VAWA reauthorization needs your help! Strong Show of Support Needed as Bill Heads to Full Senate
ACTION ALERT!
February 2, 2012
Urgent: VAWA Reauthorization Bill Approved by Senate Judiciary Committee — Strong Support of VAWA Reauthorization Bill Needed as it Heads to Full Senate
GET INVOLVED! Now is the time to seek changes that will improve the safety of Native communities, provide access to justice, and ensure that all perpetrators of violence against Native women are brought to justice. Contact your Senators and urge them to support the VAWA Reauthorization bill. Tell them Native women count and deserve protection too!
On February 2, 2012, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly approved a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by a vote of ten to eight, split along party lines.
“No other law has done more to stop domestic and sexual violence in our communities,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman. More than 200 national and 500 state and local organizations support the bill, which seeks to address violence against women by strengthening programs that assist victims of domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. This includes the National Taskforce to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, the Indian Law Resource Center, the National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Women, Clan Star, Inc., and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Inc.
Today, one in three Native women will be raped, six in ten will be assaulted, and they will be murdered at ten times the national average. Yet, 67% of all the sexual assault cases referred to the federal government go unprosecuted, and many are not even investigated. Some 88% of sexual assaults against Native women are believed to be committed by non-Indians, but tribal governments are prohibited from prosecuting non-Indians under current federal law. The bill would address the epidemic of violence against Native women with critically needed tribal provisions, including enhanced criminal jurisdiction for tribal nations and a funding set-aside for tribal DV/SA coalitions. The bill, a substitute offered by Chairman Leahy, (see the full text of the bill here) would recognize that “the powers of self-government of a participating tribe include the inherent power of that tribe … to exercise special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction over all persons.” A last-minute attempt by Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa) to gut the tribal provisions failed.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s approval of the bill is a strong first step in the right direction−down a path of restoring safety to Native women and communities and strengthening tribal criminal jurisdiction over persons assaulting Native women in Indian country. The Committee will release its full report in the coming weeks and report the bill to the Senate for a full vote.
Visit www.indianlaw.org/safewomen for more information on the Center’s Safe Women, Strong Nations project, which works to prevent and combat violence against Native women by ensuring they receive equal access to justice. To watch a webcast of the Committee’s meeting online, visit http://www.senate.gov/fplayers/jw57/commMP4Player.cfm?fn=judiciary020212&st=1350.