Title: Accountability for Sexual and Gender-based Violence as a Tool in Conflict Act of 2019
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Accountability for Sexual and Gender-based Violence as a Tool in Conflict Act of 2019
This bill provides for sanctions against foreign persons responsible for conflict-related acts of sexual and gender-based violence.
The President may impose property- and visa-blocking sanctions on foreign persons responsible for sexual and gender-based violence against individuals seeking human rights or attempting to expose illegal activity by government officials.
Foreign government officials and their immediate family members who have been involved in significant corruption involving sexual or gender-based violence shall be ineligible to enter the United States.
The bill also expands existing foreign-assistance-related reporting requirements to include information on conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3212 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3212

 To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to include in the Annual 
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices a section on conflict-related 
 sexual and gender-based violence, to amend the Global Magnitsky Human 
Rights Accountability Act to authorize the President to impose economic 
sanctions and a visa ban on the leader of an organization that commits 
                    sexual or gender-based violence.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 11, 2019

Ms. Pingree (for herself, Ms. Speier, Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire, Ms. 
 Omar, Ms. Meng, and Ms. Frankel) introduced the following bill; which 
 was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to 
    the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to include in the Annual 
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices a section on conflict-related 
 sexual and gender-based violence, to amend the Global Magnitsky Human 
Rights Accountability Act to authorize the President to impose economic 
sanctions and a visa ban on the leader of an organization that commits 
                    sexual or gender-based violence.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accountability for Sexual and 
Gender-based Violence as a Tool in Conflict Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The United States, as a permanent member of the United 
        Nations Security Council, voted in favor of Security Council 
        Resolutions 1325 (2000); 1820 (2008); 1888 (2009); 1960 (2010); 
        2106 (2013); 2242 (2015); and 2331 (2016), which state that 
        acts of sexual violence and human trafficking threaten 
        international peace and security and can constitute war crimes, 
        crimes against humanity, acts of genocide, and terrorism.
            (2) The United States is a signatory to the G8 Declaration 
        on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, done in London April 
        11, 2013, and sponsored by the United Kingdom's Foreign & 
        Commonwealth Office's Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. 
        The United States and its allies declared that concerns related 
        to sexual violence in armed conflict must be part of peace and 
        security efforts, post-conflict transition and reform measures, 
        and accountability processes.
            (3) Despite these advances in normative frameworks, sexual 
        and gender-based violence continues to be pervasive, and the 
        responses from governments and the international community 
        range from insufficient and inadequate to negligent and 
        complicit, as documented in United Nations' reports.
            (4) Gender-based violence, including sexual violence--
                    (A) is a global pandemic that affects 1 in 3 women 
                during their lifetimes; and
                    (B) occurs at higher rates in conflict-affected 
                areas.
            (5) Incidences of domestic violence, child, early, or 
        forced marriages, human trafficking, and other forms of sexual 
        and gender-based violence within displaced or conflict-affected 
        communities--
                    (A) increase during conflict due to exacerbated 
                social tensions and underlying gender inequalities that 
                existed in communities prior to such conflict; and
                    (B) occur in parallel to sexual and gender-based 
                violence perpetrated as a weapon of war.
            (6) Gender-based violence is underreported in all settings. 
        Recorded cases of gender-based violence represent only a small 
        fraction of the overall total. A lack of available data should 
        not be interpreted to mean that gender-based violence is not a 
        major and pressing issue, but should be viewed as an indication 
        of the challenges in gathering information.
            (7) Rape and sexual assault have been used as tactics of 
        war and terror in conflict zones, including Burma, Central 
        African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, 
        Iraq, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.
            (8) Rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual 
        violence have been used by terrorist and extremist groups, such 
        as the so-called Islamic State, Boko Haram, and the Lord's 
        Resistance Army, to intimidate and terrorize communities.
            (9) Sexual and gender-based violence in recent conflicts 
        has been used in Iraq, Syria, and Burma as a form of ethnic or 
        religious persecution or genocide against Yazidis, Christians, 
        Turkmen Shi'a, and Rohingya Muslims.
            (10) The Secretary-General of the United Nations stated 
        that sexual violence in conflict triggers mass migration and 
        forced displacement.
            (11) Sexual and gender-based violence in conflict is 
        primarily used against women and girls, but can also be used 
        against men and boys.
            (12) Sexual and gender-based violence is not incidental to 
        conflict and is a weapon of choice for armed actors seeking to 
        destabilize societies, given that its stigma and trauma 
        continue after the conflict has ended.
            (13) Existing laws often fail to protect survivors of 
        conflict-related sexual or gender-based violence, especially 
        when the perpetrators are representatives of government 
        entities, such as military officers, soldiers, or non-state 
        actors operating in areas where governments have failed to keep 
        the peace.
            (14) Under the doctrine of military command responsibility, 
        leaders can be prosecuted for war crimes when they--
                    (A) knew or should have known that their 
                subordinates were committing war crimes; and
                    (B) failed to take all necessary and reasonable 
                measures to prevent such crimes or investigate and 
                prosecute those responsible for such crimes.
            (15) Courts with jurisdiction over war crimes may be 
        nonexistent, may lack capacity, or may be subject to the same 
        political failings that allowed conflict-related sexual or 
        gender-based violence to take place. While the United Nations 
        Security Council could refer a case to the International 
        Criminal Court, it is constrained by the prospects of a veto.
            (16) Convicting and imprisoning top military leaders with 
        command or superior responsibility for rape or other forms of 
        sexual and gender-based violence in conflict is essential to 
        deter future crimes of sexual violence. Further support to 
        civil society, grassroots organizations, women-led 
        organizations, and justice actors is necessary to combat sexual 
        violence and provide services and support to survivors. The 
        landmark decision on December 15, 2017, by military justice 
        authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the 
        conviction of a provincial parliamentarian and members of the 
        ``Army of Jesus'' militia for the crimes against humanity of 
        rape of dozens of children in Kavumu, Democratic Republic of 
        the Congo is a significant step for ending impunity for sexual 
        violence.
            (17) The United Nations Office of the Special 
        Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in 
        Conflict and the United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of 
        Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict were established by 
        Security Council Resolution 1888 (2009) to work toward 
        providing support to survivors of sexual violence in conflict 
        and ending impunity for these heinous crimes.
            (18) The United Nations Secretary-General's annual report 
        to the United Nations Security Council on conflict-related 
        sexual violence lists ``parties credibly suspected of 
        committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other 
        forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict on the 
        agenda of the Security Council'' in its annex. This listing 
        mechanism is an essential tool to promote compliance with the 
        provisions of the United Nations Security Council resolutions 
        referred to in paragraph (1).

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States--
            (1) to take effective action to prevent and to respond to 
        sexual and gender-based violence around the world, particularly 
        when related to conflict, as a matter of promoting basic human 
        rights;
            (2) to hold accountable leaders who fail to prevent, 
        respond to, investigate, and prosecute sexual and gender-based 
        violence; and
            (3) to support survivors of conflict-related sexual and 
        general based violence.

SEC. 4. ANNUAL COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES.

    (a) Savings Provision.--The additional reporting requirements added 
under sections 116(d) and 502B(h) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 
(22 U.S.C. 2151n(d) and 2304(h)) should not be considered as a 
substitute for comprehensive reporting on sexual and gender-based 
violence in non-conflict settings. Such information should continue to 
be robustly reported on in the annual Country Reports on Human Rights 
Practices with any linkages and connections between these areas of 
reporting drawn through internal references amongst the various 
sections of each individual Country Report.
    (b) Countries Receiving Economic Assistance.--Section 116(d) of the 
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d)) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (9), (10), (11), and (12) 
        as paragraphs (10), (11), (12), and (13), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (8) the following:
            ``(9)(A) a description of sexual and gender-based violence, 
        including conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence and 
        sexual assault (as defined in section 40002 of the Violence 
        Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12291)) or rape (as 
        defined in section 2441 of title 18, United States Code), as a 
        tool of terror or war, in each foreign country;
            ``(B) consolidated information regarding the commission of 
        war crimes, crimes against humanity, and evidence of acts that 
        may constitute genocide (as defined in article 2 of the 
        Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
        Genocide and modified by section 2(a) of the Genocide 
        Convention Implementation Act of 1987 (the Proxmire Act));
            ``(C) with respect to each country in which there is sexual 
        and gender-based violence, especially as a result of conflict 
        or where rape or sexual violence has been used as a tool of 
        terror or war by state or non-state actors, an assessment of 
        the efforts by the government of that country to combat such 
        violence, including an assessment of--
                    ``(i) whether governmental authorities in that 
                country participate in, facilitate, or condone sexual 
                and gender-based violence;
                    ``(ii) the steps the government of that country has 
                taken to prohibit government officials, including 
                military officers and non-state actors from 
                participating in, facilitating, or condoning sexual and 
                gender-based violence, including the investigation, 
                prosecution, and conviction of such officials;
                    ``(iii) the steps the government of that country 
                has taken to assist survivors of gender or sexual-based 
                violence, including efforts to prevent survivors from 
                being further victimized by perpetrators, government 
                officials, or others, and provision of humanitarian 
                relief, including provision of comprehensive health 
                care services, including mental, sexual, and 
                reproductive health services, and other physical health 
                care and reparation; and
                    ``(iv) whether the government of that country 
                recognizes the rights of survivors of sexual and 
                gender-based violence and ensures their access to 
                justice; and
            ``(D) such other information relating to sexual and gender-
        based violence, including conflict-related violence, as the 
        Secretary of State considers appropriate.''.
    (c) Countries Receiving Security Assistance.--Section 502B of the 
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating the second subsection (i) (relating to 
        child marriage) as subsection (j); and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(k) Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.--Each report required under 
subsection (b) shall include--
            ``(1) a description of the nature and extent of sexual and 
        gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual and 
        gender-based violence and sexual assault (as defined in section 
        40002 of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 
        12291)) or rape (as defined in section 2441 of title 18, United 
        States Code) as a tool or terror or war, in each foreign 
        country;
            ``(2) consolidated information regarding the commission of 
        war crimes, crimes against humanity, and evidence of acts that 
        may constitute genocide (as defined in article 2 of the 
        Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
        Genocide and modified by section 2(a) of the Genocide 
        Convention Implementation Act of 1987 (the Proxmire Act));
            ``(3) with respect to each country in which there is sexual 
        and gender-based violence, especially as a result of conflict 
        or where rape or sexual assault has been used as a tool of 
        terror or war by state or non-state actors, an assessment of 
        the efforts by the government of that country to combat such 
        violence, including an assessment of--
                    ``(A) whether governmental authorities in that 
                country participate in, facilitate, or condone sexual 
                and gender-based violence;
                    ``(B) what steps the government of that country has 
                taken to prohibit government officials, including 
                military officers, and non-state actors from 
                participating in, facilitating, or condoning sexual and 
                gender-based violence, including the investigation, 
                prosecution, and conviction of such officials;
                    ``(C) what steps the government of that country has 
                taken to assist victims of sexual and gender-based 
                violence, including efforts to prevent survivors from 
                being further victimized by perpetrators, government 
                officials, or others, and provision of humanitarian 
                relief, including provision of comprehensive health 
                services, including mental, sexual, and reproductive 
                health services, and other physical health care and 
                reparation; and
                    ``(D) whether the government of that country 
                recognizes the rights of survivors of sexual and 
                gender-based violence and ensures their access to 
                justice; and
            ``(4) such other information relating to sexual and gender-
        based violence, including conflict-related sexual and gender-
        based violence, as the Secretary of State considers 
        appropriate.''.

SEC. 5. ACTIONS AGAINST PERPETRATORS OF CONFLICT-BASED SEXUAL AND 
              GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE.

    (a) Sanctions.--Section 1263(a)(1) of the Global Magnitsky Human 
Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note) is amended, in the 
matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ``sexual and gender-
based violence,'' after ``torture,''.
    (b) Travel Restrictions.--Section 7031(c)(1)(A) of the Department 
of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 
2019 (division F of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019; Public 
Law 116-6) is amended by inserting ``, including sexual or gender-based 
violence,'' after ``human rights''.
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