WASHINGTON (March 13, 2015) – The global poverty-fighting organization CARE hails the bipartisan introduction of the International Violence Against Women Act in both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate this week.
This bipartisan legislation aims to make ending gender-based violence (GBV) a top diplomatic priority of the United States. IVAWA will require the Secretary of State to implement a comprehensive interagency strategy to address GBV and to increase efforts within the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to halt violence against women.
As many as one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way. Most often the violence comes from someone she knows, including her husband or another male family member. It leaves survivors with long-term psychological and physical trauma, tears away at the social fabric of communities and is used with terrifying effect in conflict settings, with women as the main target.
“Gender-based violence continues to be a major threat around the world,” said CARE President and CEO Helene D. Gayle. “It exacerbates poverty and tears communities apart. At CARE we have witnessed both the suffering experienced by survivors of unspeakable violence, as well as the cost to critical U.S. investments in health, education, economic empowerment and food security. The bipartisan International Violence Against Women Act is an important tool for the U.S. as it works to combat gender-based violence and will help to support vital programming in the 84 countries where CARE works.”
H.R. 1340 was introduced in the House by Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Chris Gibson (R-NY), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Richard Hanna (R-NY), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Susan Brooks (R-IN), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Joseph Heck (R-NV), Theodore Deutch (D-FL), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), Patrick Meehan (R-PA), Gewen Moore (D-WI), Aaron Schock (R-IL), Adam Smith (D-WA), Jeff Denham (R-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI) and Chris Collins (R-NY).
S. 713 was introduced in the Senate by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
ABOUT CARE
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty.
Our six decades of experience show that when you empower a girl or woman, she becomes a catalyst, creating ripples of positive change that lift up everyone around her. That’s why girls and women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve education, health and economic opportunity for everyone. We also work with girls and women to promote social justice, respond to emergencies and confront hunger and climate change. Last year CARE worked in 84 countries and reached more than 83 million people around the world. To learn more, visit www.care.org.
Media Contacts
Washington, D.C.: Stephanie Chen, CARE, schen@care.org, +1-202-595-2824