate
distribution.