WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security:  2/16

Conflict Prevention:  2/16

Disarmament:  1/16

Displacement and Humanitarian Response:  2/16

Participation: 5/16

Peace Processes: 0/16

Peacekeeping: 1/16

Protection: 1/16

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/16

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 1/16

Implementation: 1/16

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 5/16

Human Rights: 3/16

On average the United States covered 12% of WPS concepts in the open debates in 2019. In particular, the United States did not cover any of the PeaceWomen themes in the 4 Middle-East (Israel- Palestine) debates held in 2019. Moreover, the US administration’s policy on the Israel-Palestine issue in 2019 undermined efforts towards an inclusive two-state solution.  

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/2

Conflict Prevention: 0/2

Disarmament: 0/2

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 1/2

Participation:0/2

Peace Processes: 0/2

Peacekeeping: 0/2

Protection: 0/2

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/2

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/2

Implementation: 0/2

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 2/2

Human Rights: 0/2

The general themes covered in these debates by the United States include: 

1. Implementation of resolution 2462 

2. Support for humanitarian actors and relief agencies 

3. Law enforcement efforts to counter criminal and terrorist linkages

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention: 0/1

Disarmament: 0/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/1

Participation: 0/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 0/1

Protection: 0/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 0/1

Human Rights: 0/1

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention: 0/1

Disarmament: 0/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 1/1

Participation: 1/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 1/1

Protection: 0/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 1/1

Human Rights: 0/1

N/A. 

In 2019, the United States did not put forward any new commitments nor did they provide any updates from the commitments made in 2017. 

In 2018:

Profit fom Arms Transfer in 2018: $380,000,000

UN Women Total Contribution in 2018: $8,500,670

In 2018, the United States was ranked 42 of 189 countries. 

Researcher’s Note: The figures used above are from the 2019 Human Development Report which has the rankings for 2018. The 2020 Human Development Report is not published as of November 2020. Consultations have been scheduled till December 2020 and “the work on the 2020 HDR will continue through the summer and fall”.

In 2018, The United States of America was ranked 51 among 149 participating countries.

Researcher’s note: In 2019, WEF published the Gender Gap Report 2020 instead of a Gender Gap Report 2019. This was done to change the launch of their Gender Gap Report series to the first quarter of every year.  The above-mentioned data reflects the rank tabulated using sources from 2019 as indicated in the report (see resource 1).  

Researcher’s Note: In 2019, the United States indicated that it no longer intends to be a state-party to the treaty. The United States signed the Arms Trade Treaty in 2013. 

Experts on Mission: 2 men, 1 women, 3 total 

Staff: 27 men, 1 women, 28 total 

Total peacekeepers provided: 29 men, 2 women, 31 total 

The US peacekeepers are present mostly in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (10), followed by the mission in the Central African Republic (8) and the mission in South Sudan (7). 

Researcher’s Note: While all the Permanent Five countries focus on peacekeeping as an important element of the WPS agenda and to tackle sexual violence,  WILPF believes that to fully prevent all forms of sexual violence it is rather essential to address the root causes of violence, including structural inequalities, discrimination and patriarchal norms. 

Government Funding and Engagement with Women's CSO. In 2019, the United States denied funding to foreign NGOs that work to further women’s reproductive rights, in particular abortion rights. The government also cut most USAID and State Department funding to Palestinian NGOs operating in West Bank and Gaza, including UN Reliefs and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Approximately 1.5 million NGOs are in operation in the United States (according to the most recent data available). As of 2016, the e-government initiative that provides a centralized location for grant-seekers (“Grants.gov”), facilitated access to $100 billion in grants. 

In 2019, the US government was accused of surveilling and interfering with activists carrying out relief efforts at the US-Mexico border by monitoring their activities, restricting their travel and detaining them. 

2019 also saw a continued increase in extreme far-right activity, including by white supremacist groups that have been linked to racist and antisemitic attacks. This activity has been energized by the right-wing presidency. There was a 55% increase in white nationalist groups in the United States between 2017 and 2019, as well as a 43% increase in anti-LGBTQ hate groups.

Finally, police violence remains extremely common in the United States. Almost one thousand people were killed by police in the United States in 2019. Police violence in 2019 included documented cases of violence against protesters, particularly Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. 

Spotlight: Planned Parenthood is the largest organization providing reproductive healthcare in the United States. Apart from providing preventive care through their health centers, they also deliver sex education programs and advocate for reproductive health and rights. A “broad base of committed donors” provide almost 92 percent of the national organization’s revenue. Additionally, the organization receives approximately $ 60 million annually through the federal family planning program, called Title X. However in 2019, Planned Parenthood withdrew from the Title X program due to a gag rule that prohibited providers from referring their patients for abortion.

PeaceWomen is currently awaiting (as of November 2020) confirmation regarding the status of gender-sensitive training within the Department of Defense (DoD).However, the national strategy on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) adopted in 2019 directs the DoD to “increase the meaningful participation of women in partner nation security sector initiatives, including programs on the rule of law and within professional military education.” In addition, it also directs the department to apply gender analyses to improve DoD program design and “train DoD personnel on the needs, perspectives, and security requirements of men and women”. In response, the DoD implementation plan, particularly “defense objective 1” indicates that the department has established training to enable implementation of the WPS strategy. However, further details on the nature and occurrence of such training is not known at this stage. 

The DoD did not release a follow-up Diversity and Inclusion Plan for 2018-2023. In 2019, the DoD updated their transgender policy which bans individuals diagnosed with gender dysphoria from joining the military. The policy states that transgender individuals can serve as long as they meet the standards of sex assigned at birth. 

In June 2019, the United States (US) adopted a national strategy on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS).  The WPS Strategy indicates that the key departments and agencies that will implement the Strategy include but are not limited to, the Department of State (DoS), Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The implementation period for the WPS Strategy is four years (2019-2023). It does not identify specific indicators other than stating that the “Administration will commit to rigorously track and report on metrics across the interagency on an annual basis”. It is external in focus.

On October 6, 2017, the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 was signed into law, which mandated a government-wide strategy on WPS within one year. However, this government-wide strategy (detailed above) was only finalized in June 2019. 

As of 2018, the United States government had not released its updated National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security, with the existing NAP last revised in 2016, and replaced with the 2019 National Strategy on WPS. 

In 2018, the United States House of Representatives was composed of  23.6% women. The United States Senate was composed of  25%   women.

In 2018, 16.7% of cabinet positions were held by women in the United States.

In 2018, 26.7% of law enforcement positions were held by women in the United States of America. 

In 2018, 30% of all state court judges were women. Only 8% of all state court judges were women of color. 

At the Federal level, for which the most recent statistics are those from 2017, the United States Supreme Court was comprised of 33.3% women; the Circuit Court of Appeals was comprised of 36.8% women; and 34% of active Federal District Court Judges were women. 

The following figures provide additional insight into women’s participation, standing and experience within the labour force in the United States in 2019: 

• Estimated average earned income per year (US$): $ 39,300 for women; $59,900 for men.   
• Legislators, senior officials and managers: 40.7% women; 59.3% men.
• Professional and technical workers: 52.9% women; 47.1% men.

Girls’ enrolment in secondary education improved from 2018 by 0.8% for girls, whereas boys’ enrollment went down by 0.3 %. 

Girls’ enrolment in primary education declined marginally (0.3%) from 2018, and boys enrolment also declined by 0.6%. Boys and girls’ literacy rate remained the same and consistent with 2018.

The gendered perspective, as outlined in the above methodology and indicators, is enshrined in the United States legal framework by way of the following:  

The United States Constitution. The 19th Amendment, adopted in 1920, in theory guarantees all American women the right to vote. However, women of colour got access to the ballot and right to vote only after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. There is no provision in the US Constitution that guarantees equal rights for women, as the proposed equal rights amendment has not been ratified. 

Relevant Acts. Relevant acts include: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (establishes principle of “equal pay for equal work”); Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (bans sex discrimination in employment); The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (establishes 12 weeks of unpaid leave for federal employees when giving birth to or adopting children, among other family-related qualifying circumstances); Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (expanding workers rights by revising statutes of limitations in pay discrimination cases); and Title IX of the Education Amendments of  1972 (non-discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance).

While these acts exist, in reality, most American women do not receive equal pay or have access  to paid leave. 

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (aims to protect and destigmatize victims of domestic crimes) expired in February 2019 and the bill to reauthorize the act has yet to be passed in the Senate. 

Reproductive Rights. In Roe v. Wade case of 1973, the US Supreme Court ruled that abortion is legal and people have the right to seek an abortion without excessive government restriction. However, anti-choice groups in the US have been working to overturn the decision of the Supreme Court ever since 1973 and have been actively working to reduce access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare in the US, including at the state level. The Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision that took effect in 1980, bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except in select cases. Furthermore, multiple states have passed and implemented restrictions on reproductive rights, largely through restrictive measures that limit access to abortion and contraception. As a result of these measures and wide variations in reproductive healthcare access across states, there is effectively no universal guarantee of comprehensive reproductive rights (the right to decide whether and when to have children) in the United States. In 2019, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 58 new measures restricting abortion were enacted; 17 states enacted new restrictions, while 9 states enacted measures to protect or expand abortion access.

Supreme Court Decisions. Relevant Supreme Court decisions include Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965 (ruled that state bans on contraceptives violated marital privacy rights) Eisenstadt v. Baird, 1972 (establishing the right of unmarried people to contraception); Roe v. Wade, 1973 (establishing the right to abortion).

There were no significant updates on the following for access to justice in the United States in 2019: 

Equality and financial affordability of access to formal legal dispute systems and the right to legal representation. In the United States, the right to counsel is derived from the 6th Amendment (the right to a fair trial), the 14th Amendment (the right to due process and equal protection before the law), and—significantly— by the 1963 case of Gideon v. Wainright, which held that states have a constitutional obligation (under the 14th Amendment) to provide counsel (required under the 6th Amendment) to those unable to afford it in criminal prosecutions.  The United States does not guarantee the right to legal representation in civil cases (including immigration, foreclosure, landlord-tenant and child-support proceedings). 

Free access to an interpreter during legal proceedings. With the passage of the Court Interpreters Act (28 U.S.C. § 1827) in 1978, Defendants for whom the English language represents a barrier to due process receive government-funded, court-appointed interpreters.

Victim protection. Victim protection is guaranteed under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 (18 U.S.C. § 3771). 

According to the World Justice Project, of the 66% of Americans who experienced a legal problem in the last two years, only 33% were able to access help. However, 17% of the people still had their problems persists, whereas for those that had their problems resolved it took an average of 8 months and 13% had financial difficulty in solving the legal issue. 

The US government complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. “The government increased funding for victim assistance for trafficking victims compared to the previous year, but it prosecuted fewer cases, decreased the number of trafficking-specific immigration options issued to victims and  granted fewer foreign national victims of trafficking eligibility to access benefits and services.” 

In 2019, there were 11,336 unmet requests for services in a single day, of which 7,732 (68%) were for housing. The total number of unmet requests for services increased from 9,183 in 2018, the percentage of requests for housing decreased in 2019 (from 76% in 2018). The remaining 3,604 (32%) unmet requests were for services related to emergency shelter, transportation, childcare, legal representation, and other issues. 

Lack of resources impacted the programs’ ability to provide services to meet survivors needs. Funding cuts in 2019 left programs in a position to lay off staff and 102 programs also had to reduce or eliminate transitional housing services. In addition, 70 programs reduced or eliminated transport-related services in 2019. 

Researcher’s Note: Through the significant coordination efforts of those United States’ civil society organizations working to eradicate the sexual violence, we rely upon and call attention to data that draw from point-in-time census counts on one specific day each year. This research, both in conceptualization and conduct, serves as a particularly effective means of evaluating the status of protections against sexual violence because it focuses directly on survivors and their needs, pulling data from those that provide these services, rather than the standard form of measurement relied upon in our assessments of the remaining Permanent Members (I.e. the number of shelters/centres in operation).

Female veterans’ affairs offices. The Center for Women Veterans (CWV) is an organization within the United States Department of Veteran Affairs that works to implement policies and programs that affect women veterans. The CWV also serves as a resources center for women Veterans’ mental health, reproductive health, legal assistance, housing stability and economic opportunity. Each state operates a separate Veterans Affairs division, each of which houses a women veterans program (typically assisted by a Women Veterans Coordinator). As of 2019, women Veterans made up 10% of the total Veteran Population of 19, 209, 704.  

Economic benefits. The United States Veteran’s Affairs Department administers economic benefits, such as: a) disability compensation, which is a tax-free monetary benefit paid to veterans with disabilities incurred during active military service. In 2019, 5 million Veterans received the disability compensation; b) dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC), which is a tax free monetary benefit generally payable to a surviving spouse, child, or parent of servicemembers who died while on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training or survivors of veterans who died from their service-connected disabilities. In 2019, 433,964 recipients received the  DIC; c) Special Monthly Compensation, which is an additional tax-free benefit that can be paid to Veterans, when severe disabilities confine them to their immediate surroundings. They also provide life insurance benefits to Veterans. The V.A has also partnered with the U.S department of the Treasury and IRS to ensure that Veterans receive their Economic Impact Payments automatically and without additional paperwork. 

In 2019, the V.A provided home loans to 3 million Veterans and pensions to 240,000 Veterans. However, homelessness is a significant problem affecting the veteran community due to gaps in the social safety net in the United States. In 2019, 37,085 veterans experienced homelessness of which 90.3 % were men and 8.9 %  were women. 

Health service benefits. In 2019, the 9.2 million veterans enrolled in the V.A. health care system received health services through the 1,255 health care facilities, including 170 VA Medical Centers and 1,074 outpatient clinics. The coverage of care for Veterans in the United States includes mental health services to treat military sexual trauma (MST), depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use problems. However, there are significant issues in terms of wait time and accessibility of healthcare services from the V.A. The V.A. Mission Act passed in 2018 to address the issue of wait time and accessibility in the V.A. health care system has led to arbitrary standards for wait time and distance, increase in veterans eligible for private sector services and budget cuts and underfunding of other V.A. departments. 

Educational benefits. In 2019, 909,320 Veterans received education benefits through the six education programs conducted by the V.A. : Post-9/11 Educational Assistance (Post-9/11 GI Bill); All-Volunteer Force Educational Assistance Program (Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty); Educational Assistance for Members of the Selected Reserve (Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve); Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (Dependents’ Educational Assistance - DEA); Post-Vietnam Era Veterans Educational Assistance Program (VEAP); Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP). 

Employment services. The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs has a Transition Assistance Program (TAP) that provides resources and tools for post-military transition to civilian life. The V.A. also administers the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Program for veterans with disabilities that impede them from working in traditional employment environments. The V.A. also offers an Education and Career Counseling program which provides veterans with personalized counselling and support. 

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) also assists veterans in securing employment.

National crisis hotline. 19,159 hotline calls were in answered in 2019 (down from 19,459). 18,497 (97%) of these calls were answered by local or state hotlines. 662 (3%) were answered by the National Domestic Violence Hotline (a non-profit leader in hotline service provision in the United States). There was little change in division of service provision in 2018, at which time 18,473 (95%) of calls were answered by local or state hotlines with  986 (5%) answered by the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Women's shelters and counseling services. 1,887 domestic violence service providers were identified in 2019. Of these, 1,669 participated in the National Census of Domestic Violence Services census count.* Of these participants, 70% provided emergency shelter, 35% provide transitional and other housing, and 26% offer counseling services by a licensed practitioner. 

There was no significant updates and recent data available for the following indicators in 2019: 

Women's rape crisis centres. Nearly 1,300 rape crisis centers were operational in the United States as of August 2018.  

National sex-offender list or website.The National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR), housed under the United States Department of Justice, links state, territorial and tribal sex offender registries in one national search site. The registry can be used to identify location information on sex offenders living, working and attending school. 

 Support groups for survivors. There are a significant number of support groups for survivors in the United States, many of which are listed under the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s directory.

As recognised in the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report, surrounding the implementation of dedicated programmes to support survivors of human trafficking by the United States government in 2019, “NGOs continued to call for expanded services, including legal services, for unaccompanied foreign national children without lawful immigration status upon their release from HHS care and custody. Advocates reported a lack of services available for men, boys, LGBTI individuals, and labor trafficking survivors. Advocates also reported a need for increased access to affordable and trauma informed health care and mental health services, including services available to a victim’s family. NGOs and survivor advocates continued to report insufficient access to housing, including transitional housing and long-term housing options for trafficking victims.”

Regarding legal services provided to victims of human trafficking in the United States, “while trafficking-specific criminal record relief legislation has been introduced in previous sessions of Congress, the federal government still has not enacted a criminal record relief statute for human trafficking survivors. There is an ongoing debate about whether previously proposed federal legislation would be effective, particularly with regard to the offences it would cover, which drastically differs from what survivors are frequently charged with on the federal level. Moving federal legislation forward effectively requires working with survivor and anti-trafficking groups to draft the legislation so that it provides the appropriate relief for trafficking survivors.”

In 2019, the United States continues to decrease the number of refugees and drastically reduce programs providing basic health, legal, employment, educational and community integration services to refugees. Such measures are repeatedly justified by the United States government through the couching of bigotry (particularly against Muslims)  in the language of “legitimate national security measures,” including through the framing of refugees as a threat to national security.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers. In 2019, the United States Government’s refugee admissions ceiling set the cap at 30,000 refugees. Disaggregated data shows that nearly 13,000 refugees came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by Myanmar with 4,900 refugees, Ukraine with 4,500, Eritrea with 1,800, and Afghanistan with 1,200. In the month of October 2019, no refugees were resettled in the United States. In 2019, only 21 % of the admitted refugees were Muslims, marking a sharp reversal in pattern from previous years where up to 46% of admitted refugees were Muslims. The United States travel ban of 2017, revised for the third time in 2018, continues to affect refugees coming to the United States from Muslim-majority countries. 

In 2019, the U.S. government implemented the “Migration Protection Protocols” program, which allows the U.S. border officers to return non-Mexican asylum seekers to Mexico as they await their court date in the U.S., without the benefit of legal assistance. Over 56,000 asylum seekers, including 16,000 children were sent back to Mexico under this program as of November 2019. 

The “Interim Rule” introduced by the U.S. government in 2019 called for stricter asylum regulations wherein it would bar anyone filing an asylum application if they have passed through a third country before reaching the U.S. 

Internally Displaced Persons. In 2019,  916,000 United States citizens were newly displaced due to weather-related natural disasters. Nearly 50% of the new displacements were caused by storms, followed by numerous wildfires that displaced more than 320,000 people in 2019. These weather-related displacements continue to occur amidst serious rollbacks on climate policy and action, particularly withdrawal of the U.S. administration from the Paris Agreement. In 2019, the global Climate Action Policy Tracker accorded the United States its lowest possible rating of “critically insufficient”  for its action and policy on climate change. 

The United States does not have a designated agency to address the needs of the internally displaced, leaving the responsibility to the underfunded and understaffed Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).