IV

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. CON. RES. 97

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 30, 1998

Referred to the Committee on International 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

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
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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;

Whereas in recent years Afghan maternal mortality rates

have increased dramatically, and the level of women’s

health care has declined significantly;
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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;

13 (4) calls on all parties, factions, and powers in

14 Afghanistan to respect international norms and

15 standards of human rights;
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1 (5) calls on all Afghan parties to bring an end

2 without delay to—

3 (A) discrimination on the basis of gender;

4 and

5 (B) deprivation of human rights of women;

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

7 take measures to ensure—

8 (A) the effective participation of women in

9 civil, economic, political, and social life through10 out the country;

11 (B) respect for the right of women to

12 work;

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

14 education without discrimination, reopening

15 schools to women and girls at all levels of edu16 cation;

17 (D) respect for the right of women to

18 physical security;

19 (E) those responsible for physical attacks

20 on women are brought to justice;

21 (F) respect for freedom of movement of

22 women and their effective access to health care;

23 and

24 (G) equal access of women to health facili25 ties;
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1 (7) supports the work of nongovernmental orga2 nizations advocating respect for human rights in Af3 ghanistan and an improvement in the status of

4 women and their access to humanitarian and devel5 opment assistance and programs;

6 (8) calls on the international community to pro7 vide, on a nondiscriminatory basis, adequate human8 itarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan and

9 Afghan refugees in neighboring countries pending

10 their voluntary repatriation, and requests all parties

11 in Afghanistan to lift the restrictions imposed on

12 international aid and to cease any action which may

13 prevent or impede the delivery of humanitarian as14 sistance;

15 (9) welcomes the appointment of Ambassador

16 Lakhdar Brahimi as special envoy of the United Na17 tions Secretary General for Afghanistan, and en18 courages United Nations efforts to produce a dura19 ble peace in Afghanistan consistent with the goal of

20 a broad-based national government respectful of

21 human rights; and

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

23 powers to participate with Ambassador Brahimi in

24 an intra-Afghan dialogue regarding the peace proc25 ess.
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1 SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL ACTION BY PRESIDENT.

2 It is the sense of Congress that the President and

3 Secretary of State should—

4 (1) work with the United Nations High Com5 missioner for Refugees and the international com6 munity to—

7 (A) guarantee the safety of, and provide

8 international development assistance for, Af9 ghan women’s groups in Pakistan and Afghani10 stan;

11 (B) increase support for refugee programs

12 in Pakistan providing assistance to Afghan

13 women and children with an emphasis on

14 health, education, and income-generating pro15 grams; and

16 (C) explore options for the resettlement of

17 those Afghan women, particularly war widows

18 and their families, who are under threat or who

19 fear for their safety or the safety of their fami20 lies;

21 (2) establish an Afghanistan Women’s Initia22 tive, based on the successful model of the Bosnian

23 Women’s Initiative and the Rwandan Women’s Ini24 tiative, that is targeted at Afghan women’s groups,

25 in order to—
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1 (A) facilitate organization among Afghan

2 women’s groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan;

3 (B) provide humanitarian and development

4 services to the women and the families most in

5 need; and

6 (C) promote women’s economic security;

7 (3) make a policy determination that—

8 (A) recognition of any government in Af9 ghanistan by the United States should depend,

10 among other things, on the human rights poli11 cies towards women adopted by that govern12 ment;

13 (B) the United States should not recognize

14 any government which systematically maltreats

15 women; and

16 (C) any nonemergency economic or devel17 opment assistance will be based on respect for

18 human rights; and

19 (4) call for the creation of—

20 (A) an international commission to estab21 lish a record of the criminal culpability of any

22 individual or party in Afghanistan employing

23 rape or other crimes against humanity consid24 ered a grave breach of the Geneva Convention

25 as an instrument of war; and
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1 (B) an ad hoc international criminal tribu2 nal by the United Nations for the purposes of

3 indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning any in4 dividual responsible for crimes against human5 ity in Afghanistan.

6 SEC. 3. REPORT.

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

8 should submit a report to Congress not later than 6

9 months after the date of the adoption of this resolution

10 regarding actions that have been taken to implement this

11 resolution.

Passed the Senate July 29, 1998.

Attest: GARY SISCO,

Secretary.