Congressional hearing on global violence against women

[struggle4progress]

Washington, DC, October 20, 2009) – The US State Department's ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, Melanne Verveer, is scheduled to testify about violence against women on October 21, 2009, before the House Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.

Given that the State Department issued its new policy on Sudan on October 19, stating that it intends to work to reduce sexual and gender-based violence in Sudan and given the scale of the problem in Sudan, Verveer should be prepared to address that issue at the hearing, and to offer more specifics about what steps it intends to take, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch noted after the policy was issued that it would be helpful if concrete benchmarks were publicly articulated for progress on key human rights issues, including sexual violence ...

In her testimony at a similar hearing in the Senate on October 1, Verveer focused heavily on sexual violence in conflict, noting the US government's growing interest and action on this topic in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan. She repeatedly cited Sudan as a country where women and girls have been singled out for sexual abuse, but failed to give any specifics about plans to address the issue there ...

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7X22W6?OpenDocument

[niyad]

1. k and r

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. so I'm sitting here wanting to say something,

but I just don't know what....

Thank god the issue is getting noticed....\Flying Monkeys Media will ignore it and continue emphasizing women as props for marketing and sexy sidekicks to men......

Violence against women is increasing here too, proportionate to male anger and loss of control....

real change can only come from a change in heart among men (not continued attempts to tackle it by focusing solely on women).......

[niyad]

3. kick