lence is consistently a major and pressing concern 
for women and girls facing humanitarian emergency 
contexts and should be assumed to be a protection 
concern in all humanitarian planning and risk as-
sessment, even in the absence of data. 
(12) Men and boys play a critical role in pre-
venting gender-based violence, and engaging them in 
prevention and accountability activities while empow-
ering women and girls in the transformation of gen-
der roles and combating harmful norms that lead to 
increased rates of gender-based violence at the onset 
of emergencies, leads to lasting results. 
(13) Survivors of gender-based violence during 
humanitarian emergencies and their families require 
immediate, life-saving assistance, including post-rape 
care or access to other comprehensive medical and 
psychosocial services, to address the physical, psy-
chological, and social impacts of gender-based vio-
lence. They also require long-term support such as 
opportunities to earn livelihoods, build skills or re-
ceive an education, and access to justice and com-
munity-level reintegration. Early medical interven-
tions after incidents of rape can help to prevent in-
fections, HIV, and pregnancy. 
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(14) Empowering women to assume leadership 
roles in delivering humanitarian response and mean-
ingfully engaging local organizations, including wom-
en’s rights, humanitarian, advocacy, and service-pro-
vider organizations, through training and directed 
resources to operate in emergency settings and pro-
vide life-saving assistance is critical to supporting 
survivors or those at risk of gender-based violence. 
(15) 
The 
international 
community 
has 
prioritized addressing the issue of gender-based vio-
lence in humanitarian contexts by launching a Glob-
al Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based 
Violence in Emergencies in 2013, which the United 
States implemented through establishing the ‘‘Safe 
from the Start’’ initiative, carried out by the Depart-
ment of State and the United States Agency for 
International Development. 
(16) Safe from the Start aimed to prevent and 
respond to gender-based violence at the onset of an 
emergency and to provide resources to strengthen 
the core capacity of humanitarian assistance imple-
menters to address gender-based violence at the ear-
liest phases of an emergency, including through sup-
porting the development of training, guidelines, tool-
kits, and other resources to guide operations. 
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(17) The Women’s Entrepreneurship and Eco-
nomic Empowerment Act (Public Law 115–428) re-
quires the United States ‘‘to strive to eliminate gen-
der-based violence and mitigate its harmful effects 
on individuals and communities’’ in its development 
cooperation policy. Recognizing the need to prevent 
and respond to gender-based violence globally, Con-
gress has appropriated $150,000,000 annually in 
each of fiscal years 2013 through 2019 for this pur-
pose. 
(18) The United States has further committed 
to prevention and response to gender-based violence 
globally through the interagency United States 
Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based 
Violence Globally, the Women, Peace and Security 
Act Strategy and Implementation Plan, the U.S. 
Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls, the 
U.S. Strategy to Support Women and Girls at Risk 
from Extremism and Conflict, and the U.S. Govern-
ment Strategy on Advancing Protection and Care 
for Children in Adversity. 
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States— 
(1) to take effective action to prevent, mitigate, 
and address gender-based violence occurring during 
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humanitarian emergencies around the world to pro-
mote respect for basic human rights and gender 
equality, economic growth, improved public health, 
and peace and stability; 
(2) to ensure collective commitment to and ac-
countability for immediate humanitarian action on 
gender-based violence at all levels, especially on the 
part of senior humanitarian leadership; 
(3) to maintain sustained political will and ro-
bust systems and processes in order to establish, 
monitor, and enforce accountability for humanitarian 
action; 
(4) to systematically integrate and coordinate 
efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based vio-
lence in United States foreign policy and foreign as-
sistance programs, including conflict prevention, hu-
manitarian relief and recovery, and peace-building 
efforts; 
(5) to promote accountability and access to jus-
tice for acts of gender-based violence; 
(6) to build local capacity in countries respond-
ing to humanitarian crises, including the capacity of 
governments at all levels and of nongovernmental or-
ganizations, especially women-focused and women- 
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led organizations, to prevent, mitigate, and respond 
to gender-based violence; 
(7) to consult, cooperate, coordinate, and col-
laborate with a wide variety of nongovernmental 
partners and international organizations, including 
women-focused and women-led organizations, when 
designing and implementing humanitarian response 
programs; 
(8) to support activities that prevent and miti-
gate the impacts of gender-based violence in humani-
tarian settings and that empower survivors or those 
at risk of gender-based violence, including through 
economic opportunities, access to education and 
skills building, and promotion of women’s leadership 
and participation in humanitarian response; 
(9) to ensure that international organizations 
and nongovernmental organizations receiving fund-
ing from the United States have the capacity and in-
ternal protocols to address gender-based violence, in-
cluding sexual exploitation and abuse committed by 
humanitarian personnel, integrate gender-based vio-
lence prevention and response initiatives into policies 
and programs, and report regularly on efforts to 
prevent and respond to gender-based violence; 
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