I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2232
To establish standards and guidelines for providing overseas assistance to
refugees and displaced persons.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 20, 1993
Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. BERMAN) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To establish standards and guidelines for providing overseas
assistance to refugees and displaced persons.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Refugee Women and
Children Protection Act’’.
SEC. 2. UNITED STATES POLICY CONCERNING OVERSEAS
ASSISTANCE TO REFUGEES AND DISPLACED
PERSONS.
(a) STANDARDS FOR REFUGEE WOMEN AND CHIL-
DREN.—The United States Government, in providing for
overseas assistance and protection of refugees and dis-
placed persons, shall seek to address the protection and
provision of basic needs of refugee women and children
who represent 80 percent of the world’s refugee popu-
lation. As called for in the 1991 United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ‘‘Guidelines on the
Protection of Refugee Women,’’ whether directly, or
through international organizations and nongovernmental
voluntary organizations, the Secretary of State shall en-
sure—
(1) specific attention on the part of the United
Nations and relief organizations to recruit and em-
ploy female protection officers;
(2) implementation of gender awareness train-
ing for field staff including, but not limited to, secu-
rity personnel;
(3) the protection of refugee women and chil-
dren from violence and other abuses on the part of
governments or insurgent groups;
(4) full involvement of women refugees in the
planning and implementation of (A) the delivery of
services and assistance, and (B) the repatriation
process;
(5) incorporation of maternal and child health
needs into refugee health services and education,
specifically to include education on and access to
services in reproductive health and birth spacing;
(6) the availability of counseling and other serv-
ices, grievance processes, and protective services to
victims of violence and abuse, including but not lim-
ited to rape and domestic violence;
(7) the provision of educational programs, par-
ticularly literacy and numeracy, vocational and in-
come-generation training, and other training efforts
promoting self-sufficiency for refugee women, with
special emphasis on women heads of household;
(8) education for all refugee children, ensuring
equal access for girls, and special services and family
tracing for unaccompanied refugee minors;
(9) the collection of data that clearly enumerate
age and gender so that appropriate health, edu-
cation, and assistance programs can be planned;
(10) the recruitment, hiring, and training of
more women program professionals in the inter-
national humanitarian field; and
(11) gender-specific training for program staff
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-
gees (UNHCR) and nongovernmental voluntary or-
ganizations on implementation of the 1991 UNHCR
‘‘Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women’’.
(b) PROCEDURES.—The Secretary of State shall
adopt specific procedures to ensure that all recipients of
United States Government refugee and migration assist-
ance funds implement the standards outlined in subsection
(a).
(c) REQUIREMENTS FOR REFUGEE AND MIGRATION
ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary of State, in providing mi-
gration and refugee assistance, should support the protec-
tion efforts set forth under this Act by raising at the high-
est levels of government the issue of abuses against refu-
gee women and children by governments or insurgent
groups that engage in, permit, or condone—
(1) a pattern of gross violations of internation-
ally recognized human rights, such as torture or
cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punish-
ment, prolonged detention without charges, or other
flagrant denial to life, liberty, and the security of
person;
(2) the blockage of humanitarian relief assist-
ance;
(3) gender-specific persecution such as system-
atic individual or mass rape, forced pregnancy,
forced abortion, enforced prostitution, any form of
indecent assault or act of violence against refugee
women, girls, and children; or
(4) continuing violations of the integrity of the
person against refugee women and children on the
part of armed insurgents, local security forces, or
camp guards.
(d) INVESTIGATION OF REPORTS.—Upon receipt of
credible reports of abuses under subsection (c), the Sec-
retary of State should immediately investigate such re-
ports through emergency fact-finding missions or other
means of investigating such reports and help identify ap-
propriate remedial measures.
(e) MULTILATERAL ORGANIZATIONS.—The United
States Government shall use its voice and vote in the Unit-
ed Nations and its participation in other multilateral orga-
nizations, to promote policies which seek to protect and
address basic human rights and needs of refugee women
and children. The Secretary of State shall work to ensure
that multilateral organizations fully incorporate the needs
of refugee women and children into all elements of refugee
assistance programs.
(f) SENSE OF CONGRESS ON MULTILATERAL IMPLE-
MENTATION OF THE 1991 UNHCR ‘‘GUIDELINES ON THE
PROTECTION OF REFUGEE WOMEN’’.—It is the sense of
the Congress that the President should enter into bilateral
and multilateral negotiations to encourage other govern-
ments that provide refugee assistance to adopt refugee as-
sistance policies designed to encourage full implementation
of the UNHCR’s 1991 ‘‘Guidelines on the Protection of
Refugee Women’’.
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