Geschlechterpolitik
Rigoroser Gesetzesbeschluss gegen Gewalt an Frauen und Menschenhandel
US-Senat einstimmig: Auch Infrastruktur für Opfer wird ausgebaut
Washington - Am Mittwoch hat der US-Senat einstimmig einen Beschluss zur,
WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The Senate unanimously
passed on Wednesday a final version of legislation to help
protect women from domestic violence and combat global
traffickers who force thousands of women into the sex trade.
The measure, approved 95-0, will be sent to President Bill
Clinton to be signed into law.
Overwhelmingly passed by the House of Representatives last
week, it reauthorizes the 1994 Violence Against Women Act and
provides $3.3 billion over five years to to expand an
infrastructure of shelters for battered women and children and
to prosecute wife beaters aggressively.
The Clinton administration made renewal of the law a
priority and has said that it resulted in a 21 percent drop in
violence against women since it was first enacted.
The previous act expired on Sept. 30, but the latest bill
will reauthorize and expand the original legislation to provide
more shelters for victims and give grants to cover battered
women in college residences and those trapped in violent dating
relationships as well as victims of stalking and sexual
assault.
"It also provides full-faith-and-credit enforcement and
computerized tracking of protection orders by prohibiting
notification of a batterer without the victim's consent when an
out-of-state order is registered in a new jurisdiction," said
Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican who played a leading role
in driving the legislation through the Senate.
The "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution
requires states to recognise most of the laws, public records
and judicial decisions of other states.
$95 MILLION APPROPRIATED
The sex-trafficking part of the legislation, co-sponsored
by Republican Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Paul Wellstone
of Minnesota, appropriates $95 million to combat the growing
practice, which is fast becoming a top source of income for
organised crime.
It provides punishment of up to life imprisonment for
traffickers, makes assistance available for victims who wish to
sue their captors, provides shelter and authorises changes in
immigration laws to allow relief from rapid deportation so
human smuggling cases can be prosecuted.
Sex trafficking is believed to involve over 1 million women
and young girls worldwide, an estimated 50,000 of whom are
forced into prostitution or other forms of slave labour in the
United States alone.
The broad legislation also contains a provision to make it
easier for former hostages and other victims of terror to
collect compensation from nations that sponsor such acts.
Supporters defeated an attempt by Republican Sen. Fred
Thompson of Tennessee to kill a provision known as Aimee's law,
that will force states to pay costs if a criminal is released
from prison and goes on to commit a crime in another state.