Sec. 1701. Findings and statement of policy
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/bill/113/hr/1793/ih/section-1701·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds the following: Women and girls are the majority of the world’s poor, unschooled, unhealthy, and underfed. Women around the world often work under substandard conditions, for longer hours, and with lower compensation, less income stability and fewer economic opportunities than men. Women are often excluded by law or practice from participating fully and equally in the political, economic, and social life of their country. Women own significantly less land than men and experience numerous barriers to ownership.
Access to land and property rights offers women greater economic opportunity and security, greater protection from physical harm, better access to health, education, and financial services, and improved social status. Displaced, refugee, and stateless women and girls in humanitarian emergencies, conflict settings, and natural disasters are at extreme risk of violence, exploitation and intimidation. Violence against women dramatically impedes progress in meeting global health goals, including efforts to reduce maternal mortality and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Ensuring that women have the ability to effectively plan families is one of the keys to expanding their economic opportunities. Yet hundreds of millions of women lack access to affordable, effective, and appropriate contraceptive methods and reproductive health care, putting them at greater risk of unintended pregnancies and serious health complications. Studies have shown that investments in women and girls have broad multiplier effects, particularly in the areas of health and education, which over the long run can significantly improve the future of communities and countries.
Investments in women and girls can play a key role in reducing poverty, countering violent extremism, promoting stability, fostering tolerance and reconciliation, and building strong and vibrant civil societies. Increasing women’s access to economic opportunities is crucial to preventing and responding to domestic and sexual violence. Fostering gender equality requires strengthening rules, practices, and institutions that protect the rights of women and men, girls and boys, as well as including them in the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs to reduce poverty and alleviate human suffering.
It is the policy of the United States to— invest in women and girls in partner countries as a matter of justice and human rights as well as to promote sustainable development and achieve internationally agreed development goals; include women and the organizations that represent them in the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs under this title; mainstream into the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies and programs at all levels an understanding of the distinctive impact that such policies and programs may have on women and girls, men and boys; and promote equal opportunities for all people, regardless of sex, to achieve their personal potential and maximize their contributions to the development of their families, communities, and countries.