V-Day/One Billion Rising Statement on US Threat of Veto to UN Resolution On Rape As Weapon Of War
4/23/2019
Photo: Valery Sharifulin / Tass / Guardian
V-Day and One Billion Rising condemn the United States’ threat to veto the United Nation’s resolution on combatting the use of rape as a weapon of war because it calls for support of family planning clinics for survivors and uses terminology like sexual and reproductive health, which for the Trump administration equates to abortion support. The resolution has already been weakened by the US, Russia and China’s insistence that it not create a new and formal mechanism to monitor and report war-time atrocities.
Lack of access to healthcare is a form of violence against all women and girls. With access to reproductive healthcare and family planning, women have agency to turn their pain into power, transforming their lives and that of their community after the devastation of violence and war.
V-Day and One Billion Rising call on US activists to rise up and put pressure on the Congress and the White House to get this important resolution passed so that there is accountability and support for women survivors of rape. Write letters, make phone calls and make your voices heard!
Global activists can also put pressure on the United States by raising awareness of this veto threat and contacting their governments and the United Nations representatives.
NO TO THE VETO!
Contact your local politicians, Congress members, Senators, and UN representatives to advocate for the necessity of this measure in order to end systemic sexual gender-based violence. Leave voicemails, send letters, lead and join organized actions to hold our government accountable.
Contact Congress
U.S. House of Representatives:
* Telephone: 202-225-3121
* Website: http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate:
* Telephone: 202-224-3121
* Website: http://www.senate.gov/
Contact the White House
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact UN Representatives
https://usun.state.gov/contact
To read more about this issue:
US threatens to veto UN resolution on rape as weapon of war, officials say (The Guardian, 22 April 2019)