IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 894 
Expressing the continued commitment of the House of Representatives to 
condemn and prevent the use of sexual and gender-based violence in 
armed conflict as a weapon of war and fully implement the Women, 
Peace, and Security Agenda. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 10, 2020 
Mr. KEATING submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the continued commitment of the House of Rep-
resentatives to condemn and prevent the use of sexual 
and gender-based violence in armed conflict as a weapon 
of war and fully implement the Women, Peace, and Secu-
rity Agenda. 
Whereas, in April 2019, the Republic of Germany submitted 
a draft version of United Nations Security Council Reso-
lution 2467, reaffirming its commitment to the continu-
ation and full implementation of resolutions 1325 (2000), 
1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 
2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), and 2242 (2015) on women, 
peace, and security; 
Whereas, as reported by the Guardian and other news out-
lets, the United States delegation opposed the original 
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draft language on the grounds that ambiguity in the lan-
guage could be interpreted as supporting abortion, and 
threatened to veto the resolution unless the paragraph 
was eliminated entirely; 
Whereas this is not the first instance in which the Trump ad-
ministration has attempted to dilute human rights lan-
guage and reporting related to reproductive health; 
Whereas the resolution was intended to be a declaration of 
global opposition to the use of sexual and gender-based 
violence in armed conflict; 
Whereas the resolution was intended to strengthen the 
Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in the lead up to 
October 2020, the 20th anniversary of United Nations 
Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, 
peace, and security, which recognized the disproportional 
impact that armed conflict has had on women and girls 
and called for the inclusion of a gender perspective in 
conflict resolution; 
Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 
was the first recommendation by the United Nations Se-
curity Council to parties involved in an armed conflict to 
prevent the use of sexual and gender-based violence in 
armed conflict as well as ensure the inclusion of women 
in peace negotiations and postconflict reconstruction; 
Whereas the initial draft resolution submitted by Germany in 
April 2019 urged ‘‘United Nations entities and donors to 
provide nondiscriminatory and comprehensive health serv-
ices, including sexual and reproductive health, psycho-
social, legal, and livelihood support and other multisec-
toral services for survivors of sexual violence, taking into 
account the specific needs of persons with disabilities.’’; 
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Whereas the language included in the initial draft resolution 
was previously agreed by consensus in the United Na-
tions Security Council and was intended to send a clear 
message of the need to support survivors and that the 
use of rape as a weapon of war is not condoned by the 
global community; 
Whereas the inclusion of reproductive health care data as an 
indicator of a broader human rights assessment signals 
the purposeful inclusion of women and girls, as well as 
their health, in the global human rights conversation; 
Whereas, in spring 2019, for the second year in a row, the 
Trump administration omitted data on reproductive 
health care previously included in the Department of 
State’s annual report on human rights globally; 
Whereas, in September 2019, the United States led a joint 
statement delivered at the United Nations High-Level 
Meeting on Universal Health Coverage attacking sexual 
and reproductive health and rights, misrepresenting the 
term as an attack on ‘‘the family’’; 
Whereas women’s security has been a priority of the House 
of Representatives of the 116th Congress, having recently 
reintroduced the International Violence Against Women 
Act; 
Whereas the work of human rights defenders, including 
women human rights defenders, in promoting civil, polit-
ical, economic, social, and cultural rights positively im-
pacts the lives of women and girls around the world; 
Whereas women human rights defenders are at risk of and 
suffer from violations and abuses, including systematic 
violations and abuses of their fundamental rights to life, 
liberty, and security of person, to psychological and phys-
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ical integrity, to privacy and respect for private and fam-
ily life, and to freedom of opinion and expression, asso-
ciation, and peaceful assembly, and in addition these de-
fenders can experience gender-based violence, rape, and 
other forms of sexual violence, harassment, and verbal 
abuse and attacks on reputation, online and offline, by 
state actors, including law enforcement personnel and se-
curity forces, and nonstate actors, such as those related 
to family and community, in both public and private 
spheres; 
Whereas historical and structural inequalities in power rela-
tions and discrimination against women, as well as var-
ious forms of extremism, have direct implications for the 
status and treatment of women; and 
Whereas, as documented in the United Nations Declaration 
on Human Rights Defenders, the rights of women human 
rights defenders, including those working on sexual and 
reproductive health and rights, have been violated or 
abused and their work stigmatized owing to discrimina-
tory practices and social norms or patterns that serve to 
condone violence against women or perpetuate practices 
involving such violence: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) it is the policy of the United States to en-
sure and promote the full, equal, meaningful, and ef-
fective participation of women in all aspects of over-
seas conflict prevention, management, and resolu-
tion, and postconflict relief and recovery efforts; 
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(2) it is the policy of the United States to work 
toward preventing the use of gender-based violence 
in armed conflict and work toward ensuring account-
ability for victims and survivors of gender-based vio-
lence; 
(3) it is the policy of the United States to pro-
mote the principles espoused in United Nations Se-
curity Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, 
peace, and security, and all subsequent United Na-
tions Security Council resolutions on women, peace, 
and security; 
(4) the United States should adopt, as a pre-
condition for the achievement of our wider foreign 
development, assistance, and security policy objec-
tives, a feminist foreign policy, defined as a strategy 
that places the promotion of gender equality and the 
empowerment of women and girls at the center of its 
initiatives and investment and that focuses on pro-
moting the rights of women and girls, challenging 
gender-based discrimination, and fighting gender in-
equality, which includes preventing gender-based vio-
lence and all forms of conflict-related sexual vio-
lence; and 
(5) the United States should— 
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(A) respect, protect, and fulfill the rights 
of women and girls to bodily autonomy; 
(B) support all future efforts by inter-
national institutions and organizations to en-
sure universal access to comprehensive sexual 
and reproductive health information and serv-
ices, free of discrimination, coercion, and vio-
lence; 
(C) update and implement the United 
States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, 
and Security, to include an increased focus on 
the full health of women and girls, including 
sexual and reproductive health and rights; 
(D) actively support and promote inter-
national efforts to prioritize the rights and 
needs of women and girls and ensure their full, 
equal, meaningful, and effective participation in 
all areas that affect them; and 
(E) create an enabling environment to— 
(i) ensure that women and girls 
human rights defenders can perform their 
important role of holding the government 
accountable to its legal obligations under 
international law, including under inter-
national human rights law; 
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(ii) prevent violations, abuses, threats, 
harassment, and violence against women 
and girls human rights defenders, who face 
particular risk because of their gender and 
their work; 
(iii) combat impunity by ensuring that 
those responsible for violations and abuses, 
including 
gender-based 
violence 
and 
threats against women and girls human 
rights defenders, committed by state and 
nonstate actors, including online, are 
promptly brought to justice through impar-
tial investigations; and 
(iv) ensure accountability by respect-
ing, protecting, and fulfilling victims’ and 
survivors’ right to an effective remedy. 
Æ 
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