The Forensic Nurse

The international version of the popular Violence Against Women Act, the I-VAWA act was recently introduced in the United States Senate on October 31st by Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). It will become one of the largest funded resources for ending gender based violence in the world. Funding will exceed over $1 billion over a five year period.

I-VAWA has three main components. It:
Creates one central Office for Women’s Global Initiatives to coordinate the United States’ policies, programs and resources that deal with women’s issues. Never before has such a high-level office been created to report directly to the Secretary of State on issues related to gender-based violence and the needs of women and girls.

1. Mandates a five-year comprehensive strategy to fight violence against women in 10 to 20 selected countries and provides a new, dedicated funding stream of $175 million a year to support programs dealing with violence against women in five areas: the criminal and civil justice system, healthcare, girls’ access to education and school safety, women’s economic empowerment, and public awareness campaigns.
2. Requires training, reporting mechanisms and a system for dealing with women and girls afflicted by violence during humanitarian, conflict and post-conflict operations. As the recent reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo make tragically clear, in situations of humanitarian crises, conflict and post-conflict operations, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to violence. Reports of refugee women being raped while collecting firewood, soldiers sexually abusing girls in exchange for token food items, or women subjected to unimaginable brutality and torture as a tactic of war are shocking in number and inhumanity. There is a dire need for increased training and reporting requirements for refugee workers to help crack down on these brutal acts of violence. In addition, the bill crafts a new designation of “critical outbreaks” and requires emergency measures when rape is used as a weapon of war or in conflicts where violence against women is sharply escalating with impunity.