BILL ANALYSIS
SJR 24
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SJR 24 (Yee)
As Amended April 21, 2010
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :24-0
JUDICIARY 7-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Brownley, Evans, | | |
| |Jones, Monning, Nava, | | |
| |Huffman | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Urges the United States Congress to pass the
International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), 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 resolution :
1)Makes a series of legislative findings about violence against
women that incorporate the conclusions of international
organizations, including:
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% 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.
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c) 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.
d) 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.
e) 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."
f) 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.
2)States that the 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
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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; and,
d) Authorizing the appropriation of $5 million 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
IVAWA, and establish the offices and policies therein.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : This non-controversial measure urges Congress to pass
the 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. 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
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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.
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.
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.
Supporters, including the California Teachers Association and
many human rights and women's organizations, urge the
Legislature to adopt this measure to put its voice on record in
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requesting Congress to pass IVAWA. They generally contend that
IVAWA is needed to make stopping violence against women and
girls a higher priority in American diplomacy and foreign aid,
and that IVAWA contains innovative approaches to ending violence
against women internationally.
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0004862