Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 193 / Monday, October 6, 1997 / Presidential Documents 52007

Proclamation 7030 of October 1, 1997

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 1997

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

In observing the month of October as National Domestic Violence Awareness

Month, the American people reaffirm our commitment to prevent and eliminate violence against women. Domestic violence is not simply a private

family matter—it is a matter affecting the entire community.

Too many of America’s homes have become places where women, children,

and seniors suffer physical abuse and emotional trauma. Domestic violence

is a leading cause of injury to women in our country, and it occurs among

all racial, ethnic, religious, and economic groups. It is a particularly devastating form of abuse because it wears a familiar face: the face of a spouse,

parent, or partner. This violence too often extends beyond the home and

into the workplace.

My Administration is committed to ending this violence and to protecting

women in all aspects of their lives, whether in the home, in the community,

or in the workplace. In 1994, I fought for passage of the Violence Against

Women Act, which combined tough new penalties for offenders with funding

for much-needed shelters, counseling services, public education, and research

to help the victims of violence. The Federal penalties and prevention efforts

included in this legislation have improved our ability to deter crimes of

domestic violence.

Early in my Administration, as outlined in the landmark Crime Bill, I

established the Office of Violence Against Women in the Department of

Justice to lead our comprehensive national effort to combine tough Federal

laws with assistance to States and localities to fight domestic violence and

other crimes against women. In February 1996, the Department of Health

and Human Services launched the 24-hour-a-day, toll-free National Domestic

Violence Hotline, 1–800–797–SAFE, so that those in trouble can find out

how to get emergency help, find shelter, or report abuse. To date, the

hotline has received more than 118,000 calls from all 50 States, the District

of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We also initiated

an Advisory Council on Violence Against Women to bring together experts

in the field, including representatives from law enforcement, business, health

and human services, and advocates, to focus national attention on successful,

multifaceted solutions to combating violence and sexual assault.

We cannot simply rest on past efforts. My Administration is continuing

its work to prevent domestic violence and to care for survivors in their

communities and workplaces. We are committed to strengthening the health

care system’s ability to screen, treat, prevent, and eliminate family violence

by supporting training of health care providers and projects to assist those

in the substance abuse field to address domestic violence. We are working

to improve collaboration between human services providers, advocates, and

the criminal justice community to enhance responses to domestic violence.

The Department of Health and Human Services is sponsoring projects and

programs to coordinate community responses to domestic violence, to focus

on youth and children who witness violence, and to link child protection

services with community providers who work with abused women and

their children.
52008 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 193 / Monday, October 6, 1997 / Presidential Documents

Finally, as a further enhancement of my 1995 directive to all Federal departments and agencies to conduct employee awareness campaigns on domestic

violence, the Office of Personnel Management is producing a guide to help

agency representatives develop programs to prevent and respond to all types

of workplace violence against Federal employees, including domestic violence. This guide, drafted by experts in the areas of mental health, investigations, law enforcement, threat assessment, and employee relations, will serve

as a useful tool in providing step-by-step information to identify, prevent,

and respond to violence so that we can protect those in the Federal work

force.

I encourage the private sector to expand its role in preventing and eliminating

domestic violence. We must also strengthen coordinated efforts between

the public and private sectors to combat domestic violence in the home,

the community, and the workplace. These efforts must ensure that no survivor

of domestic violence lives in isolation and that the families of victims

also have our support. No child should have to live in an abusive home.

No woman should live in fear in her home, on the streets, or on the

job. Only through a national commitment to this effort can we stop domestic

violence and ensure that its survivors are safe.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution

and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 1997 as National

Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I call upon government officials, law

enforcement agencies, health professionals, educators, community leaders,

and the American people to join together to end the domestic violence

that threatens so many of our people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of

October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred

[FR Doc. 97–26558

Filed 10–3–97; 8:45 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

and twenty-second.

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