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Week Ending November 2, 2007

H.RES.726 Calling on the President of the United States and the international community to take immediate steps to respond to and prevent acts of rape and sexual violence against women and girls in Darfur, Sudan, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic.

Central African Republic.

Chad

Sudan

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A 2000 UN Security Council Resolution called for special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that rape may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, the preamble notes.

Mass rape has become a central component of the Government of Sudan’s violence and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

The resolution calls on the President to improve assistance to victims and potential victims of rape and sexual violence in Darfur, Sudan, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic by authorizing grants to non-governmental organizations that can provide comprehensive and quality health care services, supplies and psychological and social counseling.

More resolution below….

Sponsor: 

Vote: Passed House by voice vote October 29, 2007

Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost

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MORE INFORMATION

Whereas, during war, rape and sexual violence are often used systematically as a weapon of intimidation, humiliation, terror and ethnic cleansing;

Whereas it is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women and girls were raped during the genocide in Rwanda;

Whereas, on September 2, 1998, the United National International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Jean Paul Akayesu guilty of rape and held that rape and sexual assault constitute crimes against humanity;

Whereas, on October 31, 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Security Council Resolution 1325, calling on all parties to an armed conflict to take, `special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse';

Whereas the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which entered into force on July 1, 2002, states that rape and `any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity' may constitute both `crimes against humanity' and `war crimes';

Whereas since 2003, mass rape committed by members of the Sudanese armed forces and affiliated militias with the support of the Government of Sudan has been a central component of the Government of Sudan's violence and ethnic cleansing in Darfur;

Whereas women and girls leaving Internally Displaced Persons camps in Darfur and refugee camps in eastern Chad, to seek firewood, water or outside sources of income are often attacked and subjected to rape and sexual violence perpetrated by members of the Sudanese armed forces and associated Janjaweed militia and other armed combatants;

Whereas, on July 19, 2004, Amnesty International reported that it collected the names of 250 women who had been raped in Darfur and information on 250 additional rapes;

Whereas, on January 25, 2005, the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, in a report to the United Nations Secretary General, reported numerous cases of mass rape throughout Darfur including an incident in which a large number of Janjaweed attacked a boarding school, and raped as many as 110 girls;

Whereas, on March 8, 2005, Doctors Without Borders reported that between October 2004 and the first half of February 2005, doctors from the organization treated almost 500 rape victims in numerous locations in South and West Darfur;

Whereas, on March 9, 2007, members of the United Nations High-Level Mission on the situation of human rights in Darfur reported that `rape and sexual assualt have been widespread and systematic, terrorizing women and breaking down families and communities' and that `women are also attacked in and around refugee camps in eastern Chad';

Whereas, on April 27, 2007, the International Criminal Court, acting under the authority provided in Security Council Resolution 1593, issued arrest warrants for Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun and Janjaweed Colonel Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Raham seeking their arrest for 51 counts including 6 counts involving rape;

Whereas under Sudanese law victims of rape have virtually no legal recourse and may in fact be charged with the crime of zina, or sexual intercourse outside of marriage, punishable by one hundred lashes if the victim is unmarried and death by stoning if she is married;

Whereas, on July 31, 2007, the United Nations Security Council adopted Security Council Resolution 1769 authorizing the deployment of a United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) to Darfur and expressing strong concern about `on-going attacks on the civilian population and humanitarian workers and continued and widespread sexual violence' while `emphasising the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of such crimes'; and

Whereas, on August 20, 2007, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported on attacks, abductions and systematic rapes of women by the Sudanese armed forces and associated militias occurring in Darfur, as well as the resulting pregnancies, `grave health risks,' and `psychological trauma' and declared that these acts may constitute war crimes: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) calls upon the President of the United States to develop within the United States Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development a Women and Girls of Darfur Initiative to improve assistance to victims and potential victims of rape and sexual violence in Darfur, Sudan, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic by--

(A) offering specialized grants to non-governmental organizations, operating within IDP and refugee camps in Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic that can provide all necessary comprehensive and quality health care services and medical supplies, psychological and social counseling, and legal advice to Darfuri victims of rape and sexual violence;

(B) providing treatment for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV infections, and specialized care for rape victims already infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases;

(C) meeting the psychological, social and educational needs of victimized women, girls, children born as a result of rape, their family and the community in order to limit the stigmatization associated with rape; and

(D) providing financial, technical and other forms of assistance to support women's peace initiatives;

(2) calls upon the Secretary General of the United Nations, the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, the European Union, the Arab League and other nations to immediately take steps to--

(A) ensure that a fully funded and fully equipped UNAMID is deployed to Darfur, Sudan;

(B) mandate that UNAMID employ all necessary measures to protect women and girls from acts of rape and sexual violence both outside and within Darfuri refugee and IDP camps;

(C) provide sufficient resources and training to UNAMID troops and police to ensure a capability to properly respond to acts of rape and sexual violence;

(D) provide for firewood patrols and other safeguarding measures to protect women and girls leaving refugee and IDP camps; and

(E) include an adequate number of female troops and police in UNAMID to properly manage incidents of rape and sexual violence;

(3) calls on the United Nations Security Council to immediately--

(A) find the Government of Sudan in noncompliance with Security Council Resolution 1325;

(B) call on the Government of Sudan to provide full legal protections to victims of rape and sexual violence and to bring to justice individuals responsible for such crimes; and

(C) adopt under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter a Security Council Resolution calling on the Government of Sudan to respect all related Security Council Resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 1593, enforce the arrest warrants for Ahmad Muhammad Harun and Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Raham, and further recognize the systematic rape of women and girls in Darfur as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

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