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56–887PDF 2010

WOMEN AS AGENTS OF CHANGE: ADVANCING

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN POLITICS AND

CIVIL SOCIETY

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL 

ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND OVERSIGHT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JUNE 9, 2010

Serial No. 111–97

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California, Chairman 

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

DIANE E. WATSON, California 

RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

MICHAEL E. MCMAHON, New York 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee 

GENE GREEN, Texas 

LYNN WOOLSEY, California 

SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

BARBARA LEE, California 

SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada 

JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York 

MIKE ROSS, Arkansas 

BRAD MILLER, North Carolina 

DAVID SCOTT, Georgia 

JIM COSTA, California 

KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota 

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona 

RON KLEIN, Florida 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

RON PAUL, Texas 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina 

CONNIE MACK, Florida 

JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

BOB INGLIS, South Carolina 

GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida 

RICHARD J. KESSLER, Staff Director 

YLEEM POBLETE, Republican Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

HUMAN RIGHTS AND OVERSIGHT

RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri, Chairman 

BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

VACANT 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

RON PAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

JERRY HALDEMAN, Subcommittee Staff Director 

PAUL BERKOWITZ, Republican Professional Staff Member 

MARIANA MAGUIRE, Staff Associate 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s 

Issues, Office of Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State ................ 10

The Honorable Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International 

Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State ............................................... 19

Mr. Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute ....................... 44

The Honorable Swanee Hunt, Chair, Institute for Inclusive Security (Former 

U.S. Ambassador to Austria) ............................................................................... 55

Ms. Judy Van Rest, Executive Vice President, The International Republican 

Institute ................................................................................................................ 62

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Russ Carnahan, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Missouri, and Chairman, Subcommittee on International Organizations, 

Human Rights and Oversight: Prepared statement .......................................... 4

The Honorable Melanne Verveer: Prepared statement ........................................ 12

The Honorable Esther Brimmer: Prepared statement ......................................... 21

Mr. Kenneth Wollack: Prepared statement ........................................................... 47

The Honorable Swanee Hunt: Prepared statement .............................................. 56

Ms. Judy Van Rest: Prepared statement ............................................................... 64

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 76

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 77

Responses from the Honorable Esther Brimmer to questions submitted for 

the record by the Honorable Russ Carnahan .................................................... 79

The Honorable Russ Carnahan: Material submitted for the record .................... 83

The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of Texas: Prepared statement ................................................................... 113

(1)

WOMEN AS AGENTS OF CHANGE: ADVANCING 

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN POLITICS AND 

CIVIL SOCIETY 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2010

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

HUMAN RIGHTS AND OVERSIGHT,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:07 p.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Russ Carnahan (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Good afternoon and welcome to the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and 

Oversight. We are here for a committee hearing today on the subject of Women as Agents of Change: Advancing the Role of Women 

in Politics and Civil Society. 

I am going to make a brief opening statement. Then we want to 

get right to our first panel. We do expect that we may be interrupted by votes some time in the next hour, so we will adjust accordingly and appreciate all of your patience. 

In the last decade, we have seen a meaningful shift in momentum surrounding the need for gender equality and especially a 

growing call for women’s voices in the decision-making process 

from the international arena to local communities around the 

world. Nonetheless, despite increased momentum around women’s 

empowerment and political participation, there is still much more 

progress to be made. 

Today, while women account for over half of the population, they 

occupy less than 19 percent of the seats in national parliaments, 

according to the IPU. In many countries steps have been taken to 

increase the number of women in government and political life, 

such as constitutional reform mandating quotas at the national 

level and the introduction of programs that help female candidates 

win election to political offices. 

Critics claim this doesn’t do enough to give women equal voice 

in decision-making and meaningfully institutionalized gender 

equality. It levels the playing field but doesn’t guarantee greater 

policy attention or social change. 

It is imperative to increase not just the numbers but also the effectiveness of women in political and civil leadership roles. This includes ensuring that women elected to offices and appointed to 

ministries have real power to enact legal reforms that address the 

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needs of women, children, and families, which are inseparable from 

the needs of the community as a whole. It also includes ensuring 

increased training and education for men and boys to work with 

women as equal partners and change negative sociocultural stereotypes. 

Women face particular challenges, such as equal access to health 

care, education, economic opportunities, violence, and lack of legal 

rights in the judicial process. It has been amply documented that 

they are also disproportionately affected by problems such as climate change and conflict. 

These unfortunate realities have put women to the test as keen 

innovators and leaders. Women bring an important perspective to 

policy and play instrumental roles in reconstruction and peacebuilding efforts. Moreover, equality of gender representation is 

shown to increase transparent and democratic governance. These 

are benefits the U.S. cannot afford to ignore in an increasingly 

challenging global environment. 

Women in Northern Ireland were essential in initiating the peace 

process. Women in Rwanda rebuilt their country after the horrific 

genocide. They currently rank first in the percentage of women in 

Parliament. Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo are likewise being recognized for their central role in rebuilding, resettling, 

and opening dialogue. 

Last week, national, provincial, and tribal Afghan leaders gathered in Kabul for a peace jirga to outline a path forward for lasting 

stability in Afghanistan. The rocket attacks launched by insurgent 

Taliban members at the jirga underscore the dire need for a resolution with the Taliban, especially one that protects and promotes 

the rights and well-being of Afghan women and girls who suffered 

disproportionately under the Taliban’s brutal rule. 

Of the approximately 1,500 Afghan leaders represented at the 

jirga, about 21 percent were women. This representation was hard 

won, yet not a single woman was among the five prominent speakers who addressed the jirga on its inaugural day, and all four members of the appointed leadership were men. 

Commenting on the involvement of women in brokering negotiations with the Taliban, Samira Hamidi, Director of the Afghan 

Women’s Network, asserted ‘‘we have not been approached by the 

government.’’ Such realities lend legitimacy to claims that the level 

of women’s participation was symbolic at best and certainly insufficient to present a voice for at least half of the Afghan population. 

As Secretary Clinton and others have rightfully articulated on 

several occasions, women’s rights are human rights, and women’s 

progress is human progress. The world simply cannot achieve lasting peace and prosperity if half of the population is not allowed or 

not able to participate fully. For real advancement in women’s 

rights, we must take a comprehensive approach that combats all 

obstacles—physical, economic, sociocultural, psychological and otherwise—to women’s equality; and for this to work we need women 

at the helm of policy formulation and decision-making. 

This administration has taken important steps to raise the profile of women’s rights, including empowerment of women to engage 

politically in their societies. This is exemplified by the White House 

Council on Women and Girls and the Office of Global Women’s 

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Issues created last year which work to advance anti-discrimination 

laws and policies that have enabled more women to participate in 

political, civil judicial life, on gender equality, and mainstreaming 

of women’s issues in government. 

Likewise, the U.N. has been a key force in pressing the international community to definitively adopt gender equality principles 

through various resolutions and now a new composite gender entity 

still in the final planning stages. In fact, this year marks the tenth 

anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 

1325 on women, peace, and security. The resolution stresses the 

important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace building and urges increased representation and 

participation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional, and international institutions that address conflict resolution management and prevention. 

Debate over the adequacy of women’s involvement at the Afghan 

peace jirga reiterates both the significance and relevance of gender 

equality in the peace process. There is a renewed push for gender 

equality at all levels of policy and development strategy, and it is 

the job of Congress to conduct oversight of the U.S. and U.N. programs to contribute meaningful progress on these issues. We must 

take a serious look at our own foreign assistance contribution and 

ensure maximum effectiveness and transparency. 

Everyone benefits when women have equal rights and women 

have a voice in decision-making at all levels. When women are empowered to engage in the political process, governments are more 

effective and responsive to their people and nations are more stable, peaceful, and prosperous. 

I look forward to hearing the testimony today both from the administration and our private witnesses on the status of their efforts 

to enhance women’s political participation, their analysis of the 

best practices for increasing levels and effectiveness and how to 

maximize U.S. assistance. 

I now want to recognize my colleague and ranking member, Representative Rohrabacher of California, for his opening statement. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Carnahan follows:]

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Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman; and 

thank you for calling this very thoughtful hearing on an issue that 

needs to be discussed. 

Treatment of women is an unmistakable indicator of success or 

failure, of potential danger or a chance for success in terms of 

America’s commitment to freedom in the world. 

Let me note that we have faced many challenges during my 20 

years in Congress, and quite often taking a look at what impact 

these issues were having directly on women throughout the world 

was an indicator of the significance of those issues. For example, 

during the 1990s, when the Taliban emerged in Afghanistan, I will 

just say that there were several of us who were constantly sounding the alarm bell about the Taliban. And I am sorry to say that 

our administration at that time, the Clinton administration, had 

had some kind of an agreement with Saudi Arabia, perhaps the 

Pakistanis as well; and there was some kind of covert support 

going on for the Taliban. 

Those of us who were concerned realized that the Taliban were 

the equivalent of the Nazis in terms of women’s rights; and Carolyn Maloney, a Congresswoman from New York, and myself were 

very active in trying to raise that issue and specifically saying, 

look, this is what is happening. If this is the way the Taliban treats 

women, it is going to come back hard on the United States in many 

ways, not just to mention that our values are being undermined. 

And we didn’t get very far. 

I think that if we had gotten more attention, and we did—and 

Congresswoman Maloney actually went and tried to organize women’s groups in the United States to help direct policy away from the 

Taliban. Had we been successful at that time, 9/11 might not well 

have happened. 

But we do know that we cannot turn a blind eye to the type of 

monstrous discrimination and mistreatment of women throughout 

the world if we expect to move the world forward, and women need 

to play an active role in not only being the recipients of that but 

in charting the strategy of how to accomplish that goal. 

I would just like to say that we still face many challenges today. 

In the Muslim world, it is still very, very clear that women are discriminated against and that the United States needs to play a positive role in that direction. But not only—the Muslim world is just 

the one that is the best example. Everybody likes to sort of pick 

on that because it is so blatant. 

But we have that type of discrimination going on and the horrible mistreatment of women in Africa where we know that the 

outbreaks of rape are ignored by their governments and just the 

brutal mistreatment of women. Even in Hispanic cultures we find 

residues left over from the machismo concepts where women were 

not expected to play a role in decision-making. In Japan, that type 

of cultural tradition still has its impact. 

So it is up to us and the United States. We are a microcosm of 

the good things and bad things about the whole world, so it is up 

to us to try to serve as an example and to try to lead the way. 

And, as you said, Mr. Chairman, our commitment to human 

rights—there is no commitment to human rights unless a large 

portion of that commitment is to the rights of women. Because, last 

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time I noted, the human population was made up of at least half 

women, and so that counts. 

So I am very pleased today that you have called this hearing and 

have drawn our attention to this and to have an honest discussion 

of this and see what we can do and how each of us can play a role 

and especially how the role of women in our own country can be 

expanded in order to meet these challenges to freedom elsewhere. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Next, I want to recognize for an opening statement Mr. Delahunt 

of Massachusetts, who chaired this committee when I was vice 

chair. He taught me everything I know. 

Mr. DELAHUNT. And you have learned very well, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. The gentleman from Massachusetts. 

Mr. DELAHUNT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and let me congratulate you on this hearing. We had a similar hearing when I did hold 

the gavel. I don’t think we can have too frequent hearings on this 

issue, because we have to constantly remind ourselves and the rest 

of the world the importance of the role of women in terms of not 

just our national agenda but in terms of our international agenda. 

I know that you are aware and have supported the International 

Violence Against Women Act, which I am the lead sponsor on the 

Democratic side. We have made progress. 

My friend from California, Mr. Rohrabacher, indicated that we 

have to lead. Well, we have to remind ourselves, too, that we have 

a way to go. But the impressive strides that we have made have 

really been brought about because of the vanguard of women, with 

support from men, to break through old concepts and to advance 

the role of women not just in society but specifically in terms of political leadership. 

I came across a statistic that I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at. 

But, as of mid-2009, women, even though they represent 50 percent 

of the world’s population, occupy only 19 percent of seats in national governments worldwide. That is a figure that has to be improved. 

And you know here in the United States Congress, what is the 

percentage of women that occupy congressional seats, whether they 

be in the House or in the Senate. So we all have work to do. 

But we have I think extraordinary leadership with the Ambassador and the Secretary with whom I have worked in the past and 

look forward to working in the future. 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the former Ambassador to Austria who I consider a friend, Ambassador Hunt, who 

I know is part of the second panel. And, of course, the gentleman 

from NDI representing the rest of us here today. 

But this is a hearing that is important and that serves to remind 

us of how far we have to go. You know, as Mr. Rohrabacher indicated, in some countries, women endure extreme levels of violence, 

including systematic rape in times of war and harmful cultural 

practices, such as genital mutilation and forced child marriage. I 

remember an article about a 13-year-old girl in Yemen who was 

married off to an older man and ultimately died from the injuries 

she sustained when he raped her. Last year, a 12-year-old child 

bride in the same country died while trying to give birth. You 

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know, these anecdotes and these tragic examples really should be 

the only motivation we need to continue to change the course of the 

role of women in global society. 

And with that, I yield back. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. I thank the gentleman. 

I want to turn to our first panel, which we are thrilled to have 

with us today. 

I want to start with Ambassador-at-Large Melanne Verveer. She 

is the director of the Department of State’s Office on Global Women’s Issues, where the coordinates foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic, and social advancement of 

women around the world. That is a big charge. 

Ms. VERVEER. Yes, it is. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. She has mobilized support for women and girls’ 

access to education and health care, to combat violence against 

women, and to ensure that women’s rights are integrated with 

human rights in the development of U.S. foreign policy. She served 

as chair and co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an organization she co-founded which invests in women leaders and seeks to 

expand women’s political participation. 

Previously, she was chief assistant to then-First Lady Hillary 

Clinton in international activities to advance women’s rights. She 

has also helped establish the President’s Interagency Council on 

Women. She has a B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University and 

is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Women’s 

Foreign Policy Group. 

Also on our first panel is Assistant Secretary of State Esther 

Brimmer. She is Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, leading the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, which strives to advance U.S. interests through international 

organizations in areas including human rights, peacekeeping, food 

security, humanitarian relief, and climate change. 

Previously, she was deputy director and director of research at 

the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the School of Advanced 

International Studies at Johns Hopkins, where she specialized in 

transatlantic political and security affairs. She has worked on E.U., 

Western Europe, U.N., and multilateral security issues and was a 

member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human 

Rights in 2000. 

From 1993 to 1995, she served as special assistant to the Under 

Secretary of State for Political Affairs, where she worked on U.N., 

peacekeeping, human rights, and political-military issues. She has 

a Ph.D. and master’s in international relations from the University 

of Oxford and a B.A. in international relations from Pomona College. 

We have two fantastic witnesses today. We are going to start 

with Ambassador Verveer. We are going to ask you all to stick to 

our 5 minutes; and, hopefully, we will have some time for questions 

and then be able to move on to our next panel. 

Welcome. 

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STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MELANNE VERVEER, AMBASSADOR–AT–LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES, OFFICE OF GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF 

STATE 

Ambassador VERVEER. Thank you, Chairman Carnahan, for your 

leadership on this issue and for convening this important hearing 

on a topic that is often overlooked and to Congressmen Delahunt 

and Rohrabacher for your very supportive comments. And welcome, 

Congresswoman Woolsey. 

I am honored to be here this afternoon to discuss the role of 

women in politics and civil society around the world and the 

United States’ efforts to advance women’s participation in the political lives of their societies and ask this my full testimony be placed 

in the record. 

While there have been positive developments in women’s political 

participation, women are still vastly underrepresented globally. 

While women are half the population, as you said, Representative 

Rohrabacher, and I can’t quarrel with you on that one, they certainly still hold less than one-fifth of the positions in national governments. They are still significantly outnumbered in the chambers 

of parliaments, in provincial councils, and they are often missing 

from the negotiating tables where conflicts are to be resolved. All 

too often, important decisions that affect women and their families 

and their societies are made without their having even a voice. 

When women are discriminated against in the political arena, 

their experiences, talents, and perspectives are shut out of the policy decisions of our democracies and certainly for our prospects for 

a better world. Moreover, according to the World Bank, higher 

rates of female participation in government are associated with 

lower levels of corruption on the country level. 

I have been fortunate to see firsthand how women are making 

a difference in the political process at the local and national levels. 

Women’s political participation, role in civil society, and government decision-making are key ingredients to building democracy. 

Democracy without the full participation of women is a contradiction in terms. It is a simple fact that no country can progress or 

prosper if half its citizens are left behind, and progress for women 

and progress for democracy go hand in hand. 

Today, investing in women is at the very heart of U.S. foreign 

policy. We know that women’s participation is essential to addressing virtually every challenge we face as nations and as a community of nations. 

We are investing in policies and programs to grow women’s leadership capacity in all areas of political participation, decision-making, and civil society. Women must not only be more engaged in 

governance but they must also be at the table in peace making, 

peace negotiations, and work on post-conflict reconstruction. 

We know that without the voices of women contributing to the 

delicate process of conflict resolution, peace is less likely to take 

root. U.S. support for quotas for women in Afghanistan and Iraq, 

which were chiseled into their constitutions, helped pave the way 

for women to enter politics and participate in policymaking in those 

countries at a critical time. The gains that have been made are preVerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:54 Jul 15, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\IOHRO\060910\56887 HFA PsN: SHIRL
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carious and must be nurtured and consolidated or women will risk 

seeing them erased or eroded. 

The United States has been extensively engaged in supporting 

women’s political participation in Afghanistan, which my testimony 

details, and we are particularly focused on the role of women on 

the reintegration and reconciliation process as it goes forward. And 

as you have pointed out, Mr. Chairman, in the recently concluded 

peace jirga, the United States was involved in supporting the participation of women, supporting female jirga participants with the 

training and skills development necessary to assist them to be effective in their participation as well. But, as you also pointed out, 

the outcome has been less than satisfactory. 

As with Afghanistan, we remain deeply committed in Iraq as 

well. 

Women have key needs that we can go on to discuss in civil society, in governing, and in actively engaging the political process. My 

testimony details a number of programs our Government is engaged in from the Middle East to North Africa to USAID programs 

and beyond. 

I want to acknowledge the panel that follows me. The NDI, IRI, 

and the Institute for Inclusive Security have been important partners in this common cause; and we have worked with them extensively. 

Women everywhere continue to face challenges and barriers to 

productive participation and political engagement in government. 

In countries marred in conflict or cursed with poverty, the obstacles 

to overcome are even greater. Nevertheless, progress is occurring, 

although I believe at a pace that is far too slow; and, as a result, 

we are not adequately tapping one of the greatest resources we 

have for far more democratic, far more responsive, and far less corrupt governance around the world. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Verveer follows:]

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Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you very much. 

And now let’s turn to Dr. Brimmer. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ESTHER BRIMMER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Ms. BRIMMER. Chairman Carnahan, Ranking Member Rohrabacher, thank you for the invitation to testify today. 

I would like to submit my full testimony for the record and this 

afternoon will just provide a brief summary of my remarks for the 

subcommittee. 

It is an honor to appear before this subcommittee, and I am very 

pleased to be here with my colleague, Ambassador Verveer. 

The empowerment of women and gender equality globally is a 

top priority for the United States. Despite some progress over the 

past several decades, for far too many women and girls, for them, 

opportunity remains out of reach. Women still are the majority of 

the world’s poor, the uneducated, the unhealthy, and the unfed. 

We believe to effectively address the empowerment of women and 

girls globally requires the cooperative efforts of the entire world. 

International organizations are key partners in this effort, serving 

to build widespread international support for integrated approaches to address challenges facing women and girls and setting 

norms and standards to help states meet them. 

The United States is working with the United Nations and the 

U.N. system, along with international partners, to address key 

issues impacting women and girls worldwide, including violence, 

political and economic empowerment, increasing access to health 

care to address maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS, and improving 

access to quality education. 

Given the multifaceted dimensions of these issues and their global scope, it is imperative that the United States and the international community strengthen the institutions and multilateral 

tools available to address them. The U.S. strongly supports consolidating the U.N.’s four existing gender-related institutions into a 

single women’s agency, headed by an individual of under secretary 

general rank. 

Some of the primary goals for the new entity are to more effectively mainstream gender concerns, promote women’s empowerment throughout the U.N. system, and to enhance the U.N.’s effectiveness and ability to better address issues that impact women on 

the ground globally. We envision that the new women’s agency, 

among other things, would have expertise and perform analysis 

and research on issues such as gender equality, political participation, economic opportunities, violence, health, disabilities, gender 

aspects of peace negotiations, and discrimination against women. 

The Obama administration is also working multilaterally to address the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on women, the 

role of women in peacekeeping conflict resolution and peace building, and combating sexual and gender-based violence. We are committed to the implementation of a series of U.N. Security Council 

resolutions on these topics, including those we have taken leadership on, such as Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888, and 1889. 

20

The United States advances a zero tolerance policy for sexual violence against women and children in conflict. Last September, 

Secretary Clinton chaired a Security Council session and helped 

lead the unanimous adoption of the U.S.-sponsored Resolution 1888 

to strengthen protection of civilians from sexual violence in conflict. 

The action-oriented resolution was a major achievement for this administration and, more importantly, for vulnerable women and 

girls globally, because it established a Special Representative of the 

Secretary General for Sexual Violence in Conflict, a position now 

held by Margot Wallstrom, and also established a team of experts 

to be deployed in conflict zones in order to strengthen the rule of 

law. We are pleased that Special Representative Wallstrom has 

begun her work by dealing immediately with the worsening situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

This fall, we will mark the tenth anniversary of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. This resolution was first adopted by 

the Security Council to focus on women’s peace and security and 

address the impact of conflict on women and the contributions 

women can make to solidifying peace. 

Last October, through the unanimous adoption of Resolution 

1885, the Security Council reaffirmed Resolution 1325; and as we 

approach the 10-year anniversary we will continue to work toward 

Resolution 1325’s implementation. 

Mr. Chairman, before closing, I will briefly touch on several related issues. 

I would like to reiterate the administration’s strong support for 

the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms 

of Discrimination Against Women. Secretary Clinton and members 

of the administration have said that CEDAW is a priority. We also 

support working on the empowerment of women as part of dealing 

with the Millennium Development Goals and supporting work with 

the U.N. agencies to promote education. And, finally, we were very 

active at this March’s session on the Commission on the Status of 

Women, and we sponsored resolutions on eliminating maternal 

mortality and morbidity through the empowerment of women. We 

have also cosponsored resolutions on women’s economic empowerment and the gender composite entity that were adopted by consensus. 

Mr. Chairman, I will end there, but thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue; and I look forward to your 

questions. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Brimmer follows:]

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Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Thank you both for your opening remarks. It was a great way 

to kick this conversation off today. 

Speaking of women in leadership, we have been joined by two 

colleagues, Congresswoman Woolsey from California and Congresswoman Moore of Wisconsin; and I want to recognize Congresswoman Woolsey to start off the questioning. 

Ms. WOOLSEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

As one of the founders of Women’s History Month that came 

from Sonoma County, California, you can know that I take this 

cause of women’s issues internationally very, very seriously. And 

Secretary Clinton I am so proud has repeatedly said that women’s 

rights are human rights. She is exactly right. Any development, 

economic, or humanitarian program that does not consider the role 

of gender is setting itself up for failure; and any country that 

doesn’t take interest in what happens with the women will not take 

steps forward. 

We have proven that already. Even in the United States, women 

have a long way to go on equal representation. In our own Government, only 74 of the 435 Members of the House are women, more 

than when I was elected in 1992, that is for sure, but not enough. 

So I look forward, actually, to the time when women will have an 

equal voice in government at home and abroad. 

I thank you for holding this hearing and letting me be part of 

it. 

For nine Congresses in a row, I have introduced for the United 

States to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 

Discrimination, CEDAW, even going into Secretary Helms’ committee when he was the chair and being told to sit down and act 

like a lady. So, you know, this is important to me. 

And now that we have our wonderful Secretary and the two of 

you, we have Bill Clinton—Barack Obama in the White House—

Bill Clinton did pass the ratification forward—and we need to do 

this. What is holding it up? Can you tell me? I mean, it is the Senate. It is not the House. The House has 132 Members signed on to 

the letter to the Senate saying, get on with it. 

Ambassador VERVEER. Yes, Congresswoman. And you are right, 

and you have been steadfast. And it is probably the single most frequently asked question I get all around the world, everyplace I go, 

why has the United States not ratified the Convention Against the 

Elimination of Discrimination Against Women? Because we are in 

league with a few other rogue states that haven’t done so. 

And while it is true that there are countries who have ratified 

it and yet don’t do the best in terms of recognizing the rights of 

women in their countries, and what is significant about that ratification is that women in those countries are using the ratification 

of CEDAW in their countries as leverage with their governments 

in making progress along the way. 

So we have it as a priority, as Assistant Secretary Brimmer said. 

We have been working with many across civil society in the United 

States who are supporting it. There is a list of treaties and other 

business before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the 

Senate in general, but that is where the question has to be lodged. 

Ms. WOOLSEY. Thank you. 

30

Dr. Brimmer, do you want to say any more about this? 

Ms. BRIMMER. I would just also concur with my colleague, Ambassador Verveer, that similarly I also find the question frequently 

asked in multilateral fora because I think the world notes that the 

United States is re-engaging and working in multilateral fora and 

working toward a world of rule of law and that the importance of 

treaties is an important component of that. And indeed CEDAW is 

a priority for us and we are working very hard and we very much 

want to work toward the advice and consent of the Senate to that 

particular treaty. 

Ms. WOOLSEY. Thank you very much. 

Very quickly, before my time is up, it is very important to me 

that we emphasize maternal mortality. I don’t want to take money 

away from AIDS or any of the other successful programs that we 

have from the United Nations and from the United States, but we 

do need to dedicate more funds to maternal mortality. Is there a 

way? 

Ambassador VERVEER. Well, Congresswoman, again, much in 

agreement with what you said, one of the singular global initiatives 

of the administration is the Global Health Initiative. It is particularly focused on reducing the rate of maternal mortality. We have 

just seen the first study in many, many years that show, in fact, 

this is not an intractable problem. We can make a difference. The 

Lancet Study. And the hope is that now, with additional resources 

put toward it, the G–8—Canada is taking the lead in the major initiative in the G–8. The United Nations is focused on maternal and 

child health in a significant way in light of the anniversary of the 

Millennium Development Goals with the United States, with other 

partners. Gates just announced a $1.5 billion commitment. Hopefully, this is the time to once and for all begin to do something 

about this terrible problem which wracks much of the world. 

Women should not be dying every 2 minutes in childbirth. 

Ms. WOOLSEY. Thank you. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Next, I want to recognize our ranking member, Mr. Rohrabacher. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Ambassador Verveer, let me just note that I am pondering your 

observation that where there is women participation, there is less 

corruption. I haven’t heard that analysis before, and I am going to 

keep that in mind as I am developing my world view. So thank you 

for sharing that with us today. 

I will just note that I think that we have made progress in the 

United States, great progress in the United States. I just note, as 

a Republican from California, we nominated two women to be our 

gubernatorial and senatorial candidates yesterday, and I don’t 

think that would have happened 20 years ago. 

Also, let me note that in the surfing contests that I pay particular attention to in California that there never was a women’s 

part of the surfing competition 20 years ago, and now women are 

playing a very active role in my sport, in surfing. They are out 

there. 

So these are big steps forward and meaningful things, and they 

are basic changes in our society. 

31

I have got a serious question to ask you both, because it deals 

with the decisions that we have to make. I could ask you about 

whether or not we have to prioritize. We are going bankrupt, and 

we have to prioritize our spending. I don’t have any problem with 

trying to make sure money that is being expended for particular 

diseases are expended in a way that women are not shortchanged, 

because they are susceptible to certain diseases and certain medical problems like with childbirth that men are not. I don’t have 

any problem with that prioritization of that spending. 

But let’s get down to an issue today that I would like your advice 

on. We have to determine what we are going to do in Afghanistan. 

It is still a huge issue. In my whole life, in the last 30 years, Afghanistan has been there. We have to determine whether or not we 

are going to continue to try to be a presence and a force in that 

society at great cost to our society both in lives and treasure or we 

are going to perhaps try our best to do something so that we can 

walk away but yet they will not be a threat to us. But if we do 

walk away in that way, what we will be doing is suggesting that 

the Pashtun culture, which dominates a large chunk of Afghanistan, will remain intact. 

Much of our efforts in Afghanistan were aimed at changing the 

Pashtun culture and their relationship with women. The Taliban 

are part of the Pashtun culture. Not all Pashtuns are Taliban, but 

almost all Taliban are Pashtuns. 

So what is your advice to us? What is your advice? Should we 

fight it out in Afghanistan until that perhaps culture and their 

treatment of women, which is unacceptable by any of the democratic standards that we believe in, should we stay there and fight 

to change that? Or should we say, look, we cannot change the 

world, and we are going to cut our losses and get out just so long 

as they don’t become a threat to everybody else? That is the question. 

Ambassador VERVEER. Well, Congressman, obviously these are 

decisions that are going to be made above my pay grade. But let 

me just concur with what you said at the outset, which is how the 

treatment of women is often an indicator of danger or perhaps 

greater danger. And where women are much oppressed in our 

world, those are among the most dangerous places not just for the 

women in those societies but increasingly for our own country. 

I think, you know, the investment that has been made that you 

have talked about being a voice for in the 1990s, I worked for 

somebody in those years who was then the First Lady who was 

joining you and being in being that voice, talking about the oppression of the Taliban to women there. If you talk to women of Afghanistan, they will tell you, this is not how it always was. This 

may be part of the culture, but there were times in the 1950s and 

the 1960s and other times when they remember well how it was. 

They remember how they grew up. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. King Zahir Shah, who I supported during all 

of this time period, I wanted to bring him back. It was his wife that 

led the way to casting off the burkas in Kabul, et cetera. 

But let’s not kid ourselves. This repression of women is part of 

the Pashtun culture; and we will have to stay there and fight if we 

are going to make that our goal, to change that. Advice on that? 

32

Ambassador VERVEER. I would say that we have to continue to 

support human rights in the ways that we will choose to do that, 

obviously. But what happens to the women of Afghanistan is a predictor of what will happen, as you so eloquently said, in the future. 

Ms. BRIMMER. Ranking Member Rohrabacher, if I may add some 

additional thoughts to this portion of the conversation, I would also 

note that the United States is not alone, that the international 

community as a whole also supports the work in Afghanistan or 

recognizes the importance of long-term change in Afghanistan; and 

part of that is enhancing the role of women and girls. 

I would just note that there are many different ways of continuing to have international support for change in Afghanistan, 

and I will give you just one example. If you look at the work and 

the role of looking at education in Afghanistan, getting girls back 

into school has been absolutely crucial. And one of the things we 

actually work at with the United Nations system, particularly with 

UNICEF, is making sure that there are schools in rural areas and 

those schools make sure the girls go to school. And there are over 

800 of these rural schools where girls are becoming part of the future. I think those are some of the things that can help in the long 

term in that country. 

Thank you. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you very much. 

I am going to recognize next in our order is the gentleman from 

Massachusetts, Mr. Delahunt. 

Mr. DELAHUNT. Yes, thank you. 

Let me just address this globally. I mean, much of what Mr. 

Rohrabacher said in terms of Afghanistan I think is the concern 

that many of us share, that if there should be a decision made to 

leave, what will happen to any progress that women have made in 

Afghanistan? I know that is a priority for me in terms of my own 

decision-making process as far as supporting the continued presence of—or not supporting the continued presence of American 

troops in Afghanistan. 

But putting that aside for a minute, I always make the observation in terms of speaking in terms of violence against women, while 

it is often characterized as a women’s issue, that it is truly a male 

problem. What initiatives are happening globally in terms of our 

own foreign policy, in terms of the United Nations, in terms of 

other nations that prioritize this issue to influence men, boys? Is 

there any coherent effort to change attitudes that have been inculcated in men as a result of the societies in which they grow and 

develop? 

Ambassador VERVEER. Congressman, let me just start, and then 

I know that the Assistant Secretary will join in. 

Going back to the concern about what happens if we leave Afghanistan, I think it buttresses what this discussion is about today, 

which is women’s enhanced political participation and why it is so 

important in this reintegration reconciliation process what decisions are made to end this conflict, that they be parties to all of 

this so that the end to the conflict can come in a way where they 

aren’t thrown under the bus, so to speak, and there are better prospects for the future based on all the other kinds of investments 

that have been made, social and otherwise. 

33

Violence against women, as no one knows better than you because of all the efforts you have certainly put into IVAWA, is a 

global scourge; and we have to do better at engaging men and boys 

in dealing with the problem. The women in Afghanistan, for example, talk about the fact that this issue needs to be part of the education process. There are not just more girls going to school for the 

first time—we are up near 40 percent now—but certainly large 

numbers of boys. This needs to be integrated into what they are 

hearing. 

And we have been working with religious leaders, because the 

context of that society is heavily Islamic, and having the mullahs 

and the imams take these messages and put them into their Friday 

services and be influential in that respect makes an enormous difference. 

Similarly, we have been funding programs to use men at the village level, even where people are illiterate, to do skits that do demonstrate why this is not behavior that should be involved in, that 

men should define themselves by or be engaged in. 

One of the most significant ways to deal with this problem is obviously to prosecute it. It is a crime. It is not cultural. Laws have 

to be enforced, and we have to make sure there are systems that 

are based more on impunity than a system of justice that we can 

ensure that those changes occur. And that is something that we are 

working on, for example, in the DRC. 

So we do need a full range of these tools. There is increased focus 

on the role of men, religious leaders, other influential leaders on 

this problem; and I think that is a lot of the way we need to go 

if we are going to have a different outcome than we see today. 

Ms. BRIMMER. Just to pick up on two particular themes from this 

conversation, Congressman Delahunt, I would like to just note particularly that our series of resolutions passed at the Security Council have tried to stress the importance of dealing with violence 

against women as a challenge to international peace and security 

and, hence, the importance of Resolution 1880 and the follow-up to 

that. 

But, again, as you mentioned, it is extremely important that all 

of society—men and women, girls and boys—address this problem 

and that we try to bring this idea to many aspects of our diplomatic engagement, raising the importance for men and boys also 

to be part of the solution. 

Most recently, at CSW in March, we actually sponsored a session 

as the United States—actually in cooperation with France—on the 

role of men and boys in promoting gender equality; and we think 

this is a theme that we should continue to raise because all of 

human society needs to be part of this solution. 

Thank you. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Next, I want to recognize Congresswoman Moore from Wisconsin 

for 5 minutes. 

Ms. MOORE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the privilege to sit 

here with the subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and 

I would just like to say to the Ambassador hello again. I think we 

have spent a couple of hours today with the distinguished panel 

and also with a couple of Afghan women, talking about many of 

34

these issues that we are talking about this afternoon. So I really 

appreciate your diligence. And nice to meet you, too, Dr. Brimmer. 

If it is appropriate, I would like to shift the conversation a little 

bit to Haiti, if that would be okay. I had the opportunity—the challenge, actually—to be with the House Democracy Partnership on 

the absolute last day of their democratically elected mandate. Literally the entire House of Representatives met with us. Their last 

session was to meet with us, and two-thirds of the Senate was 

meeting on their very last day. And we had one woman senator say 

in tears, we are hungry, we are homeless, we are facing the hurricanes, we have limited potable water, but the worst thing is that 

we are losing our democracy. 

And there was a great deal of assurances, reassurances around 

the table that the United States would be there to try to help them 

get polling lists together, to try to make sure that we help them 

to get an election going by November and to certainly try to avoid 

an interim government in the case of the President whose term 

was extended again because of the situation that is in Haiti. 

What are we doing, if anything, about trying to empower women 

to participate in the elections, to field candidacies and to focus on 

that since we know that women’s political involvement is crucial? 

Ms. BRIMMER. Good afternoon, Congresswoman Moore. If I may 

begin to respond to your question; and I expect my colleague, the 

Ambassador, will also join in. I will take a moment to talk about 

our work in Haiti indeed leading up to the elections. 

As you know, responding to the devastating crisis in Haiti is a 

major foreign policy issue for the United States. We are by far and 

away the largest official donor and private donor. The outpouring 

of private support is also incredibly significant, and it is part of a 

long-term commitment to addressing the challenges the people of 

Haiti face. We also note particularly the support of the larger donor 

community as well toward dealing with the challenges in Haiti. 

Indeed, we are coming up to a crucial period with the elections 

at the end of November, and there are several ways that we are 

trying to help support the people of Haiti and particularly women 

of Haiti in playing a role in those elections and taking the next 

step on their path toward restoring democracy. That indeed if we 

look at the elections that the mechanisms we are using as international support for the elections in Haiti include our work with 

the United Nations operations there. There is a peacekeeping operation there, MINUSTAH, which actually is a part of the United 

Nations system there which will help with the elections. 

The United Nations has extensive experience in helping organize 

elections and in particular has taken on the responsibility of actually using the MINUSTAH forces to get the ballot boxes around the 

country—physically move them to get them around the country and 

to help ensure that there are clear voter rolls. 

The Special Representative of the Secretary General will lead the 

U.N. effort there to work on Haiti. Just a few weeks ago, I was in 

Port-au-Prince to see the operation, to sit down with him and talk 

about what the U.N. will be doing to support those elections. We 

think it is important that the elections are held in a safe and secure environment, and we have supported increased police for the 

operation to make sure those elections are conducted safely. 

35

We also note the cooperation between the United Nations, 

CARICOM, and the United States to help also get voter rolls and 

help voters get to the polls and help active participation by women 

in the process. 

Ms. MOORE. Thank you, Dr. Brimmer. 

Just a few more seconds. My time is expiring. 

One of the things that I have noticed is that there is really no 

strong public education system in Haiti. And, of course, women suffer from the dearth of education; and I wonder if there is any 

thought about spawning some sort of universal or public education 

support for that in Haiti, particularly focusing on women. 

Ambassador VERVEER. You know, Congresswoman, in addition to 

what Assistant Secretary Brimmer said, there is so much focus and 

we are in constant touch with many of the women particularly in 

civil society in Haiti. On the emergency situation that still exists, 

they are desperate to be fully included in the reconstruction process for income generation and for being part of the economic rebuilding. So there has been a lot of focus on that as well as the 

protection from violence, which is continuing to be a serious problem. And we have been dealing with the United Nations and others 

who are in a position to ensure that the women are not going to 

be harmed as electricity is still a problem and their proximity to 

so many potential problems for abuse are. And those are the two 

things they raised with us. 

We are also working to ensure that we can rebuild even with the 

fact that the population is so disrupted and displaced, a way to ensure that the children continue to get their education. And that 

moves forward and that is definitely in process. So we can get a 

status report on where that is for you and get it to you soon. 

Ms. MOORE. Thank you. 

I yield back. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. We gave you a little extra. 

Ms. MOORE. Thank you so much for your generosity, sir. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Ellison, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. ELLISON. Thank you Mr. Chairman; and thank you for having this very important hearing today. 

My question has to do with women as peacekeepers and, you 

know, people who preserve the law. You know, in places like the 

DRC and in other post-conflict areas or current conflict areas, does 

the engagement of women as part of the instrumentality of peacekeeping have a beneficial effect? Is this being tried in a significant 

concerted way? Can you speak to this? 

Ambassador VERVEER. Well, Congressman, it is not just does it 

have a beneficial effect. It is absolutely essential. And there was a 

Security Council Resolution. There is an existing one. It is called, 

in the jargon, 1325, but it recognized that when it comes to peace 

and security women have an absolutely intrinsic, critical role they 

have to play. 

And as the chairman said in his opening statement, we saw it 

in Northern Ireland, we saw it in El Salvador, Guatemala, Rwanda, and so many places in between that when women aren’t part 

of that process that goes forward to end a conflict, what we are 

working on now in Afghanistan, the way that future is determined 

will not have the critical issues on the table that will get resolved 

36

one way or the other, and then they will be part of the process to 

go forward. In fact, the peace will not, in all likelihood, take hold 

as was anticipated. So we are all working that much harder. 

I can’t say that any of us have done the best job we could and 

must do to ensure that women are fully participating. It is what 

we are striving to do in Afghanistan. There is a whole lot of effort 

going on presently in the State Department working with DOD, 

working with USAID in an interagency process and how we can do 

this better and how we can articulate a significant number of activities that our post should be engaged in to further this so that 

the outcomes are precisely what you stated in your question. 

Ms. BRIMMER. Good afternoon. If I may also note that we are 

even seeing women playing a larger role in formal peacekeeping operations as well. There are actually two countries that have all-female units that work on peacekeeping issues. One of them is in 

India, which pioneered the idea in 2007 of having a unit that focused—that was composed of women and that went to work on 

issues particularly dealing with sexual violence. And we noticed 

that that unit went to Liberia and actually inspired women in Liberia to join the national police force, and now 15 percent of the police force in Liberia is actually female. 

And indeed, President Sirleaf Johnson as well as our ambassador 

there and the Special Representative of the Secretary General, all 

women, and actually led a campaign to focus on combating sexual 

violence in the country, again showing leadership in this issue. 

We now have a unit from Bangladesh that is also an all-female 

unit that has just deployed to Haiti, particularly trying to help secure the refugee camps and particularly trying to deal with genderbased violence in the refugee camps, and we see that as a primary 

effort. 

And I would notice, I would actually like to credit our colleagues 

in the Defense Department as well that have also looked at this 

idea and have actually, for the first time, sent an all-female Marine 

unit to Afghanistan to work on some gender issues there. So it is 

an important idea of women as peacekeepers, even in our formal 

peacekeeping structures. 

Mr. ELLSWORTH. Thank you for that. 

Also, when women get into office and are elected officials in Afghanistan, Pakistan, anywhere, what sort of level of intimidation 

do they have to face that is specific to them being women? They 

could run into intimidation for any number of reasons. It could be 

party. It could be ethnicity. But as women, are we finding that 

when we succeed and women are in office, that they have a special 

burden to bear in terms of threats, hate crimes, things like that? 

Ambassador VERVEER. Well, I think it is probably fair to say that 

there is a double standard or a different standard imposed on 

women in political office. And the two women here on the panel can 

probably underscore that. But it is particularly difficult in areas of 

conflict. And I think, in 2008, some 10 lives alone were lost by 

women in the public domain in one kind of elective office or another to send a message to them. And these kinds of horrific messages are sent all too frequently. And whether it is voting when 

they are deemed that they shouldn’t be voting, or when they are 

actually participating in the process when others deem for them 

37

that they have no part being in that business, these terrible messages are sent. 

So, yes, they are much more prone to be attacked in ways that 

I don’t think any of us would take those kinds of personal risks 

that they do in the name of rebuilding their country and for the 

democratic principles they would like to see put in place. So we 

feel, I know we all do and certainly our programs try to certainly 

work at the security piece, and then also help them build capacity 

and find ways in which they can protect themselves more and ways 

that will make them less prone to this kind of violence. 

But I have talked to many women in the Afghan Parliament, for 

example, on the provincial councils. They will tell you hair-raising 

stories about what they endure every day, many of them going 

back to see their constituents, not knowing if they will get back to 

the capital ever again. There is a great price that is paid in the 

name of a better future and democratic governance, and I think we 

should keep that in mind always as we try to develop our programs 

and also help secure them as best we can in the effort that they 

are making. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you, Representative. 

Next, I will recognize Congresswoman Jackson Lee from Texas. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Chairman thank you so very much. 

I am reminded of the opportunities that we have had to travel 

and to see these issues first-hand. 

And I thank you to the ranking member for joining the chairman 

in this important hearing. 

To both of the witnesses, Dr. Brimmer and Ambassador Verveer, 

thank you for your leadership. 

Let me try to bust out of the bag. Let me try to achieve some 

of the knockout punches of Mohammed Ali. I guess I am moved by 

the presence of a uniquely distinctive audience that is here, seemingly a large number of women. And I cannot imagine that they 

are here for the lack of interest in this topic. 

I am reminded of the Secretary of State’s comments as First 

Lady in the 1990s, Ambassador, when she went to China and said 

that human rights is women’s rights; women’s rights is human 

rights. What a resounding large statement to be made around the 

world. And then, to paraphrase a statement, the person, the 

woman that rocks the cradle is the establisher of the civilization 

that we live in. 

And I believe, Mr. Chairman, if I could, in working with you, 

what should come out of this hearing is a demand, an absolute demand, an imperative demand, a declaration of an emergency that 

the international act dealing with—the international act of dealing 

with the violence against women should be passed, and it should 

be passed now. Because what I am gleaning from both the testimony and the recognition of how vast our task is, is that we are 

not going forward. We are working hard, but we are not going forward on some of these crucial issues dealing with violence against 

women. And let me recount and then pose a question. 

And all of the questions I came in, I heard Congresswoman 

Moore speaking about the need for broad-based education. And 

having been in Haiti—and that is just one example of going into 

38

developing nations where education is not accessible. Certainly Afghanistan. 

I do want to thank the Ambassador for holding the discussion at 

the State Department this morning, a snapshot of women in Afghanistan. And let me applaud you, apologize that I was testifying 

before a committee dealing with the BP oil spill and was not able 

to get there. 

But let me cite for you Sudan, for example, of course Darfur, 

which even today women are violated as they are living in camps 

still; even under the auspices of the peacekeepers and the mandates of the United Nations, women are violated. 

The women in Afghanistan, Ambassador, it is interesting that 

you recount that story. I heard that story almost 4, 5 years ago 

meeting with Afghan parliamentarians really right after we had 

written the constitution and they were included. They came and 

they said—speaking to them in Kabul—they said, I am afraid to go 

back to my constituency. We know that girls are prevented from 

going to school even today, even as we try to use smart power to 

build schools. 

Camp Ashraf, an isolated place in Iraq that has Iranians, where 

the women are violated. Not only the women, of course, the whole 

community is under siege in Iraq. We have been begging and fighting for those individuals not to be violated, abused, intimidated, 

and treated in the way that they have been treated by the Iraqi 

Government. 

I would also say to you that I have in my possession a burqa, 

and I brought it back after some years because at the time I 

brought it back—and I do believe in choice in many ways. And 

some have chosen—some women have chosen to wear it. I am not 

sure the basis, but they say they have chosen. 

But when I brought it back, I brought it back to show what was 

not going to be anymore. I brought it back to say, look what we 

helped eliminate or to empower women. And we know that today, 

if we go to Kabul and other places, the burqa is being worn; some 

it is being demanded that they wear it. 

So my question is this: Tell me how important it is that we demand that the international act of—violence against women’s act 

be passed now. 

Two, we have something in the faith called backsliding. What is 

the level of backsliding that is going on in these hot spots around 

the world, so to the extent that in—and might I compliment the administration overall. But to the extent that we have to gin up the 

activity of the United Nations, we have excellent leadership there, 

but you have a tough job at the United Nations. They don’t get it. 

And while we are backsliding, people, women are dying. And I 

think we need to know in the United States, Congress, what the 

answers need to be on ginning up, moving, declaring this an emergency, passing that legislation now. 

Mr. Chairman, if you would indulge me for the answer. I thank 

you for your courtesies. 

Ambassador VERVEER. This is a very serious problem. It is a 

global scourge. We have got to do better. I think one of the places 

where we did make progress over the last several years is in laws 

being passed in many countries to deal with setting out penalties 

39

and proclaiming once and for all that this was a violation of the 

law. It is criminal behavior; it isn’t cultural behavior. 

Unfortunately, in too many places, these laws have not been implemented, and they are not enforced, and the system of justice is 

not responsive. So we need to build capacity within countries and 

need to do more to get greater political will to deal with these 

issues within the countries. 

For example, in Afghanistan, they have passed a very strong law 

now called elimination of violence against women. That law is sitting on the books. It needs to be implemented. It needs to be to 

taken seriously by the government. And the capacity of civil society 

needs to be built so that they can hold their government responsible and the processes of government are in place to enforce that 

law. Otherwise, these laws don’t mean anything. And that is one 

of the problems we are dealing with as we look at honor killings 

and rape as a tool of war and domestic violence and great risk 

taken in political life, et cetera. So I think we clearly need to develop a more coherent strategy. And that covers every area, from 

political will to greater resources to civil society, to be able to make 

a dent. 

Now, we have tried to be responsive, and I am sure Assistant 

Secretary would like to talk more about the role that Secretary 

Clinton played after going to the DRC and seeing the array of problems that have been created there by the armed bands using rape 

as a tool of war, concerted tool, to further their goals, trying to get 

the representative who is now in place to deal with sexual violence 

against women, and an array of experts to start dealing with this 

at every level. But these processes are too slow. And I think one 

of the things in terms of our own leadership is what we can do, as 

we are all trying to do clearly, but it is not enough, to begin to have 

a greater impact. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you, Ambassador. 

And I am going to have to hold you at that, because we have 

been joined by another member we want to have time. 

Jan Schakowsky, representative from Illinois, who is also cochair 

of the Congressional Women’s Caucus. I want to recognize her for 

5 minutes. 

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I appreciate your allowing me to speak for 5 minutes. I do have 

an opening statement that I would like to put into the record, and 

I will waive any questions now. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Without objection. 

I had a few questions of my own, and hopefully we will have 

some time for Mr. Rohrabacher to do some follow-up as well. 

Let me start, Ambassador Verveer, with you. With regard to the 

focus the Obama administration has had and with Secretary Clinton, focusing on how we bring these women’s issues to the table as 

one of the important tools of our foreign policy, I would like you 

to please talk about some of the ways, best practices. You have 

seen this work in a practical way, but also moving forward, how 

we can ensure sustainability in these practices? We have touched 

on that earlier, but I wanted to get you to elaborate some about 

that because I think that is going to be critical in areas like Afghanistan. 

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Ambassador VERVEER. Well, I think one of the most fundamental 

ways, Mr. Chairman, is to ensure that these are integrated 

throughout the work of the State Department. So that when it 

comes to women’s political empowerment or economic empowerment or freedom from violence, that as the various offices and bureaus are working on their own agenda of issues, to really affix the 

women’s lens, if you will, in terms of ensuring better outcomes on 

the very issues that they are working on. 

We are also in the process of a woman’s strategy in terms of strategic and budget integration. And that is going forward, and we are 

hoping that that will put—putting that into place will create a 

more sustainable way to ensure that we get better outcomes across 

the board. 

There are areas that may not appear to be ways in which we 

might proceed but increasingly are making a difference. For example, as you know, there are a series of dialogues the U.S. has been 

and continues to be engaged in with other countries. We just concluded meetings on the United States-India dialogue. We had the 

United States-Afghan dialogue. This provides opportunities, because there is great political will today to put these women’s issues 

on the agenda so that, as the leaders of countries come together, 

these are not marginalized issues or unspoken issues; they are 

right front and center on the agendas. 

With the Indian Government, for example, we were talking about 

the great success story that the Panchayat system in India where, 

because of a quota but now well beyond a quota, upwards of 40–

50 percent of these village and municipal council-level elected positions are held by women. And there are empirical studies now that 

show a correlation between the outcomes of their performance and 

much greater the emphasis within those communities of benefits to 

the people and greater public resources coming in, not being siphoned off in ways that were previously siphoned off. 

There is an effort now with our coming together to take that experience and help build a capacity more broadly regionally, which 

would obviously be a contribution to enhancing the role of women’s 

political participation at the local level. 

So both on the level of procedures within the Department, and 

then in terms of the kinds of programs we have been engaged in 

that need to be sustained, I would say it is not an either/or, but 

a both/and for us to go forward. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. I had the pleasure to be with you about a month 

ago at a roundtable between Members of Congress and women 

from Afghanistan. They were here in leadership roles. And we saw 

firsthand, I think, some of the challenges that, even sitting in that 

room, pushback and uncertainty at best from some of their male 

colleagues in the government in terms of their involvement going 

forward. So I think these kind of strategies are going to be critical 

to our success. 

And Dr. Brimmer, I wanted to ask you if you would elaborate 

with regard to the consolidation efforts for a new gender entity at 

the U.N. I know those are in process as we speak, but how you 

think that coordination can better serve the efforts there at the 

U.N. 

Ms. BRIMMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

41

Indeed, as you mentioned, we are currently in diplomatic negotiations to bring together several different parts of the United Nations to create one single new entity dealing with women’s issues. 

We currently have four smaller entities that work on different 

aspects, whether it is research on women’s issues or running conferences on women’s issues, which is very important, but is currently separate from the larger organization, UNIFEM, which 

works on support for providing technical assistance to women 

around the globe. This effort would bring all those efforts together 

and would create one entity that would create a strong voice for 

dealing with gender issues and gender equality in the U.N. system. 

And indeed, it would be a tool to actually deal with one of the 

points that Congresswoman Jackson Lee mentioned in her question, which is, how do you deal with backsliding, how do you make 

sure to keep these issues on the agenda? 

The new entity would be able to work with the big departments 

in the U.N., Department of Peacekeeping Affairs, Department of 

Political Affairs, and others, to keep women’s issues and gender 

equality on the agenda as an area for work in the U.N. system. So 

we think this is an important effort. We would hope to conclude 

diplomatic negotiations later this month. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you very much. 

Ambassador VERVEER. And if I could add to that, Mr. Chairman, 

the other thing it would do is have a very significant leader at the 

right hand of the Secretary General to make sure these issues were 

not ignored. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

I am going to recognize our ranking member again for 5 minutes. 

I think we can sneak this in before votes. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. I would like to get back to the serious question that I asked before, because I honestly would like some advice, 

and frankly, I didn’t get the answer that I asked for. I didn’t get 

an answer from you on that. 

We are faced with a major decision now about what we are going 

to do in Afghanistan. The Pashtun culture is what we have been 

up against all along. Their culture is to treat women like cattle, basically, and owned by men. And everything that we see is wrong 

with the most radical of Islamic anti-female beliefs can be centered 

there in the Pashtun culture. 

Now, if we are going to—if we are committed, as long as we are 

there and we are part of the United Nations group, international 

group, I understand that we need to do that as long as we are 

there. Should we stay there and get that job done? Do we have that 

responsibility with the American military force to basically come in 

and insist on that change of culture? Because unless they change, 

that is what I believed all along, and if that was what, if the 

Taliban were dominated by the Pashtun culture, were going to 

dominate Afghanistan, it is going to come back and hurt us. I believed that in the 1990s. I don’t believe we can ignore that type of 

violation now. 

But what do you say? Should we be staying there and using our 

military might to obliterate that aspect of the Pashtun culture? 

Ms. BRIMMER. I would simply say that the long-term work in Afghanistan will require strong support from the United States and 

42

the international community in many forms. As I mentioned earlier, that the work, both the civilian and military and nongovernmental activities, are all important to helping the Afghans move 

forward in their own society, and that we as an international community will have to be part of that. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Long term. 

Let me give you a short-term thing then. What is being floated 

right now is, should we be making a compromise with the Taliban, 

letting the Taliban into the Afghan Government, so that we can 

make our exit a little bit sooner with a little less bloodshed? What 

do you say to that? But, of course, the deal that is being made is 

going to be done at the expense of women’s rights. 

Ambassador VERVEER. Well, and what the women are saying is, 

we are not against deals. We are not against bringing an end to 

the crisis. We are not against bringing those into power who may 

have been on the other side, as has happened all over the world 

as conflicts are ended. 

But we want to make sure that we are part of the terms of—of 

the negotiated terms to end that conflict. So this is something in 

the end, as capacity is built and people are engaged in the processes, that they have a fair chance to work it out. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. So, not putting words in your mouth then, 

making sure that that is part of the agreement, we should not 

make an agreement that does not leave a recognition of the rights 

of women in Afghanistan—we should not leave that country absent 

of an agreement that guarantees those rights as we see the rights 

of women, not as the Pashtuns see the rights of women. 

Ambassador VERVEER. Congressman, I will repeat what our leaders have said, which is that, as these discussions and agreements 

and negotiations and processes go forward, that there are three 

points that are uppermost in terms of determining the outcome: 

And that is that there is no deal with al Qaeda; there is no deal 

for the violence to continue with those people; and the constitutional rights have to be respected. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. So the answer is, yes, we shouldn’t leave 

without that. All right. I mean, I am just trying to get a yes or no 

out of you out of you on a very easy decision that we—it is not an 

easy decision, but an easy way to delineate there is a decision to 

be made, and it is a tough decision. 

Would you like to add something to that, Doctor? 

Ms. BRIMMER. I would join my colleague, Ambassador Verveer, in 

saying that understanding those main conditions that are part of 

the situation in Afghanistan I think will be crucial for any decision 

that would have to be made. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Let me just note that I don’t know the answer, either. I am not—I literally was seeking your advice on this, 

because I am not trying to push either point of view on that. It 

really, when I see our people being blown apart there and our 

young people separated, families being destroyed, and men and 

women coming home with missing legs and/or their parents, mother or father, dead in Afghanistan; it is a horrible price our people 

are paying there. And yet, at the same time, I understand that if 

we would leave at a certain point, all these rights that we talk 

about, our commitment to human freedom and the importance of 

43

women’s rights within that concept, would not be well served. So 

it is a big decision-making where we are placing our values. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I will ponder what we 

have learned today. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you very much. 

Thank you all for being here. We are going to thank our first 

panel. 

And in the interest of time, I would like to introduce our second 

panel before we break for votes, so that when we come back after 

we have four votes, we can come back and jump right into questions for our second panel. 

Thank you all. 

If we could have our second panel come up to the witness table, 

I would like to do some quick introductions. 

I am going to start the introductions with Mr. Ken Wollack. He 

is the president of the National Democratic Institute, better known 

as NDI. He has worked there since 1986. He has been serving as 

president since 1993. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid and is chairman of the board of 

directors for the U.S. Committee for UNDP. Prior to working with 

NDI, Mr. Wollack co-edited the Middle East policy survey. He also 

worked regularly on foreign affairs for the LA Times. He has been 

actively involved in foreign affairs journalism and politics since 

1972 and is a frequent person to be here on Capitol Hill testifying 

on foreign affairs issues. 

He is a graduate of Earlham College and is a senior fellow at 

UCLA’s School of Public Affairs. 

Welcome. 

Next, we have Ambassador Swanee Hunt. She is chair of the Institution for Inclusive Security. The Honorable Swanee Hunt is 

former Ambassador to Austria, current president of Hunt Alternatives Fund. She chairs the Institute for Inclusive Security, and 

founded the Women in Public Policy Program, a research center 

concerned with domestic and foreign policy at Harvard’s Kennedy 

School of Government. Ambassador Hunt is also widely published 

on the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution. She 

holds a B.A. in philosophy, two master’s degrees, and a doctorate 

in theology. 

Next, we have Judy Van Rest, executive vice president of the 

International Republican Institute, or IRI, a position she has held 

since August 2004. She serves on the board of the U.S. Institute 

of Peace and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University. 

From April 2003 to July 2004, she served as senior adviser for governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, where 

she conducted outreach programs for Iraqi women to assist them 

in participating in the democratic development of their country, 

and served as the CPA’s director for the Office of Democratic Initiatives, coordinating programs ranging from civic education to women’s leadership training. Previously, she served as regional director 

for the Commonwealth of Independent States Programs for IRI, 

one of the core initiatives of the National Endowment for Democracy, where she directed nonpartisan democracy building programs 

in former Soviet countries. She has held a variety of management 

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ant to the President for White House Intergovernmental Affairs. 

She graduated from the William Allen White School of Journalism 

at the University of Kansas. 

So, again, I want to welcome all of you. We look forward to hearing from you. We are going to take this short break, get in four 

votes, and we will be right back. Thank you very much for your patience. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. CARNAHAN. We are back. We will reconvene the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and 

Oversight. Thank you for your patience. 

We have done our introductions, and I would like to really turn 

right away to recognizing Ken Wollack to kick off the second panel. 

Ken. 

STATEMENT OF MR. KENNETH WOLLACK, PRESIDENT, 

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE 

Mr. WOLLACK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

On behalf of the National Democratic Institute, I want to thank 

you very much for this opportunity to testify about programs that 

empower women around the world to engage more fully in the political process. I prepared a written statement which I will summarize here, and I hope my longer written statement can be submitted for the record. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. WOLLACK. NDI has been working with political and civic 

leaders for more than two decades to assist their efforts to increase 

the number and effectiveness of women in political life. We work 

in nearly 70 countries, and the vast majority of them have programs specifically tailored to women. 

As women’s contributions toward a strong and vibrant society are 

increasingly well documented, there is also growing understanding 

of why women’s meaningful participation is essential to building 

and sustaining democracy. Women’s political participation results 

in tangible gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness 

to citizens’ needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic 

lines, and more sustainable peace. In other words, having more 

women in the political process helps democracies deliver. In places 

as diverse as Timor-Leste, Croatia, Morocco, Rwanda, and South 

Africa, an increase in the number of female lawmakers led to legislation related to antidiscrimination, domestic violence, family 

codes, inheritance, and child support and protection. 

Only 5 years after the women’s suffrage movement achieved the 

rights of women to vote and run for office in Kuwait, newly-elected 

female legislators this year introduced new labor laws that would 

give working mothers mandatory nursing breaks and provide onsite child care for companies with more than 200 employees. 

Despite these positive indicators and gains, considerable challenges remain to women’s meaningful political participation. And 

while no ideal environment currently exists to jump-start the advancement of women’s political leadership, there are certain conditions that make it easier. 

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ical. Third, citizens must be willing to accept new ideas about gender roles and society. And fourth, women’s access to economic resources is essential to breaking down the barriers to women’s active participation. 

And then there are those very difficult places, such as in Afghanistan, where women, as you said, Mr. Chairman, continue to be disproportionately affected by the legacy of the brutal Taliban regime, 

and in Burma, where the oppression of and violence against women 

are well documented. 

Quotas, whether mandatory, legislative, or voluntary, continue to 

be the most effective means for increasing the number of women 

both in political parties and elective office. But studies conducted 

by NDI also indicated that quotas in and of themselves have not 

overcome the many obstacles that women confront, including developing the political will even to meaningfully implement quotas. 

There are, in our view, three key components necessary in initiatives to empower women: Build confidence, capacity, and connections. Recently, the Institute conducted an assessment to better understand effective approaches to encouraging women’s political participation across regions and to measure the impact of such programs. The research concluded that the best practices include: One, 

conducting ongoing communications training; two, focusing on 

building leadership skills; three, uniting women across political 

party lines, both inside and outside the legislature; fourth, working 

with parties on internal reform; fifth, training women to train 

other women; sixth, developing the capacity and preparedness of 

elected women; seventh, exchanging information and expertise 

internationally; and, eight, engaging youth to help change sociopolitical attitudes and behavior. 

NDI’s Win With Women global initiative, convened in 2003 by 

our chairman, Madeline Albright, has focused exclusively on 

strengthening women’s roles in political parties which are, after all, 

the gateway to political power for women. Programs in Jordan and 

Afghanistan helped women gain their first seats in Parliament. 

In Afghanistan, we have trained most of the women candidates 

for national and provincial elections since 2004 and thousands of 

candidate poll watchers in all provinces of the country. And in Iraq, 

the national platform for women supported by NDI brought together women, political, and civic activists to advance the health 

care, education, employment, and political participation. After the 

elections now, the national platform will be a tool to hold legislators and parties who signed on to the platform accountable. 

An online resource that aids all of our goals is iKNOW Politics, 

an online workspace in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic available to all who are interested in advancing women in politics. The 

portal, which has averaged 1.5 million hits a month, is a joint 

project of NDI, the UNDP, UNIFEM, the Interparliamentary 

Union, and International IDEA. 

The international community, including donor aid agencies, 

intergovernmental bodies, international financial institutions, and 

nongovernmental organizations, have focused their attention on 

and dedicated growing resources to women’s development. And 

with the creation of a new senior level position at the State Department, the Ambassador-At-Large for Global Women’s Issues, the 

46

National Security Strategy, along with USAID and State Department funded programs, this administration has given concrete expression to new renewed efforts in this regard. 

How a country taps the talents and capacity of its women will, 

in large measure, determine its economic, social, and political process. It is our hope that new initiatives that focus on such issues 

as maternal and child health care, women, girls, and literacy programs, micro finance, particularly in Muslim-majority countries, 

are joined by comparable efforts to promote women’s political participation and leadership. It is not an accident that the countries 

in which these issues are not part of the national agenda are places 

where women are denied a genuine political voice. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Wollack, if you could just wrap up. 

Mr. WOLLACK. I would just conclude by saying, conversely, empowering women politically will help countries develop a democratic institution that can begin to successfully address issues related to security, jobs, human rights, physical well being, and 

human development. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Wollack follows:]

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Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you very much. 

And next, I want to quickly turn to our second witness, Ambassador Hunt. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SWANEE HUNT, CHAIR, INSTITUTE FOR INCLUSIVE SECURITY (FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRIA) 

Ambassador HUNT. Thank you so much. And I also would like to 

ask that my full testimony be submitted. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Without objection. 

Ambassador HUNT. Thank you. 

I chair, as you know, the Institute for Inclusive Security, and we 

do a combination of research and training and advocacy with 

women in 40 conflict areas, and we have well over 1,000 women in 

our network of women leaders. 

Mr. Chair, I appreciate very much the presence of the four Congresswomen who have been here, and I do want to make a comment that they are exquisitely aware that, as we talk about 19 percent of the parliaments around the world being women—women 

being 19 percent of those parliaments, that in the United States, 

at this last election, which was the great diversity election, women 

went from 16 percent to 17 percent. And so this is very much, do 

as we say, not as we do. 

Now, we have a growing body of research, of course, that is 

verifying that women’s leadership does reap significant rewards for 

governance. And Ambassador Verveer was talking about women as 

untapped resources. 

I would like to focus, as Mr. Rohrabacher was, on Afghanistan, 

especially his question about culture. You know, should we go in 

there and try to change the culture? I would like to know what culture is. What I know is that, 40 years ago, this hearing would not 

have taken place. So, Mr. Chair, you are in fact changing this culture by holding this hearing. And I believe that we have a very important role to support those voices inside of the Afghan culture, 

the women in particular who are asking for support for their leadership. 

I have been many times to Afghanistan, including during the 

Taliban years, and have brought women leaders to NATO headquarters. We have trained foreign service officers, U.S. Marine 

Corps, how to connect with Afghan women. 

I want to particularly give as an example the Honorable Shukria 

Barakzai, a parliamentarian who put her life at risk to win her 

place in the Wolesi jirga, and she was part of creating that network 

that you were talking about earlier, that nonpartisan network. 

They have reached into the grassroots and included civil society in 

their work. 

And I particularly want to say that that is an example of how 

women broaden this idea of democracy to create more stability. 

And that is the kind of initiatives we can be supporting all around 

the world. She is not alone, obviously. 

Let me cede my time to Dr. Mishkat Al Moumin, the first Iraqi 

minister of the environment during the transition government. I 

would like to ask her to take my remaining 2 minutes to speak 

about her experience. 

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[The prepared statement of Ms. Hunt follows:]


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Mr. CARNAHAN. Please. You are recognized to do so. And welcome. 

Ms. AL MOUMIN. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you for providing me with the opportunity to speak today. 

Achieving successful transition to peace in Iraq requires full participation of women in political life. As the minister of the environment in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, I immediately focused on providing services, especially safe drinking water, trash pick-up, and 

environmental education in unsecured cities, including Sadr City, 

Fallujah, Karbula, Nasria, and Basra. When these services came on 

line, civilian deaths decreased. When these services were shut 

down, civilian deaths increased. Had we focused on securing and 

ensuring these programs continued and expanded, I am convinced 

many Iraqi and American lives could have been spared, as well as 

a lot of money. 

As the minister of environment, I did not think I was dealing 

with security issues. To my mind, I was as far from dealing with 

security as I could be. However, providing clean water eroded al 

Qaeda base. I was undermining al Qaeda recruiting power. The 

weak, frustrated, isolated community was, above all, thirsty. These 

people were easily recruited only if they remained desperate. 

I paid a very high price for my effort. The most difficult moment 

in my life was when I held my 9-year-old son in my arms after surviving a bomb attack, not realizing he was alive. I also survived a 

suicide car bombing, during which four of my body guards were 

killed. Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed full responsibility, and he called me the leader of the Infidel. He vowed that 

his arrow will not miss again. 

After surviving the attempt on my life, I went straight to the 

ministry. I worked as hard as I could. The ministry grew stronger. 

Communities I served honored me with their trust and appreciation. In April 2005, tribal leaders in the Iraqi Marshland approached me to train their women. After handing over the ministry, I founded Women and the Environment Organization, 

WATO, in Iraq, which is training rural women and children in 

southern Iraq to speak out when decisions are made. As a result, 

women’s participation has increased sevenfold, and communities 

are now purifying water, improving hygiene. Moreover, the gender 

gap is being bridged organically, as communities are experiencing 

firsthand the positive results of listening to women. 

The same women are interested in community policing and other 

security-related matters. Sometimes the links are so clear, we don’t 

notice. For example, women walk miles to collect water. During 

these walks, they see things men do not see. I am one of many 

Iraqi women and around the world who understand that security 

cannot be achieved through the mere use of force. We comprehend 

security must be achieved by attacking the root causes of instability. We have the expertise, the knowledge, the background to 

combat insecurity and terrorism, but our distinct perspective is not 

sufficiently reflected in decision-making, and we are not called on 

as much as we should be in seeking to restore stability and prosperity to war-torn society. 

Women’s influence and insights must be leveraged to fight for 

stability in Iraq and elsewhere. 

62

Thank you. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you, Minister. And thank you so much for 

being here and for sharing your story and the work that you have 

done. Thank you. 

Last on our panel, I want to turn to Judy Van Rest. 

Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF MS. JUDY VAN REST, EXECUTIVE VICE 

PRESIDENT, THE INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE 

Ms. VAN REST. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Rohrabacher. 

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this discussion today. 

I will summarize my prepared statement. 

I am pleased to participate in this discussion. It is a topic that 

is near and dear to IRI’s heart. The International Republican Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide. 

The evolution of IRI’s work over the last few decades in many 

ways mirrors my own. The conventional wisdom was that it made 

more sense to include women and men together in trainings and 

not have specific programs for women. I came up in an era of Republican politics in which I felt strongly that being in a women’s 

group would confine me to that niche, and I wanted a seat at the 

table with the men. 

However, my view changed completely after spending 14 months 

in Baghdad as the Coalition Provisional Authority’s point person 

for outreach to Iraqi women. Those Iraqi women taught me many 

things, but none as important as the need for programs that focus 

on giving women the skills to level the playing field in politics and 

in other fields important to their country’s development. 

To be sure, women face far more obstacles to becoming fully participating partners, due to cultural and traditional attitudes, but 

they also lack the training and experience. 

In the international political realm, male party leaders control 

the political process and often do not want to include women candidates on party lists because they do not believe that women are 

capable of winning. Even quota systems, which have done much to 

increase women’s participation in politics, cannot guarantee that 

the elected women will be effective legislators. 

Without the proper training and mentorship, women themselves 

do not feel confident to take on political roles. But when women are 

given the tools to campaign for office, when they are taught to be 

effective legislators, when they learn how to advocate for their 

rights and rights of others, in my experience, they become 

powerhouses for change. 

There is little doubt that women have made significant progress 

in the areas of health, education and business. There is also little 

doubt that women lag far behind men in politics. The World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Index reports that 134 

countries, while closing gaps in health and education outcomes between men and women by more than 90 percent, have closed only 

17 percent of the political outcomes gap. 

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oping world, women are becoming ‘‘vital economic players, representing a larger percentage of the workforce than ever before.’’ 

Yet, despite these gains, women are not adequately represented in 

the decision-making process at any level of government. 

Still, with the recognition of the need for women’s empowerment, 

along with training and mentorship programs such as IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network and the Arab Women’s Leadership Institute, women are progressing and achieving much in the political 

field. More women are being elected to public office. Many more 

women leaders and members of civil society organizations are becoming politically involved by keeping their elected officials accountable and focusing on women’s rights. 

Women in post-conflict societies are fearless in their pursuit of 

a better life for their family and communities. Afghan women are 

models of courageous women making a remarkable difference. In 

the lead up to the August 2009 elections, the Movement of Afghan 

Sisters (MAS), a 26,000 member, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization, conducted numerous civic education events and helped 

mobilize 25,000 women to vote on election day. MAS was the only 

women’s organization to successfully field candidates for provincial 

council seats, and 27 of its supported candidates were elected, filling 23 percent of the 117 female quota seats allocated nationwide. 

Sadly, one of these brave women, Gul Maki Wakhali, a woman 

in her 20s, was recently slain by the Taliban. 

Women are also demonstrating that, once elected, they can become effective legislators. The Peruvian Women’s Roundtable, a 

legislative women’s caucus, is showing that its 31 members are effective political leaders and members of Peru’s National Congress. 

U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger and IRI board member was just 

in Lima, Peru, last week, where she learned firsthand how these 

women legislators are pushing for a new domestic violence bill. 

We have countless other success stories of women who, with the 

help of other nongovernmental organizations, such as IRI, the National Democratic Institute, and the Institute for Inclusive Security, have become effective agents of change in their societies. 

These examples should give us the hope and impetus to double our 

efforts to support women in democratic development. 

The United States has taken an important lead in this effort. 

Witness the work of women such as Secretary Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, First Lady Laura Bush, former Under 

Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, and hundreds of other American women who are devoting their lives to advance women globally. We have seen an overwhelming demand for women’s participation in all facets of the political process, and IRI is fully committed to helping women reach their full potential in politics and 

civil society. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Van Rest follows:]

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Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. And I guess I want to kick off the 

questions. 

You all were here for the first panel, and first of all, thanks to 

each of you for the important work that you and your NGOs have 

done for many years and your individual work. But I would like 

each of you to quickly evaluate current initiatives. We have heard 

about things the administration is doing now to try to really have 

the tool of empowerment of women as a more integral part of our 

foreign policy. We heard from initiatives at the U.N. to combine 

many of those organizations, again to have a more effective way to 

deal with that at U.N. 

I would like your quick evaluation of those current initiatives 

and a comment about, is there anything we are missing? Are there 

things that we need to be doing in addition to these things that you 

would like to highlight for us today? And we will go in reverse 

order on this round and start with Ms. Van Rest. 

Ms. VAN REST. Thank you. In evaluating these programs, I believe that a lot has been done by the United States to raise the 

awareness of the importance of women in all walks of life. And I 

think that increasingly throughout the world there is a momentum 

for this to happen. 

I do think that the programs that each and every one of the organizations are doing are having an impact, but I think that there 

has to be some understanding of how long it is going to take for 

women to reach these levels, attain political leadership and leadership in other walks of life, and to commit to a long-term plan to 

make sure that once they receive training, for example, that there 

is follow up, that there is a constant mentoring, because it cannot 

be just a one-off thing. 

So I think that while these organizations and the programs are 

having a great effect, there certainly is a much greater momentum 

now than there was 10, 15 years ago. I think a lot more emphasis 

should be put on the long term. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Ambassador Hunt. 

Ambassador HUNT. At issue here is the definition of security. 

And when we are out in the field, we hear repeatedly that security 

to these women includes—or isn’t just about, you know, where are 

the borders, but rather, can my child go to school and back without 

getting raped? Is there water? Can I go to gather firewood without 

putting my life at risk from land mines, et cetera? And so we have 

to have a broader perspective on the meaning of security, and I 

would hope that the Congress would think in terms of what we are 

spending for each soldier that we are putting in Iraq. And to Mr. 

Rohrabacher’s point earlier, if we want to bring home our troops, 

with the enormous cost of every single day of that war, the most 

effective means, the most effective strategy, in my opinion, would 

be to elevate the voices of these extraordinary women leaders 

there. 

And I have met with them. We have done training of hundreds 

and hundreds of these leaders. But how many are on the supreme 

court? Zero. With all the influence we have with the current government, there are zero women. And that is appointed by the 

68

President. Zero women on the supreme court, which sets the tone. 

And how many are ministers out of 27? Three. 

So we have allowed—Mr. Rohrabacher, you were talking about 

culture, and what is culture? Culture is the way that decisions are 

being made every nanosecond. And it changes constantly. And 

when we talk about what is Pashtun culture, who are you listening 

to? Who is defining that? Is it the Pashtun women, who, in fact, 

many of whom are leaders who are asking for this kind of training, 

who are asking for positions? Because we are not getting in there 

and supporting the elements of the culture that would allow us in 

fact to leave there. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Wollack. 

Mr. WOLLACK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I believe that the architecture for assistance exists both within 

the United States and internationally. I also believe in this work, 

as I do in democracy and human rights work, pluralism is good. I 

don’t believe in one source of assistance. 

People bring different strengths to the table when they provide 

assistance. And I think the international community has created 

an architecture and the United States Government in successive 

administrations have created an architecture to provide support for 

women. 

My argument would be, as we invest more in the economic 

health and education sphere for women, all extremely important, 

that we ensure that there are also resources to empower women 

politically. Because, ultimately, if these efforts are going to be sustained at the local level by the politicians and the governments in 

these countries, it is going to require a critical mass of women that 

will be in positions of political power, in political parties, in legislatures, and government. 

And there is, based on evidence, that you need almost a critical 

mass of about 30 percent of women in these political institutions 

that I believe will be able to help sustain these types of economic 

and educational and health programs that the international community is supporting. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

I now want to recognize Mr. Rohrabacher for 5 minutes. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Do you, the panel, do you think that Islam 

by its nature or by the fundamentals of the religious beliefs that 

are in the Koran is contrary to what our concept of equal rights 

for women would be? 

Ambassador HUNT. May I speak to that? I would love to speak 

to that because, as you may have heard during the introduction, I 

have a master’s degree and a doctorate in theology. So I even know 

what backsliding means. I am from Dallas, Southern Baptist. 

And I think that if you go and you read the Old Testament of 

the Bible, it is horrible in terms of rights for women, human rights 

for women. So we can—any one of us can go in and choose this 

Scripture or that Scripture to make the point that the Koran is detrimental to women or that the Bible is. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, it is the Old Testament, you said. Is the 

New Testament that way as well? 

Ambassador HUNT. Well, there are——

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Mr. ROHRABACHER. Christians don’t really say that the Old Testament counts as much as the New Testament. 

Ambassador HUNT. Well, I will tell you what. I cut my hair—I 

actually cut my hair myself. I cut my hair, and the Apostle Paul 

would have a very hard time with that. But he was speaking in 

terms of culture, as many of the Scriptures in the Old Testament 

and in the Koran were. But he would say it is a shame that I cut 

my hair. So we choose what verses we are going to emphasize. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. So you don’t see that Islam is any different 

in terms of a threat to women’s rights as an adamant enforcement 

of what people who are looking to those Holy Scriptures, either in 

the Koran or in the Bible, you don’t see that as being more of a 

threat to women? 

Ambassador HUNT. No. I see fundamentalism as being a threat. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. No matter what kind of fundamentalism? 

Christians, Jews, Muslims. The fundamentalists of religion are the 

enemy of women. Is that it? 

Ambassador HUNT. To greater and lesser degrees, depending on 

the branch. Okay. As I say, I am from a fundamentalist background. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. I haven’t studied this, so I am asking for information. 

Ambassador HUNT. I would say the more fundamentalist a group 

becomes in any of the religions that I have been a part of or studied, the more narrow the rights of women become. But my esteemed friend here, who is Iraqi, I would like to give her just a second to address this. 

Ms. AL MOUMIN. Thank you. From a practical experience, women 

in the environment organization work among tribal communities in 

southern Iraq. The organization that I founded and my colleagues 

in Iraq work with it as well. 

We empower women to participate in the decision-making process on the village level, on the local level. The way we did it, we 

highlighted the prominent Muslim women who played a big deal 

role in decision-making. And I can name them. 

For example, Lady Hajja, she is known to be the mother of all 

Muslims—all Muslims, including men. They follow her steps every 

year and perform a pilgrimage in Mecca. However, no one highlighted that. No one highlighted that there is a great powerful 

Muslim woman, first of all, who everybody follows. So even men, 

they go to Hajj or pilgrimage every year knowing that they are following the steps of a woman. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Look, again, I am really seeking information 

here. I am not really making a point. Because, after all, that is 

what the hearings are supposed to be for, I think, is to educate us 

a little bit. But, look, doesn’t the Koran talk about men have a 

right to four wives, and it doesn’t say that a wife has a right to 

four men. And I mean there is a fundamental difference there, is 

there not? 

Ms. AL MOUMIN. Not really. 

Ambassador HUNT. Mr. Rohrabacher, read Leviticus, read your 

Leviticus. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Old Testament. 

Ambassador HUNT. Tonight pull out Leviticus. 

70

Mr. ROHRABACHER. The one thing I do know is that there is a 

difference between—a lot of Christians don’t believe what is in the 

Old Testament because they believe that when Christ came he 

amended all of that and made it different. So the New Testament 

is what Christians go by. I am not saying that is necessarily what 

I believe in, but that is my inkling of what people tell me about. 

Ambassador HUNT. Here is my concern. As soon as we start saying that the problem is Islam, we forget that the problem is those 

who are interpreting Islam in order to press a certain world view. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Okay. 

Ambassador HUNT. And we let these guys off the hook who are 

doing this interpretation. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. I think it is fair to say that people who attack Islam and say that ‘‘Islam is our enemy’’ are different than 

people who say ‘‘radical Islam is the enemy.’’ Of course, there are 

some people who don’t even want us to say radical Islam. They 

can’t even get those words out of their mouth. But I would say that 

I——

Let me put it this way. Mrs. Bhutto, who I knew quite well, was 

elected to be President of Pakistan, and that supposedly is a very 

strong Islamic country. So it would seem to me if she was elected 

that that would mean that there isn’t something contrary with 

most Muslims that would be contrary to have a woman as their 

head of state, because they elected a woman to be their head of 

state. 

Now, of course, that is Pakistan and not Pashtunville or whatever it is there, the Pashtun territories up in the northwest part 

of the country. 

So, in terms of religion, that is the only thing I can identify now. 

In Buddhism and other religions, is there a differentiation between 

men and women as well? 

Ambassador HUNT. I think we are getting afield of talking about 

the issue here. 

If you look at the swath of where we have problems with terrorists across the world, you will find a correlation with terrorism and 

the suppression of women. All right? Now you can take a bad idea, 

like the extreme Islam, if you will, being used by terrorists, and 

you can try to fight a bad idea with machine guns, but you won’t 

get very far because you keep inspiring the people with a bad idea 

because now they are victims, they are under attack. So what you 

do is fight a bad idea with a good idea, and you focus on the elevation of these women’s voices, which is, de facto, a way of fighting 

terrorism. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, I certainly buy onto that, Mr. Chairman. Certainly there is no doubt that something—if we can mobilize women by backing them up in a demand for rights in various 

parts of the world, I think that would make it a more peaceful 

world. I don’t have any doubt about that. I don’t necessarily think 

that that is going to be an easy task because there is going to be 

a cost related to that as well, which was the basis of my question 

before about how much we would expend in Afghanistan in order 

to make sure that what we would consider an evil force for repression of women doesn’t dominate that area. 

71

But I buy onto what you are saying. That is absolutely right. If 

we support the rights of women, that would be a great way of 

bringing change to a society in a positive way that would make it 

less threatening to the rest of the world and certainly less threatening to half their population. 

Ambassador HUNT. So we will work together on that, right? 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you. There you go. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

I have one more set of questions for myself, and I will just make 

them very short and concise. But I would like each of you to comment about the kind of monitoring evaluation measurements out 

there that can help us in looking at some of these new initiatives, 

which I think we are all pleased to hear about here today. So that 

is number one. 

And, number two, in particular, you know, there are some examples of programs where we have done well with young boys and 

men in terms of educating them because I think that is—we obviously have to focus on women empowerment, but I think a piece 

of that strategy has to be focusing on young boys and men and how 

they are part of creating that environment. 

So let me start with you, Mr. Wollack. 

Mr. WOLLACK. The evaluation process I think is important in 

terms of the work that we do in all elements of democracy and 

human rights work. It is difficult oftentimes to quantify it, to put 

numbers to it, aside from the fact that the numbers of the people 

you train, the numbers of the people you work with. Much of it has 

to do with behavioral change. It is like describing a good movie or 

a good book. It is hard to do it through numbers. You have to use 

words. 

But I think there are a number of ways that you can evaluate 

these programs, particularly in the political sphere. The first is 

whether the behavior of the women that you are working with 

change over time, that they gain the self-confidence so they can 

compete professionally, that they have the capacity to communicate 

effectively so their participation in the political process is not seen 

as remarkable by the population at large and by their male counterparts. So the evaluation process is one that looks at behavioral 

changes of people, whether they have the information and the tools 

that enable them to compete with their male counterparts. 

There are other factors that inhibit that competition, but we 

have seen in this work, because of international expertise, international support, and international solidarity and specific programs, that the behavior of people change. 

The second is more in the regulatory field, whether laws and 

processes change within political parties, within legislatures, and 

within government. Are resources being dedicated to women who 

are competing? Whether reforms that are taking place in parties 

allow real avenues for political leadership in political parties. That 

sometimes you can determine in the end by numbers because you 

can see a rise in the number of women at all levels of political parties. 

And then, ultimately, one has to look at whether—not only the 

numbers of women that get elected or women in legislatures—

whether they can function within those legislative bodies and does 

72

the legislature provide for reforms in those institutions that allow 

for women to be effective lawmakers? 

So all of these things are ways that you can judge programs over 

a period of time. But, ultimately, it is going to be, I believe, a longterm, generational change. But you have to begin now, and you 

have to begin this work in an intensive way because the process 

is about change of behavior. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. And real quickly on the subject of men and boys. 

Mr. WOLLACK. Yes. Most of these institutions that we are dealing 

with are male-dominated institutions. But what we are seeing is 

the youth in these institutions, the youth do not have, in many 

cases, the same prejudices that their parents do or their grandparents do. So also enhancing youth engagement, both young men 

and young women, also changes the political dynamic as well. Because if more youth receive leadership training and avenues for 

leadership development, you are going to find it much easier for 

women to gain those positions as well. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Ambassador Hunt? 

Ambassador HUNT. I would like to take us to a different conflict, 

and that is Rwanda. I happen to be writing a book right now called 

Rwandan Women Rising where I am evaluating how it is that 

women came to be 56 percent of the Parliament in the Lower 

House. That is the first time in the history of the world. And on 

the Supreme Court, there are three out of the seven, including the 

Chief Justice, and on and on and on throughout. 

And the important thing is to ask the women themselves to 

evaluate. I have done more than 100 hours of interviews with these 

women, and they have come up with five different—I am not going 

to go through them—five different ways that they came to have 

that kind of influence. One of the ways, by the way, was their influence on the men and the boys. And, of course, the President, 

Paul Kagame, there is a whole strategy they used to not only get 

his ear but to get his action. 

But I will leave you with this image of my arrival at the Senate. 

I was told, well, there is the president of the Senate, this gentleman, this tall burly man. So I went up to say, hi, I am Swanee 

Hunt. And he said, oh, hello, I am the president of the Senate—

Senator whatever—Mulgambuttu—and I am gender sensitive. It 

was part of his calling card, if you will. And that is how intrinsic 

to that whole culture this issue of gender sensitivity had become. 

Mr. WOLLACK. I should just add one thing, Mr. Chairman. The 

male politicians in Rwanda came to the conclusion that if women 

had been in political power in Rwanda, genocide would never have 

taken place; and that was a motivating factor for a lot of the male 

politicians in the country. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. Thank you. 

Ms. Van Rest. 

Ms. VAN REST. I would like to echo what both Ken and Swanee 

talked about with regards to measuring how effective our programs 

are and what the results are. And I think all our organizations pay 

very close attention to this because we are also looking for lessons 

learned. That will help us to refine the programs. 

73

We also understand that in doing these programs and measuring 

and evaluating what happens is that we still have to have this understanding that people are only going to take baby steps and that, 

once again, as I said earlier, is that there has to be a commitment 

to long-term planning and training to ensure women in their quest 

for leadership roles and wanting to become leaders in their society. 

With regards to young men and boys, one thing to consider is 

that once women become confident it is going to have sort of a domino effect with their sons and, also, there is a difference in the generations. In many countries we work in, the young men do not have 

the same view as their fathers. So we do emphasize in our training 

bringing together women and men. We don’t just have programs focused on women, because we want to make the point that it is important for them to work together. 

Mr. CARNAHAN. I just want to give a special thanks to all of you 

for your time today. I apologize for the delay from the vote. And 

thank you for the work you do. We look forward to continuing to 

work with you on many of these challenges going forward. 

We will be adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:07 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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