Thursday, May 8, 2014

International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) Update

To Amnesty Activists:
The Identity and Discrimination Unit has been working behind the scenes with Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY), a House IVAWA sponsor and member of the Armed Services Committee, on adding critical gender-based violence (GBV) language to the annual defense authorization bill (the NDAA).

I am pleased to share that late last night, Rep. Gibson was successful at including the Department of Defense-relevant provisions of IVAWA in the Committee's markup of the NDAA. His amendment would prioritize US effots to combat gender-based  violence by ensuring proper Congressional oversight of DoD's effots to prevent and respond to GBV.  Full text available upon request.

Please take a moment to thank Rep. Gibson with the below tweet that includes a short video clip with his remarks when the amendment is offered and adopted by the Committee. The bill will now head to the floor for consideration by the full House.

@amnesty thanks @RepChrisGibson for his #NDAA amendment to prioritize US & DoD efforts to end #genderbasedviolence http://cs.pn/1j71VZh

Julia Drost
Policy Advocate & Program Coordinator
Women's Human Rights Program
Amnesty International USA
202-675-8758
jdrost@aiusa.org