Feminist Majority Foundation's Recommendations to the President's Interagency Council on Women:
Women's Human Rights

PRIORITY: RECOGNIZE NOT ONLY POLITICAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS, BUT ALSO SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS OF WOMEN AS HUMAN RIGHTS.

The Platform for Action states:
Para. 231
(d) "Ensure the integration and full participation of women as both agents and beneficiaries in the development process and reiterate the objectives established for global action of women....Development"

(e) "Include information on gender-based human rights violations in their activities and integrate the findings into all of their programmes and activities"

Status:

Section 502(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid, military training, government-to-government commercial arms sales and economic support to governments with consistent violation of human rights. Women's human rights are not currently mentioned as a category subject to scrutiny under this legislation.

Actions

• Ensure that all regional bureaus of the State Department identify violations of women's human rights. Heads of regional bureaus should encourage countries receiving US aid to improve women's rights.
• US foreign aid should ber reduced for countries found to be in gross violations of women's human rights.
• Congress should amend this legislation to include women's human rights as a category against which countries assessed in the State Department's annual report on violations of human rights by countries around the world.

PRIORITY: FIGHTING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The Platform for Action states that governments should:
Para.129 (a)
"Promote research, collect data and compile statistics, especially concerning domestic violence relating to the prevalence of different forms of violence against women, and encourage research into the cause, nature, seriousness and consequences of violence against women and the effectiveness of measures implemented to prevent and redress violence against women"

Para. 232 (l)
"Review and amend criminal laws and procedures, as necessary, to eliminate any discrimination against women in order to ensure that criminal law and procedures guarantee women effective protection against, and prosecution of, crimes directed at or disproportionately affecting women, regardless of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, and ensure that women defendants, victims and /or witnesses are into revictimized or discriminated against in the investigation and prosecution of crimes."

Para. 125 (a)
"Provide well-funded shelters and relief support for girls and women subjected to violence.....subsistence"

Status:

Each year more than 1.5 million women seek medical care for injuries resulting from domestic violence. Studies have found that domestic violence is a factor for 20% of female patients using emergency room services for injury. Of the 2000 shelters that currently exist in the United States, many are underfunded and therefore turn away thousands of women and children every year.

Currently, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the only federal body that researches injuries and related public health impact, does not track the number of domestic violence injuries requiring hospital care. This makes fully assessing the extent and public health impact of domestic violence difficult. In addition, only $2.6 million of the CDC's $46.3 million budget goes to gun-related research. Congress, under pressure from the National Rifle Association, has eliminated funding for research on gun-related violence. Given that some domestic violence injuries result from firearms use, research is need to measure incidence and to provide data for determining appropriate interventions.

In addition, since there is no central registry of domestic violence perpetrators under restraining order (RO), it is difficult for law enforcement to track repeat RO violators, particularly when they travel across state lines to further injure their victims.

The CDC is in the process of funding a survey that would provide an estimate of partner abuse (available in 6 months).

Although the original version of the Violence Against Women Act allocated $1.6 billion of federal funds over six years (started 1994) to reduce the level of violent crime directed at women, it has yet to be funded at the levels originally authorized.

On January 25, 1996, the Attorney General announced that the approved S.T.O.P. (Services Training Officers Prosecutors) Violence Against Women stated all 56 states and eligible territories have received $426,364 to improve prosecution, training, and services, to victims of violent crimes.

On February 21, 1996, President Clinton announced a nationwide domestic violence hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE or for hearing impaired people, 1-800-787-3224. This hotline provides immediate crises intervention for those in need.

On May 24, 1996, the DOJ announced the availability of $130 million in grant funding for the states to assist police, prosecutors, and victim service providers in combating domestic violence and sexual assault. Actions

• Increase Congressional funding for shelters through Family Violence Prevention Services Act.
• Extend unemployment benefits for women forced to leave their jobs because of domestic violence.
• Congress should restore funding for research examining the public health impact of firearms.
• Congress should allocate $3 million to the Center for Disease Control specifically for creating a surveillance system for tracking the number of domestic violence injuries requiring hospital care.
• The Department of Justice should create a national computer registry of men under domestic violence restraining orders.
• The DOJ should make its handbook, "Domestic Violence: Stop the Cycle of Violence," available to the general public and include a "top 20" list of things to do if you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship. Hold Violence Against Women Information Fairs at local levels, as the DOJ held for its employees, which addressed self-defense, violence against women, domestic violence, artwork by survivors of domestic violence, and video presentations.

PRIORITY: REDUCING THE INCIDENCE OF RAPE

The Platform for Action states:
Para. 124 (c)
"Enact and/or reinforce penal, civil, labor and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs done to women and girls who are subjected to any form of violence, whether in the home, the workplace, the comminty or society."

Status:

The Department of Justice reports that about 500,000 women are raped and sexually assaulted every year. A 1993 study by the Senate Judiciary Committee shows that the insensitivity of the criminal justice system as well as the societal stigma of rape makes rape victims reluctant to testify in court . As a result, few rapists are convicted and even fewer go jail.

The Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN) has a national switchboard operation at 1-800-656-HOPE. When a person calls the hotline, the service directly connects her to a local rape crisis center. The limitation of this are threefold. If a person wants information about a center outside her area, the hotline cannot help. Also, sometimes the person gets connected to the wrong center because of automation problems. Lastly, not all existing hotlines nationwide are connected to the service; a caller can only access hotlines connected to RAINN.

The Violence Against Women Act passed in 1994 requires sexual offenders to pay restitution to their victims. In addition, VAWA requires states to pay for rape examinations, provides $1.5 million for federal victim-witness counselors and extends rape shield laws to protect crime victims from inquiries into their private conduct.

Actions

• Increase federal funding for rape crisis centers and shelters.
• Create, fund, and publicize a geographically comprehensive national 1-800 number for rape survivors to get information about the available help in their region.
• Increase VAWA funding earmarked for training police officers, prosecutors, judges and court personnel in humane treatment of rape victims.

PRIORITY: RECOGNIZING RAPE AS A WEAPON IN WAR

The Platform for Action states:
Para. 145 (d)
"Reaffirm that rape in the conduct of armed conflict constitutes a war crime and under certain circumstances it constitutes a crime against humanity and an act of genocide as defined in the Convention on the Prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide; take all measures required for the protection of women and children from such acts and strengthen mechanisms to investigate and punish all those responsible and bring the perpetrators to justice"

Status:

Women in war zones are often subjected to systematic (organized and sanctioned by warring governments as part of military strategy) rape and often impregnated by enemy soldiers and forced to carry the resulting pregnancies to term.

On June 27, 1996, a United Nations tribunal indicted eight Bosnian Serb military and police officers in connection with the rape of Muslim women during the Bosnian war. This is the first time sexual assault has been treated as a crime of war. Still, leaders from both sides in this war who have both engineered atrocities such as rape camps have not even been arrested.

Action

• Systematic rape must be recognized as a war crime. The U.S. Administration should support a policy of allowing peacekeeping forces (such as NATO forces currently in the former Yugoslavia) to capture persons suspected of such war crimes in order to bring them to trial. The Administration should also demand that the governments of military leaders who use rape as a war strategy pay for the rehabilitation/counseling of the survivors and their families.

PRIORITY: ELIMINATE WOMAN AND CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND OBSCENITY

The Platform for Action states:
Para 130
(b) "Take appropriate measures to address the root factors, including external factors, that encourage trafficking in women and girls for prostitution and other forms of commercialized sex, forced marriages and forced labor in order to eliminate trafficking in women, including by strengthening existing legislation with a view to providing better protection of the rights of women and girls and to publishing the perpetrators, through both criminal and civil means."

(e) "Develop educational and training programmes and policies and consider enacting legislation aimed at preventing sex tourism and trafficking, giving special emphasis to the protection of young women and children."

Status:

The establishment of U.S. military bases overseas over the last several decades has contributed to the growth of prostitution around military bases, including child prostitution. The Department of Defense (DOD) currently has no stated policy governing prostitution around overseas U.S. military bases.

Action:

• The Department of Defense should develop a policy prohibiting U.S. armed forces personnel on foreign bases from soliciting prostitutes.
• Increase Congressional funding to the Department of Justice to enforce the Child Abuse Prevention Act of 1994 and other legislation that prohibits U.S. citizens from organizing pornography rings and overseas sex tours.

PRIORITY: FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

The Platform for Action states:
Para 232 (h)
"Prohibit female genital mutilation wherever it exists and give vigorous support to efforts among non-governmental and community organizations and religious institutions to eliminate such practices

Status:

Women and girls around the world are subjected to body mutilation, only one example of which is genital cutting or mutilation (FGM), in order to fit societal standards of beauty and/or sexual "purity." Various health problems develop as a result of FGM sometimes lead to death.

Culturally sensitive respectful grassroots initiatives exist in countries where FGM is practiced. In Uganda, for example, REACH (the Reproductive, Educative, And Community Health program) provides a forum for information and discussion among local community leaders, health care professionals, and parents and their children. Participants explore the hazards of FGM with an emphasis not only on the dangers to girls undergoing the procedure, but also on the future health of mothers and their infants during labor and delivery. The initiative, which provides workshops, a reproductive health care package of training and supplies, and reproductive health and family planning services, is supported by the government, NGO's, and international institutions including Britain's Overseas Development Authority, CARE International, and UNFPA.

The Senate has approved legislation to make FGM performed on minors in the United States a crime. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has argued in favor of considering FGM a form of gender persecution and thereby grounds for granting asylum in the United States. Recently a woman from Togo was granted asylum by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, on the grounds that FGM is a form of persecution.

Citing "cultural relativism" is a tactic used by those who, for whatever reason, do not believe that ending these practices is desirable and/or important. It is therefore important that community women take a leadership role in ending these practices. If outsiders attempt to eradicate these practices, they may be seen as condescending or imposing their values on other cultures. Some African women's groups are very active in opposing genital mutilation, disproving the "cultural relativism" argument.

Actions:

• Congress should fund or otherwise assist programs such as REACH that educate communities about the harmful effects of FGM.
• INS should expedite the process of granting asylum to women fleeing genital mutilation.
• Public health institutions must educate doctors about the specific health issues affecting women who have already been circumcised.
• Congress must complete passage of legislation introduced by Pat Schroder outlawing female genital mutilation in the United States.

PRIORITY: RATIFICATION OF CEDAW

The Platform for Action states that governments should:
"Ratify and accede to and ensure implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women so that universal ratification of the Convention can be achieved by the year 2000"

Status:

The United States government has still not ratified the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) seventeen years after CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations.

Action

• The Senate should schedule a vote in the full Senate on the ratification of CEDAW.

PRIORITY: RATIFICATION OF A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT GUARANTEEING EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

Status:

The U.S. is one of the few democracies that does not have equal rights for women guaranteed in its constitution. The ERA was first introduced in the U.S. in 1923. The ERA was passed by both houses of Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 states. Passage of the ERA was lost by the narrowest of margins in the remaining 3 states necessary for ratification. The 1972 measure contained in its preamble a 7-year time limit. This time limit was extended in 1978 by Congress to June 30, 1982. The ERA is the only constitutional amendment for which a time limit was passed and enforced. Many question the constitutionality of this action.

Action:

• The Department of Justice should continue to take sex discrimination cases (as was done in the recent Virginia Military Institute case) and argue that sex should be treated like race as a "suspect" class. Currently, the judicial review standard for sex discrimination is that of a medium level of scrutiny. A higher standard of judicial review could win for women an equal rights amendment by Supreme Court decision.
• The President and Congress should pursue the ratification of a federal Equal Rights Amendment in every Congressional session. Perhaps President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's model of a federal constitutional convention which was used to win the repeal of prohibition should be employed for winning constitutional equality for women.

PRIORITY: PROTECTING SEXUAL MINORITIES (LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, CELIBATE WOMEN'S RIGHTS)

The Platform for Action states:
Para.232 (a)
Give priority to promoting and protecting the full and equal enjoyment by women and men of all human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction of any kind as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origins, property, birth or other status;

Status:

Women and men whose sexual orientations/choices are outside of the heterosexual norm of most cultures are often killed, assaulted, subjected to serious mental and physical abuse, ostracized, and/or discriminated against by various social institutions. Steps must be taken to eliminate discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation.

At the Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing, the decision was made to not include in language condemning discrimination on the basis sexual orientation in the Platform for Action. However, several countries, including the United States, formally stated that they would interpret the sections of the document condemning other forms of discrimination to include sexual orientation.

Requests for legalization/recognition of same-sex marriages are being struck down on a state-by-state basis. The Senate-approved Defense of Marriage Act would make it possible for states to not recognize homosexual marriages that occurred in other states. Some companies, such as Disney, and several universities recognize domestic partnerships, but many others do not and in fact fire employees who are discovered not to be heterosexual.

Actions
Congress should:

• Pass civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination against sexual minorities and includes them as a protected class under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act;
• Authorize the Attorney General to investigate civil rights violations based on sexual orientation;
• Re-enact the Hate Crimes Statistics Act without a sunset provision.
• The Office for Victims of Crime should ensure that state allocations under the Victims of Crime Act specifically target underserved victims of crime, including those against gay men and lesbians.
• Funding should be allocated to train state and local law enforcement personnel (especially patrol officers) in identifying, responding to, and documenting hate crimes (Proposals made by National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs 1995 Report).

PRIORITY: GENDER BALANCE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT.

The Platform for Action states:
Para. 232 (m)
"Ensure that women have the same right as men to be judges, advocates or other officers of the court, as well as police officers and prison and detention officers"

Status:

Women's safety needs are not sufficiently met by the male-dominated police force, which does not take seriously issues of domestic violence and rape. Research has shown that women police officers are more responsive to domestic violence situations and far less likely to engage in police brutality. However, women police officers are often subjected to ongoing discrimination and harassment. Upon reporting discriminatory behavior, women police officer are often subjected to retaliation. Gender balance in policing is needed to attain a law enforcement system that serves the safety needs of both women and men.

Women currently comprise only 8.8% of local law enforcement, 4.9% of state law enforcement, and 14% of county sheriff's offices. Figures for women in federal police agencies are unknown. Affirmative action is being attacked in several states and in Congress where proposedwould end affirmative action and gut sex discrimination law.

Actions

• Set a goal of gender balance in law enforcement for all police agencies.
• Use federal funding and affirmative action to increase numbers of women in law enforcement.
• Withhold federal funding from law enforcement agencies which do not have a gender-balance plan.

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