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One of the agenda items at the just concluded UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was “Combating violence against Indigenous Women and Girls.” The title was a bit counter-productive, using a violent word like “combating” to end violence. A better word would have been “eliminating.”
Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin) railed against the Republican-led House version of the watered down Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as an affront to herself as a woman of color and victim of rape during a press conference this week. View the Rachel Maddow Show video posted on Jezebel.
WASHINGTON – A reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on May 16 sans tribal court protections for Native Americans that had previously made it through the U.S. Senate.
The bill, known as H.R. 4970, passed by a vote of 222 – 205 along mostly party lines.
WASHINGTON – The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to mark up a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill on May 8 that will likely strip out Native American protections from legislation that passed the U.S. Senate in late-Apr
Last month, the United States Senate moved to close a jurisdictional loophole that for decades has allowed non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence in Indian country to evade prosecution. Senate Bill 1925, the carefully crafted reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act or VAWA, would allow Indian tribes to prosecute non-Indians for dating violence and domestic violence against Indians within the tribe’s territorial jurisdiction, while also protecting the rights of criminal defendants who might be unfamiliar with tribal justice systems.
On April 23, Foreign Policy published “Why Do They Hate Us? The Real War on Women is in the Middle East.” In this essay, which is also FP’s cover story in this special “Sex” issue, Egyptian-American columnist Mona Eltahawy describes cultures which are based upon misogyny. She argues that the revolution for systematic change, as embodied by the potential of Arab Spring, cannot only be about a transformation in the faces and ages of government leadership. The revolution must also involve shifts in the community, that is, within the very ordinary relationships between females and males.
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WASHINGTON – More foes of tribal courts are making themselves known in the battle to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), legislation currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate that would in part expand the power of tribal courts to have jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted 68 – 31 on April 26 to approve the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization. It included major tribal court jurisdiction and protection order provisions for tribes in the lower 48 states to help curb the violence epidemic that exists on many reservations.
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is concerned about efforts in the U.S. Senate to exclude Alaska tribes from tribal jurisdiction and protection provisions of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
