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[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 327 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 327

    Expressing the sense of the Senate on United States efforts to 
   encourage the governments of foreign countries to investigate and 
  prosecute crimes committed in those countries in the name of family 
        honor and to provide relief for victims of those crimes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 22, 2000

Mr. Reid submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
    Expressing the sense of the Senate on United States efforts to 
   encourage the governments of foreign countries to investigate and 
  prosecute crimes committed in those countries in the name of family 
        honor and to provide relief for victims of those crimes.

Whereas thousands of women around the world are killed and maimed each year in 
        the name of family ``honor'';
Whereas the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 56th Session, January 
        2000, working with the Special Rapporteurs on violence against women and 
        extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, received reports of so-
        called ``honor killings'' from numerous countries, including Bangladesh, 
        Jordan, India, Pakistan, Ecuador, Uganda, and Morocco, and noted that 
        such killings take many forms, such as flogging, forced suicide, 
        stoning, beheading, acid-throwing, and burning;
Whereas, according to the 1999 report of the Department of State on human 
        rights, so-called ``crimes of honor'' in Bangladesh include acid-
        throwing and whipping of women accused of moral indiscretion;
Whereas authorities in Bangladesh expect as many as 200 honor killings in that 
        country in 2000;
Whereas thousands of Pakistani women, including young girls, are stabbed, 
        burned, or maimed every year by husbands, fathers, and brothers who 
        accuse them of dishonoring their family by being unfaithful, seeking a 
        divorce, or refusing an arranged marriage;
Whereas Jordan, which had 20 reported honor killings in 1998, still has laws 
        reducing the penalty for or exempting perpetrators of honor crimes, and 
        the Jordanian parliament has twice failed to repeal those laws;
Whereas the King of Jordan has taken the commendable action of establishing 
        Jordan's Royal Commission on Human Rights, chaired by the Queen of 
        Jordan, primarily to address obstacles, including the persistence of 
        honor crimes, that prevent women and children from exercising their 
        basic human rights;
Whereas more than 5,000 dowry deaths occur every year in India, according to the 
        United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which reported in 1997 that a 
        dozen women die each day in kitchen fires, disguised as accidents, 
        because their husbands' families are dissatisfied over the size of the 
        women's dowries;
Whereas women accused of adultery in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, 
        Pakistan, and a host of other countries are subject to a maximum penalty 
        of death by stoning;
Whereas, even though honor killings may be outlawed, law enforcement and 
        judicial systems often fail properly to investigate, arrest, and 
        prosecute offenders, and laws frequently permit such reductions in 
        sentences or exemptions from prosecution to those who kill in the name 
        of honor that the results are typically token punishments, impunity, and 
        continued violence against women; and
Whereas the right to life is the most fundamental of all rights and must be 
        guaranteed to every individual without discrimination, and the 
        perpetuation of honor killings and dowry deaths is a deliberate 
        violation of women's human rights that should be universally condemned: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the President, through the United States Agency for 
        International Development, should work with law enforcement and 
        judicial agencies of foreign governments to encourage the 
        adoption of legal system reforms that provide for the effective 
        investigation and prosecution of crimes known as ``honor 
        crimes'';
            (2) the President, through the United States Agency for 
        International Development, should make available to local 
        organizations in foreign countries sufficient resources to 
        provide refuge and rehabilitation for women who are victims of 
        honor crimes and to sustain their children;
            (3) the Secretary of State, when preparing annual country 
        reports on human rights practices, should include information 
        relating to the incidence of honor violence in foreign 
        countries, the steps taken by foreign governments to address 
        the problem of honor violence, and all relevant actions taken 
        by the United States, whether through diplomacy or foreign 
        assistance programs, to reduce the incidence of honor violence 
        and increase investigations and prosecutions of such crimes;
            (4) the President should--
                    (A) communicate to the United Nations the concern 
                over the high rate of honor-related violence toward 
                women in foreign countries worldwide; and
                    (B) request that the appropriate United Nations 
                bodies, in consultation with relevant nongovernmental 
                organizations, propose actions to be taken to encourage 
                those countries to demonstrate strong efforts to end 
                such violence; and
            (5) the President and the Secretary of State should, 
        through direct communication with leaders of countries where 
        honor killings, dowry deaths, and related practices are 
        endemic--
                    (A) convey the most serious concerns of the United 
                States about these gross violations of human rights; 
                and
                    (B) urge the leaders of those countries to 
                investigate and prosecute as murders all such acts with 
                a view to punishing the perpetrators of those acts to 
                the maximum extent provided under law for other murders 
                in those countries.
                                 <all>
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