I heard some very exciting news today. The International Violence Against Women Act will move to Senate mark-up this Wednesday, August 4th! This is a huge milestone towards final passage of this bill.

Senator Jim Webb became a cosponsor yesterday and it is because of an outpouring of calls, letters, and facebook messages. It is clear the efforts of all IVAWA supporters have been really been paying off.

With 116 cosponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate, the momentum for this movement has been steadily building.

However, we cannot celebrate just yet.

Our success so far should serve as both a catalyst for pushing harder and proof of what we can accomplish when we do. We cannot rest until IVAWA is signed into law by President Obama. The next few weeks will be critical for the ultimate success of this piece of legislation.

So, I would like to use this opportunity for a call to action. Send a powerful message to your Senator before this Wednesday. Let them know that you want the United States to make ending violence against women and girls a diplomatic priority. Inform them that you find it unacceptable that one in three women worldwide will be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused over the course of lifetime. Convey how inadequate the U.S. has been at responding to this violation of human rights. Then ask them why they haven’t publicly endorsed a bill that would help to end violence against women and girls.

It is imperative that our voices are heard before the Senate mark-up. If your Senator is already supportive, thank them and urge them to convince their colleagues to do the same. Violence against women affects all aspects of women’s lives, from their access to education and economic opportunities to their personal well-being and safety. IVAWA offers a real chance at eradicating this worldwide epidemic.

Call before Wednesday!

Sample Phone Script:

Find out the number of your member of Congress at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/%5D

1.)   Telephone calls are usually taken by a staff member. Ask to speak with the aide who handles women’s issues or foreign affairs issues.

2.)   After identifying yourself as a constituent, tell the staffer that you would like to leave a brief message.

“Please tell Senator ____________ that I support the International Violence Against Women Act.”

3.)   Ask for the position of your member of Congress on the bill.  If they are a co-sponsor thank them for their support and urge them to support the bill when it comes to the floor.

4.)   If not leave a message saying:

“Please urge the member of Congress to cosponsor the bill and support it when it comes to the floor.”

5.)   And add:

“I support the bill because:

• Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation occurring globally.
• At least one in every three women globally has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
• The International Violence Against Women Act supports measures to prevent violence, protect survivors and bring perpetrators to justice.

Women who push for better human rights in Afghanistan face systematic violence

In Afghanistan, despite a pledge from the government to protect women’s rights and promote gender equality, more than 87% of Afghan women suffer from domestic abuse. According to the United Nations, between 60 to 80 percent of marriages are forced.

In 2009, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission registered about 2,269 cases of violence against women. In January of 2010 alone there were 235 cases.

The pandemic levels of violence against Afghan women are perhaps most startling because the abuse is committed under a shroud of normalcy. Women are beaten in public and girls are raped as they walk to school and the public response is silence.

Access to education has a direct affect on women in Afghanistan and their lack of knowledge about basic rights has subjected them to broad discrimination. About 456 schools have so far been torched down, and 60% of girls eligible for school have been deprived of education. Most Afghan women interviewed in the context of a 2009 UN report underlined that they felt powerless when it came to expressing their choice in matters regarding their sexuality. This report concluded that most women were not aware of the law and redress mechanisms, including ways to complain about rape.

Unfortunately, educating women about the laws written to protect them is not a sufficient solution to the problem. Despite the legal obligation, the government rarely responds to cases of violence against women. At least two social and political female activists were killed last year and the Afghan government has failed to successfully prosecute these cases.

The obstacles faced by women seeking justice or protection are many-fold. Discrimination against women in Afghanistan is rampant. UNAMA interlocutors in 2009 reported believing that police and judicial officials are not aware or convinced that rape is a serious criminal offense. Whether it is due to a dearth of resources-few trained female staff and forensic expertise to investigate rape cases-or a prejudice against women, investigating a rape case is rarely a priority.

The shocking reality, according to many women, is that reporting a case to the police may actually further endanger them since it raises their profile.

One example is the story of Najeeba.  Fearing for herself and her family, Najeeba contacted the police after receiving threatening phone calls. The caller, Rafiq, was identified by investigators, but they decided that they could not do anything to him. Rafiq was eventually arrested for other offenses and informed by the police that Najeeba had reported the threats she had received from him. As a result, Najeeba is receiving phone calls from other men, threatening to kill her as soon as Rafiq is released from prison.

To avoid being in a similar situation, many women adopt their own preventative safety measures; such measures include maintaining their anonymity when leaving the home, restricting their movements, or even ceasing outside activities altogether. The response of authorities, or lack thereof, to reports of abuse or threats seems to reinforce the notion that the perpetrators of violence are immune from punishment.

In addition to widespread discrimination and a limited concern from authorities regarding complaints of rape or abuse, women in this country also suffer from a lack of legal representation. A March 8, 2010 article by Amnesty International quoted Mashia Faiz, a defense attorney for a women’s rights NGO, who proclaimed that NGOS are the only people who defend most female victims, as the government-funded defense attorneys mainly service men. In her opinion, the current system does not help women, but hurts them. This is because judges and police officials don’t care about what happens to women and they don’t follow the laws. Faiz described feeling constantly threatened because of what she does, especially when working in provinces outside of Kabul. Filing a formal complaint with the government or police is futile.

Noor Marjan, the Acting Director of the Afghan Women’s Skills Development Centre, explained in the same article that their shelter is important because police stations don’t have designated places for women. In the current holding places, women are abused and raped by police. Police not only widely dismiss allegations of abuse but often advise victims to return to their abusive spouses and family. Since the current criminal justice system does not see violence against women as relevant grounds for seeking or granting a divorce, many women have no choice but to do just that.

Violence against women in Afghanistan is a complicated issue that needs to be addressed from multiple perspectives. The good news is that there is a bill in both the House and Senate that endorses a holistic approach to combating violence. The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) would increase legal and judicial protection in a multitude of ways: by supporting U.S. foreign assistance programs that will back local efforts to both establish and enforce laws that prevent and address violence against women and girls; by promoting coordinated, efficient survivor services; by encouraging programs to provide personnel training across the legal and judicial sector, for police, lawyers, corrections officers, court advocates, judges, and judicial officials; by buttressing programs to help women and girls of victim gain access to the legal system, ensure safety and support throughout the legal process, and develop confidential mechanisms for reporting violence; and finally, by improving much-needed coordination between the health, legal, and other sectors. If the United States is as dedicated as it claims to be in ending violence against women and girls then this bill is the best tool for making our commitment to this issue a diplomatic priority. The women of Afghanistan deserve no less.

Haiti: The Crisis for Women Continues

Most Americans would agree that violence toward women is detrimental to society on a global scale. Beyond being morally reprehensible, a society that condones violence against women suffers – because the costs of violence to women and girls are much higher than the physical and emotional pain the victim suffers. Costs include direct expenses for services to treat and support abused women and children and to bring perpetrators to justice, as well as untold costs that may be inflicted on families and communities across generations, reinforcing other prevalent forms of violence.

The story of Rose, the 22-year old that was abducted and raped repeatedly is unfortunately, not uncommon. Despite being raped seven or eight times, she says it was the place that her kidnappers chose to imprison her, in the ruins of a home, that she found to be the worst part of the whole ordeal. In the June 23, 2010 article in The New York Times she is quoted as explaining, “since I had not slept under any roof since the earthquake, I was so scared I could not breathe.” Rose and her relatives had moved back to their proprieties after being threatened with eviction from the place where they were squatting. They were sleeping outside their damaged but fixable property. Even before her kidnapping they had been afraid of the “young thugs in Mafia sunglasses,” according to her cousin.

Among Haiti’s other well-known woes, violence against women seems an entrenched one. For three years following the military coup that ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991, rape was part of the repressive tactics used by the military and paramilitary forces to crush opposition. The U.N. was forced to send peacekeepers to Haiti in 2004 to address the shockingly high level of violence against women. It was estimated by the medical journal The Lancet that between February 2004 and December 2005 almost 19,000 out of every 100,000 girls were raped in the capital, Port-au-Prince. It was only in 2005 that rape was even recognized as a crime.

Since the January 12th earthquake, the miseries of women have only been exacerbated. A huge percentage of rape cases go unrecorded, making it difficult to get reliable statistics. However, two dozen case workers of Kofaviv, a grass-roots organization in Port-au-Prince, reported counseling 264 victims since the earthquake, triple the number of last year. There are still more than a million people displaced, many living in overcrowded refugee camps. International relief groups have expressed concerns about violence against women in camps that have poor or nonexistent lighting, unlockable latrines, adjacent men’s and women’s showers, and inadequate police protection. Add to that the presence of thousands of prisoners who have escaped and you have “an ideal climate for rape,” according to the director of Kofaviv.

Haiti’s list of what things need to be fixed is distressingly long but keeping women and children safe deserves top priority.  According to an editorial in The New York Times on June 18, 2010, there have been some improvements in security in eight big camps, with joint Haitian-United Nations police patrols. But with 1,2000 encampments throughout Haiti, most are left to their own defenses. More needs to be done.

In April, InterAction – “a coalition of more than 160 humanitarian organizations working on disaster relief, refugee-assistance, and sustainable development programs worldwide” – recommended that the international community and donor governments working in collaboration with the government of Haiti do several things: Take immediate steps to improve security by addressing safety concerns in the camps, proactively monitor the risks women and girls face; improve gender-based violence prevention, response and coordination; and ensure full consultation with women and girls throughout the humanitarian response.

Natural disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti are obviously unpredictable. However, there is currently a piece of legislation that if made into law would codify the mechanisms the United States needs to respond to emergency outbreaks in violence. The International Violence Against Women Act would create emergency response units as well as provide funding for humanitarian assistance to help nations in crisis. The Department of State would make eradicating violence against women a diplomatic priority by giving assistance to programs of international organizations that prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in humanitarian relief, conflict, and post-conflict settings. Furthermore, this bill would build the capacity of humanitarian organizations and government authorities to address the special protection needs of women and children; provide immediate assistance to survivors of violence through education, trauma counseling, medical assistance, and economic opportunity programs; and provide legal services for women and girls who are victims of violence.

It is time that the United States shows the global community that it is dedicated to a creating a world where women and children are free from fear of abuse and sexual assault. This bill is an important step towards that goal.