Dear John,
It's unfathomable, unwatchable, unbearable. The human toll is incalculable. Hour after hour, day after day, the world is watching a once vibrant, thriving country suffer relentless, devastating attacks.
History has shown, over and over, that armed conflict exacerbates gender inequality, that women and children who are displaced anywhere in the world – in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, here in North America – are at heightened risk of gender-based violence, of losing their right to work, to be educated, to life-saving health care, and to be free and equal members of their societies.
So when we look at the survivors fleeing Ukraine, the moms desperately trying to protect their children, we fear for them now and we fear for their futures. When we look at
Afghanistan, we see an emerging government that is severely restricting the educational freedoms many women and girls enjoyed over the past 20 years. When we look at Tigray, we see sexual violence being used in conflict as a weapon of war, humiliating, terrorizing, and traumatizing an entire population of women and girls today and into the next generation. And when we look across our own borders at Mexico, we see women fleeing gender-based violence waiting in dangerous conditions for their asylum claims to be heard here in the United States.
That’s why we are calling on Congress to urgently pass two bills that would help improve the lives of women and girls globally:
- The Safe from the Start Act would protect women and children fleeing conflict right now by ensuring emergency responses to crisis and conflict include protections against gender-based violence and human trafficking, from the very start of our crisis responses. Click here to urge your senators and your representative to support the Safe from the Start Act so protections against gender-based
violence are integrated in our country’s humanitarian response,
- The Girls L.E.A.D. (Leadership, Engagement, Agency and Development) Act of
2021 is a bipartisan bill that would make girls’ civic and political leadership a priority for U.S. foreign assistance. It would make U.S.-led democracy and governance initiatives more effective and increase girls’ ability to engage in decision-making processes affecting their lives and communities. It holds the promise to foster new generations of empowered women leaders
who will advance peace, security, and gender equity worldwide and, in doing so, help build more stable and peaceful societies, because when women and girls are engaged, they help shift dynamics, broaden conversations, and increase community buy-in to address the drivers of conflict. Click here to urge your senators and representative to support the Girls L.E.A.D. Act, so women and girls across the globe will have the support, tools, and resources they need to lead.
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