III

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. CON. RES. 97

Expressing the sense of Congress concerning the human rights and

humanitarian situation facing the women and girls of Afghanistan.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 18, 1998

Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. BROWNBACK, Mr. DODD, and Ms.

LANDRIEU) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress concerning the human

rights and humanitarian situation facing the women and

girls of Afghanistan.

Whereas the legacy of the war in Afghanistan has had a devastating impact on the civilian population, and a particularly negative impact on the rights and security of women

and girls;

Whereas the current environment is one in which the rights

of women and girls are routinely violated, leading the Department of State in its 1997 Country Report on Human

Rights, released January 30, 1998, to conclude that

women are beaten for violating increasingly restrictive

Taliban dress codes, which require women to be covered

from head to toe, women are strictly prohibited from
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working outside the home, women and girls are denied

the right to an education, women are forbidden from appearing outside the home unless accompanied by a male

family member, and beatings and death result from a

failure to observe these restrictions;

Whereas the Secretary of State stated, in November 1997 at

the Nasir Bagh Refugee Camp in Pakistan, that if a society is to move forward, women and girls must have access to schools and health care, be able to participate in

the economy, and be protected from physical exploitation

and abuse;

Whereas Afghanistan recognizes international human rights

conventions such as the Convention on the Prevention

and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against

Women, and the International Covenant on Economic,

Social, and Cultural Rights, which espouses respect for

basic human rights of all individuals without regard to

race, religion, ethnicity, or gender;

Whereas the use of rape as an instrument of war is considered a grave breach of the Geneva Convention and a

crime against humanity;

Whereas people who commit grave breaches of the Geneva

Convention are to be apprehended and subject to trial;

Whereas there is significant credible evidence that warring

parties, factions, and powers in Afghanistan are responsible for numerous human rights violations, including the

systematic rape of women and girls;
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Whereas in recent years Afghan maternal mortality rates

have increased dramatically, and the level of women’s

health care has declined significantly;

Whereas there has been a marked upswing in human rights

violations against women and girls since the Taliban coalition seized Kabul in 1996, including Taliban edicts denying women and girls the right to an education, employment, access to adequate health care, and direct access

to humanitarian aid; and

Whereas peace and security in Afghanistan are conducive to

the full restoration of all human rights and fundamental

freedom, the voluntary repatriation of refugees to their

homeland in safety and dignity, the clearance of mine

fields, and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives

2 concurring), That Congress—

3 (1) deplores the continued human rights viola4 tions by all parties, factions, and powers in Afghani5 stan;

6 (2) condemns targeted discrimination against

7 women and girls and expresses deep concern regard8 ing the prohibitions on employment and education;

9 (3) strongly condemns the use of rape or other

10 forms of systematic gender discrimination by any

11 party, faction, or power in Afghanistan as an instru12 ment of war;
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1 (4) calls on all parties, factions, and powers in

2 Afghanistan to respect international norms and

3 standards of human rights;

4 (5) calls on all Afghan parties to bring an end

5 without delay to—

6 (A) discrimination on the basis of gender;

7 and

8 (B) deprivation of human rights of women;

9 (6) calls on all Afghan parties in particular to

10 take measures to ensure—

11 (A) the effective participation of women in

12 civil, economic, political, and social life through13 out the country;

14 (B) respect for the right of women to

15 work;

16 (C) the right of women and girls to an

17 education without discrimination, reopening

18 schools to women and girls at all levels of edu19 cation;

20 (D) respect for the right of women to

21 physical security;

22 (E) those responsible for physical attacks

23 on women are brought to justice;
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1 (F) respect for freedom of movement of

2 women and their effective access to health care;

3 and

4 (G) equal access of women to health facili5 ties;

6 (7) supports the work of nongovernmental orga7 nizations advocating respect for human rights in Af8 ghanistan and an improvement in the status of

9 women and their access to humanitarian and devel10 opment assistance and programs;

11 (8) calls on the international community to pro12 vide, on a nondiscriminatory basis, adequate human13 itarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan and

14 Afghan refugees in neighboring countries pending

15 their voluntary repatriation, and requests all parties

16 in Afghanistan to lift the restrictions imposed on

17 international aid and to cease any action which may

18 prevent or impede the delivery of humanitarian as19 sistance;

20 (9) welcomes the appointment of Ambassador

21 Lakhbar Brahimi as special envoy of the United Na22 tions Secretary General for Afghanistan, and en23 courages United Nations efforts to produce a dura24 ble peace in Afghanistan consistent with the goal of
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1 a broad-based national government respectful of

2 human rights; and

3 (10) calls on all warring parties, factions, and

4 powers to participate with Ambassador Brahimi in

5 an intra-Afghan dialogue regarding the peace proc6 ess.

7 SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL ACTION BY PRESIDENT.

8 It is the sense of Congress that the President and

9 Secretary of State should—

10 (1) work with the United Nations High Com11 missioner for Refugees to—

12 (A) guarantee the safety of, and provide

13 development assistance for, Afghan women’s

14 groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan;

15 (B) increase support for refugee programs

16 in Pakistan providing assistance to Afghan

17 women and children with an emphasis on

18 health, education, and income-generating pro19 grams; and

20 (C) explore options for the resettlement in

21 western countries of those Afghan women, par22 ticularly war widows and their families, who are

23 under threat or who fear for their safety or the

24 safety of their families;
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1 (2) establish an Afghanistan Women’s Initia2 tive, based on the successful model of the Bosnian

3 Women’s Initiative and the Rwandan Women’s Ini4 tiative, that is targeted at Afghan women’s groups,

5 in order to—

6 (A) assist Afghan women in Pakistan and

7 Afghanistan in local capacity building;

8 (B) provide humanitarian and development

9 services to the women and the families most in

10 need; and

11 (C) promote women’s economic security;

12 (3) make a policy determination that—

13 (A) recognition of any government in Af14 ghanistan by the United States depends on the

15 human rights policies towards women adopted

16 by that government;

17 (B) the United States should not recognize

18 any government which systematically maltreats

19 women; and

20 (C) any nonemergency economic or devel21 opment assistance will be based on respect for

22 human rights; and

23 (4) call for the creation of—

24 (A) a commission to establish an inter25 national record of the criminal culpability of
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1 any individual or party in Afghanistan employ2 ing rape or other crime against humanity con3 sidered a grave breach of the Geneva Conven4 tion as an instrument of war; and

5 (B) an ad hoc international criminal tribu6 nal by the United Nations for the purposes of

7 indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning any in8 dividual responsible for crimes against human9 ity in Afghanistan.

10 SEC. 3. REPORT.

11 It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State

12 should submit a report to Congress not later than 6

13 months after the date of the adoption of this resolution

14 regarding actions that have been taken to implement this

15 resolution.

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