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[107th Congress Public Law 81]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]

<DOC>
[DOCID: f:publ081.107]

[[Page 115 STAT. 811]]

Public Law 107-81
107th Congress

                                 An Act

 
To authorize the provision of educational and health care assistance to 
  the women and children of Afghanistan. <<NOTE: Dec. 12, 2001 -  [S. 
                                1573]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Afghan Women and 
Children Relief Act of 2001. 22 USC 2374 note.>> 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Afghan Women and Children Relief Act 
of 2001''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) In Afghanistan, Taliban restrictions on women's 
        participation in society make it nearly impossible for women to 
        exercise their basic human rights. The Taliban restrictions on 
        Afghan women's freedom of expression, association, and movement 
        deny women full participation in society and, consequently, from 
        effectively securing basic access to work, education, and health 
        care.
            (2) Afghanistan has one of the highest infant (165 of 1000) 
        and child (257 of 1000) mortality rates in the world.
            (3) Only 5 percent of rural and 39 percent of urban Afghans 
        have access to safe drinking water.
            (4) It is estimated that 42 percent of all deaths in 
        Afghanistan are due to diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated 
        food and water.
            (5) Over one-third of Afghan children under 5 years of age 
        suffer from malnutrition, 85,000 of whom die annually.
            (6) Seventy percent of the health care system in Afghanistan 
        is dependent on foreign assistance.
            (7) As of May 1998, only 20 percent of hospital medical and 
        surgical beds dedicated to adults were available for women, and 
        thousands of Afghan women and girls are routinely denied health 
        care.
            (8) Women are forbidden to leave their homes without being 
        escorted by a male relative. This prevents many women from 
        seeking basic necessities like health care and food for their 
        children. Doctors, virtually all of whom are male, are also not 
        permitted to provide certain types of care not deemed 
        appropriate by the Taliban.

[[Page 115 STAT. 812]]

            (9) Before the Taliban took control of Kabul, schools were 
        coeducational, with women accounting for 70 percent of the 
        teaching force. Women represented about 50 percent of the civil 
        service corps, and 40 percent of the city's physicians were 
        women. Today, the Taliban prohibits women from working as 
        teachers, doctors, and in any other occupation.
            (10) The Taliban prohibit girls and women from attending 
        school. In 1998, the Taliban ordered the closing of more than 
        100 privately funded schools where thousands of young women and 
        girls were receiving education and training in skills that would 
        have helped them support themselves and their families.
            (11) Of the many tens of thousands of war widows in 
        Afghanistan, many are forced to beg for food and to sell their 
        possessions because they are not allowed to work.
            (12) Resistance movements courageously continue to educate 
        Afghan girls in secrecy and in foreign countries against Taliban 
        law.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF ASSISTANCE.

    (a) In General.--Subject to subsection (b), the President is 
authorized, on such terms and conditions as the President may determine, 
to provide educational and health care assistance for the women and 
children living in Afghanistan and as refugees in neighboring countries.
    (b) <<NOTE: President.>>  Implementation.--(1) In providing 
assistance under subsection (a), the President shall ensure that such 
assistance is provided in a manner that protects and promotes the human 
rights of all people in Afghanistan, utilizing indigenous institutions 
and nongovernmental organizations, especially women's organizations, to 
the extent possible.

    (2) <<NOTE: Effective date. Reports.>>  Beginning 6 months after the 
date of enactment of this Act, and at least annually for the 2 years 
thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit a report to the 
Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on 
International Relations of the House of Representatives describing the 
activities carried out under this Act and otherwise describing the 
condition and status of women and children in Afghanistan and the 
persons in refugee camps while United States aid is given to displaced 
Afghans.

[[Page 115 STAT. 813]]

    (c) Availability of Funds.--Funds made available under the 2001 
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Recovery from and Response 
to Terrorist Attacks on the United States (Public Law 107-38), shall be 
available to carry out this Act.

    Approved December 12, 2001.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 1573:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 147 (2001):
            Nov. 15, considered and passed Senate.
            Nov. 27, considered and passed House.
WEEKLY COMPILATION OF PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS, Vol. 37 (2001):
            Dec. 12, Presidential remarks.

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