WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) released the following statement in recognition of tomorrow’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women:
“Violence against women is a human rights problem with far-reaching consequences. When women are subjected to violence, whether in the form of trafficking in persons, domestic violence or rape, entire communities suffer. Such acts impose significant barriers to the achievement of our global public health priorities and exact a devastating toll on economic progress in developing countries. As global citizens, we must do better. On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I am pleased to announce that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee intends to take up the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) at its next business meeting. I hope my colleagues will join me in support of this urgently needed legislation, which will shine a spotlight on violence against women and give the administration the necessary tools to tackle the root causes of violence in an effective, transparent, and accountable way.”
IVAWA is a comprehensive anti-violence bill that creates new mandates for the State Department and USAID to make violence against women more central to their policy and programming. IVAWA’s central element is the creation of coordinated and long-term individual country strategies for the State Department and USAID to use for more effective and transparent programming to stop violence. The strategies will not just address the consequences of violence against women and girls, but also the root causes, and will link violence against women to our broader foreign policy and development goals. Monitoring and evaluation of anti-violence programs will be strengthened.
###