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01 March 2007
United States Committed to Empowering Women Worldwide
U.S. ambassador outlines efforts to end violence against women
United Nations -- Americans are committed to advancing the protection, welfare and empowerment of women both at home and worldwide, U.S. Ambassador Patricia Brister says.
The U.S. vision for women and girls "extends far beyond our own shores to encompass their well-being and advancement around the globe," Brister, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, said February 28. The United States funds a wide array of programs abroad to help girls, particularly those caught in conflicts or in great humanitarian need -- situations in which women and children are especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
The United States supports several programs to counter gender-based violence, including a $15 million initiative to combat violence against women in Darfur. The program involves humanitarian aid efforts as well as support for human rights, the ambassador said.
Since 2000, the United States has provided more than $20 million to refugee programs to address gender-based violence. They focus on informing victims of their rights and means of redress, educating aid workers to identify and treat gender-based violence and preventing and responding to gender-based violence, she said.
The $15 billion President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) ensures that the programs it supports meet the unique needs of women and girls, including victims of sex trafficking, rape, abuse and exploitation, Brister said.
PEPFAR is the only HIV/AIDS program that requires data on gender, a critical step to understanding the extent to which women and girls are getting life-saving help. It also includes strategies to fight sex trafficking and prostitution while still serving the victims, she said.
A separate education initiative will provide 550,000 primary and secondary education scholarships to girls in 40 African nations. With U.S. support, more than 5 million children, one-third of whom are female, now are attending school in Afghanistan, Brister said.
The 45-nation Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the U.N. policymaking body dedicated exclusively to women. It meets at U.N. headquarters for two weeks each year to evaluate progress, identify challenges, set global standards, and formulate policies to promote the equality and advancement of women worldwide. The CSW's 2007 session is focusing on girls' rights and how to end the discrimination and violence that girls face around the world.
As many as 55 million girls continue to be shut out of formal schooling, millions of school-aged girls work in domestic service and an estimated 40 percent of child soldiers are girls, according to the CSW. Of young people aged 15-25 living with HIV/AIDS globally, more than 60 percent are female.
"Most egregiously, violence against women and girls remains pervasive -- perpetrated by family members, strangers and agents of the state in all regions of the world, in the public and private sphere, in peacetime and during conflict," U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told the commission.
Migiro urged the commission to "take bold steps to improve the lives of girls everywhere."
The United States will be presenting two resolutions focusing on practices that are discriminatory, violent and deny girls "the very chance to live and give our societies all they have to offer," Brister said.
One resolution addresses forced and early marriages, calling attention to a practice that "diminishes choices for girls, shrinks the horizons of their futures, and too often subjects them to violence," Brister said. The second resolution focuses on prenatal sex selection and female infanticide.
Brister also described U.S. domestic programs that address gender-based violence.
In the United States, Brister reported, the Violence Against Women programs are receiving historically high levels of funding. They help communities expand prevention efforts, ensure the safety of victims and hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
One special program of the U.S. Office of Violence Against Women is the President's Family Justice Center Initiative, which addresses domestic violence, she said.
Victims of domestic violence often are forced to seek help in a fragmented system of separate agencies with uncoordinated services, Brister explained. To address that problem, sites have been set up to provide comprehensive services -- medical care, counseling, law enforcement assistance, faith-based and social services, employment and housing assistance -- to make a victim's search for help and justice much easier.
For more information on U.S. policies, see Women in the Global Community.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
