During the 110th Congress in 2007, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) as a comprehensive, integrated solution to violence against women. This bipartisan bill hoped to make violence against women at top diplomatic issue, providing over $1 billion in U.S. assistance to execute programs in 10-20 countries with extreme levels of violence against women and girls. This money would benefit programs that would increase legal and judicial protection of women, increase women’s capacity in the health sector, change social norms, increase women’s economic opportunity and education, increase the U.S. training of overseas foreign security forces on matters of violence against women, and address violence against women in areas affected by natural disasters and humanitarian conflict. The act would also establish the Office of Global Women’s Initiatives in the State Department to coordinate efforts in opposition to violence against women, and would establish the Office of Global Women’s Development at Agency for International Development (USAID) to encourage the inclusion of violence prevention programming in current foreign assistance initiatives.
Unfortunately, the I-VAWA bill did not pass in the House or the Senate, due to some of its controversial and far-reaching implications. WCI supports I-VAWA and encourages the U.S. Congress to pass the Act when it is reintroduced in 2010.
Read More about I-VAWA here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/international-violence-against-women-act/i-vawa-background-and-resources/page.do?id=1051154
