BILL ANALYSIS
SJR 24
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 15, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mike Feuer, Chair
SJR 24 (Yee) - As Amended: April 21, 2010
SENATE VOTE : 24-0
SUBJECT : INTERNATIONAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT
KEY ISSUE : SHOULD THE LEGISLATURE URGE CONGRESS TO PASS THE
INTERNATIONAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT (IVAWA) TO CREATE A
COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TO REDUCE VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS WORLDWIDE?
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print this measure is keyed
non-fiscal.
SYNOPSIS
This non-controversial measure urges Congress to pass the
International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). This proposed
federal legislation would, as a matter of U.S. foreign policy,
establish new offices and policies to implement a comprehensive
approach to preventing violence against women and girls
worldwide. IVAWA was developed by Amnesty International USA,
Family Violence Prevention Fund, and Women Thrive Worldwide,
with input from 40 international and 150 U.S. based groups with
relevant expertise. According to proponents of this measure,
IVAWA supports measures to prevent violence, protect survivors,
and bring perpetrators to justice, in addition to incorporating
into U.S. foreign policy certain best practice provisions for
preventing and responding to violence against women during times
of peace and conflict. Supporters also contend that IVAWA
would, for the first time, make stopping violence against women
and girls a priority in American diplomacy and foreign aid.
This measure has bipartisan sponsorship in Congress, and in
California passed off the Senate Floor without a single
dissenting vote. There is no known opposition to this measure.
SUMMARY : Urges the United States Congress to pass the
International Violence Against Women Act, legislation that would
establish new offices and policies to implement a comprehensive
approach to preventing violence against women and girls around
the world. Specifically, this measure :
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1)Makes the following findings, incorporating the conclusions of
numerous international organizations, about violence against
women:
a) Violence against women and girls is rooted in multiple
causes; takes many forms, including physical, sexual, and
psychological; affects all countries, social groups,
ethnicities, religions, and socioeconomic classes; and is a
global health, economic development, and human rights
problem of epidemic proportions.
b) 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.
c) 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.
d) 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.
e) The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief found in
its 2006 Report on Gender-Based Violence and HIV/AIDS that
violence against women is a public health and development
problem that significantly increases susceptibility to
HIV/AIDS.
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f) 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.
g) 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 school-aged
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.
h) 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."
i) 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, because it lowers economic production,
drains resources from public services and employers, and
impoverishes women, their families, communities and
nations.
j) Campaigns to change social norms, including community
organizing, media campaigns, and efforts to engage and
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educate men and boys, have been shown to change attitudes
that condone and tolerate violence against women and girls
and reduce violence and abuse.
2)States that the International Violence Against Women Act
(IVAWA), S.2982 and HR.4594, would establish (a) the Office of
Women's Global Development, within the United States Agency
for International Development; (b) the Office of Women's
Global Initiatives, and (c) the Advisory Commission on
International Violence Against Women, both within the U.S.
Department of State, in order to develop a strategy and direct
resources to prevent and respond to violence against women and
girls throughout the world.
3)States that IVAWA would establish policies to prevent and
respond to violence against women, including:
a) directing the preparation of a five-year international
strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women
and girls internationally;
b) 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;
c) enhancing the training of foreign military and police
forces on violence against women and girls;
d) authorizing the appropriation of $5,000,000 annually
through fiscal year 2012 to support the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNDFW)Trust Fund in Support of
Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women.
4)Memorializes the Legislature to urge Congress to pass the
International Violence Against Women Act, and establish the
offices and policies therein.
SJR 24
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EXISTING LAW , the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), initially
passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in
1994, was the first federal legislation recognizing domestic
violence and certain types of sexual assault as crimes, and
provided federal resources to foster community-coordinated
responses to combat violence against women. Subsequent
reauthorizations of VAWA in 2000 and 2005 implemented additional
programs to meet the emerging needs of communities working to
prevent violence against women, but VAWA has always been limited
to addressing particular problems facing U.S. communities, and
not the very different foreign policy concerns of violence faced
by women in other countries.
COMMENTS : This non-controversial measure urges Congress to
pass the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA),
legislation that would, as a matter of U.S. foreign policy,
establish new offices and policies to implement a comprehensive
approach to preventing violence against women and girls
worldwide.
Author's Statement. In support of the measure, the
author writes:
Violence against women is more widespread than most
people realize, and has a far deeper impact. Violence
against women is a key hindrance to the economic
vitality of women and their families. It is also
preventable. SJR 24 urges Congress to pass the
International Violence Against Women Act to
incorporate proven strategies to decrease violence
against women into our foreign policy.
Background: IVAWA was developed by Amnesty International USA,
Family Violence Prevention Fund, and Women Thrive Worldwide,
with input from 40 international and 150 U.S. based groups with
relevant expertise. According to information provided by
Amnesty International, IVAWA uniquely places women and violence
prevention issues at the center of U.S. foreign policy by
creating measures that, among other things, do the following:
(1) Support health, legal, economic, social, and
humanitarian assistance sectors and incorporate violence
prevention and response best practices into such programs.
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(2) Alleviate poverty and increase the cost effectiveness
of foreign assistance by investing in women.
(3) Support survivors of violence, hold perpetrators
accountable, and prevent violence against women.
(4) Create a five-year strategy to fight violence against
women in select countries that have a high incidence of
violence against women.
(5) Define a clear mandate for senior officials in the
Department of State and USAID for leadership,
accountability and coordination in preventing and
responding to violence against women.
(6) Enable the U.S. government to develop a faster and more
efficient response to violence against women in
humanitarian emergencies and conflict-related situations.
(7) Build the effectiveness of overseas non-governmental
organizations in addressing violence against women.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF)
urges the Legislature to adopt this measure to put its voice on
record in urging Congress to pass IVAWA. FVPF writes in
support:
This bi-partisan legislation would, for the first
time, make stopping violence against women and girls a
priority in American diplomacy and foreign aid. It
should be a high priority for lawmakers. Congress has
an opportunity to address horrifying abuses against
women. IVAWA supports innovative approaches to ending
violence against women globally by promoting services
for survivors, holding perpetrators accountable and
challenging public attitudes that condone such
violence.
CARE USA, a national humanitarian and development organization,
supports this measure because, among other reasons, it believes
violence against women perpetuates poverty and inequality. CARE
writes in support:
As a global leader, the U.S. must play a pivotal role
in fighting violence against women worldwide, and
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prevent violence from undermining key poverty-fighting
investments in areas like education, economic growth,
and the spread of HIV/AIDS. This can be done by
passing IVAWA. We urge the Legislature to pass SJR 24
and continue its efforts to ensure passage of the Act
in Congress.
The Global AIDS Alliance also supports the measure because it
strongly believes violence against women is not just a human
rights violation, but also a public health problem. The group
explains:
Violence against women and girls is also a cause and a
consequence of HIV/AIDS. Violence can prevent women
and girls from negotiating safer sex and from seeking
health services or information, including HIV testing,
treatment, and care. As a result, women and girls who
are abused are at a greater risk of acquiring HIV.
Unless violence against women and girls is addressed,
our multi-billion dollar fight against global AIDS is
going to fail.
This measure is also supported by the California Teachers
Association (CTA), Women Thrive Worldwide, and the Coalition to
Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.
Status of Federal Legislation. IVAWA (S.2982, HR. 4594) was
introduced in the Senate and House during the 110th Congress,
and enjoyed bipartisan support when the bill was heard by the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Subcommittee on
International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight in
October 2009.
In February 2010, IVAWA was re-introduced in the 111th Congress
by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.),
Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) in the
Senate, and Representatives Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Ted Poe
(R-Texas) in the House. At the time of this analysis, the
measure had over two dozen co-sponsors in the House and has been
referred to the respective Committees on Foreign Relations.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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Amnesty International USA
California Teachers Association
CARE USA
Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)
Family Violence Prevention Fund
Global AIDS Alliance
Women Thrive Worldwide
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334