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U.S. College Students, Parents & Alumnae: RISE - THIS IS THE MOMENT


02/26/2013

The energy from ONE BILLION RISING continues with immediate action steps!

This week the House of Representatives will be voting on their version of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Women’s groups, advocates, and survivors have worked to show support for the inclusive, bipartisan Senate-passed bill,
S. 47, and are asking House members to oppose the alternate version which will be brought to the House floor for a vote as early as THIS WEDNESDAY! Our work is far from over.

The alternate version of VAWA falls short of our goals for VAWA. Action must be taken this week to show support for the INCLUSIVE, SENATE PASSED version.

WHY this is important for students, parents and alumna:

The alternate version of VAWA drops important provisions in the Senate bill including provisions to strengthen protections and security for students on college campuses. It also drops the Senate-passed initiative to erase rape kit backlogs and other provisions found in the SAFER Act.

This new version also fails by:

  • Dropping the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act;
  • Omitting the Senate-passed LGBT provisions;  
  • Providing non-tribal batterers with additional tools to delay and frustrate swift justice in tribal court systems; gratuitously restricting existing tribal authority to issue civil orders of protection against all abusers - which is currently the only local recourse Native women have against non-Indian abusers;
  • Weakening the ability of the Office on Violence Against Women to serve as the effective hub for carrying out VAWA’s mission.

Starting TODAY, we are encouraging you to flood your representative’s telephone lines and email inboxes with messages of support for S. 47, the inclusive, bipartisan Senate-passed version of VAWA and the demand that they vote against the House Republican leadership’s imitation VAWA.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

CONTACT Your Representative!
Feminist Majority has made it super simple to contact your representative, just enter your zip code and you're halfway there! CONTACT >

DOWNLOAD the RISE for VAWA Poster >

Why is VAWA so important? LEARN more >

READ "Why the Campus SaVE Act MUST be in any Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013" >