1.This Act may be cited as the
Afghan Women Empowerment Act of
2009
.
2.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)Under the oppressive rule of the Taliban,
the women of Afghanistan were denied the most basic human rights and
fundamental freedoms, including the rights to life, work, education, health
care, movement, expression, and religion.
(2)Many women who attempted to assert their
rights under the Taliban regime were subjected to beatings and imprisonments,
and many suffer from the long-term consequences of such oppression.
(3)Women in Afghanistan have one of the
highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 1,600 deaths
per every 100,000 live births.
(4)Despite efforts by the United States
Government and the international community to improve the lives of women and
girls in Afghanistan, many women and girls continue to lack access to basic
services, including health care and education. Approximately 80 percent of
Afghan women are illiterate.
(5)Today, women and girls in Afghanistan still
face oppression resulting from violence and intimidation by the Taliban, other
religious extremists, and militia groups within their communities. In recent
months, there has been a significant increase in the number of attacks against
girls’ schools in an attempt to prevent women and girls from regaining their
rights and freedoms.
(6)According to the United States Commission
on International Religious Freedom, the absence of clear protections for the
right to freedom of religion or belief for individual Afghan citizens has
resulted in a growing number of criminal prosecutions and other official
actions against individuals, including women, for exercising their basic
rights.
(7)The strengthening of institutions and other
actors, such as nongovernmental organizations, in Afghanistan is essential to
building a civil society and holding the Government of Afghanistan to its
international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and other international instruments to protect and ensure the
rights of women.
3.Sense of Congress on women's rights in
afghanistanIt is the sense of
Congress that—
(1)the protection of the rights of women and
girls in Afghanistan and their full participation in the reestablishment of
democracy is essential to the reconstruction of a stable and democratic
Afghanistan, and to achieve such a reconstruction, the United States Government
must continue to commit resources to advance the rights of women throughout
Afghanistan;
(2)the United States Government should provide
strong support for the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission, both of which were created by the
Agreement on Provisional Agreements in Afghanistan Pending the Establishment of
Permanent Governing Institutions, done in Bonn, December 5, 2001 (commonly
known as the Bonn Agreement
), to remedy past violations of
women’s rights and human rights and to establish institutions and programs to
ensure policies that advance such rights;
(3)the United States Government should make it
a priority to provide assistance to Afghan-led nongovernmental organizations,
particularly Afghan women-led nonprofit organizations; and
(4)grants and assistance to Afghanistan should
be conditioned upon the Government of Afghanistan adhering to international
standards for women’s rights and human rights, including the internationally
recognized right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or
belief.
4.Assistance to women and girlsSection 103(a)(7) of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7513(a)(7)) is amended—
(1)in subparagraph (A), by striking clauses
(i) through (xii) and inserting the following:
(i)to provide equipment, medical supplies, and
other assistance to health care facilities for the purpose of reducing maternal
and infant mortality and morbidity;
(ii)to establish and expand programs to provide
services to women and girls suffering from mental health problems, such as
depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder;
(iii)to expand immunization programs for women
and children;
(iv)to protect and provide services to
vulnerable populations, including widows, orphans, and women head of
households;
(v)to establish primary and secondary schools
for girls that include mathematics, science, and languages in their primary
curriculum;
(vi)to expand technical and vocational training
programs to enable women to support themselves and their families;
(vii)to maintain and expand adult literacy
programs, including economic literacy programs that promote the well-being of
women and their families;
(viii)to provide special educational
opportunities for girls whose schooling was ended by the Taliban and who now
face obstacles to participating in the normal education system, such as girls
who are now married and girls who are older than the normal age for their
classes;
(ix)to disseminate information throughout
Afghanistan on the rights of women and on international standards for human
rights;
(x)to provide information and assistance to
enable women to exercise property, inheritance, and voting rights, and to
ensure equal access to the judicial system;
(xi)to provide legal assistance to women who
have suffered violations of their rights;
(xii)to increase political and civil
participation of women in all levels of society, including the criminal justice
system;
(xiii)to provide information and training related
to women’s rights and human rights to military, police, judicial, and legal
personnel;
(xiv)to provide assistance to the Ministry of
Women’s Affairs and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission for programs
to advance the status of women; and
(xv)to develop and implement programs to
protect women and girls against sexual and physical abuse, abduction,
trafficking, exploitation, and sex discrimination, including providing
emergency shelters for women and girls who face danger from
violence.
;
and
(2)by restating subparagraph (B) to read as
follows:
(B)For each of the fiscal years 2010 through
2012—
(i)$5,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated
to the President to be made available to the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs
for the administration and conduct of its programs;
(ii)$10,000,000 is authorized to be
appropriated to the President to be made available to the Afghanistan
Independent Human Rights Commission for the administration and conduct of its
programs; and
(iii)$100,000,000 is authorized to be
appropriated to the President for grants to Afghan women-led nonprofit
organizations to support activities including the construction, establishment,
and operation of schools for married girls and girls’ orphanages, vocational
training and human rights education for women and girls, health care clinics
for women and children, programs to strengthen Afghan women-led organizations
and women’s leadership, and to provide monthly financial assistance to widows,
orphans, and women head of
households.
.
5.Sense of Congress on
assistanceIt is the sense of
Congress that, in providing assistance under section 103(a)(7) of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7513(a)(7)), as amended by
section 4, the President should—
(1)condition the provision of such assistance
on the recipient adhering to international standards for women’s rights and
human rights; and
(2)ensure that Afghan women-led
nongovernmental organizations throughout Afghanistan receive grants without
ethnic, religious, or any other discrimination.