The US Congress should move forward with a Senate bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and reject the dangerous alternative passed by the House of Representatives.

Indian officials need to immediately open transparent and impartial criminal investigations into recent cases where police have assaulted women. Human Rights Watch called on the government of India to overhaul its policies and response to women, children, and transgender people who experience violence. The Indian authorities should protect victims from police intimidation and discrimination, and prevent police interference in investigations and post-assault medical treatment.

The full US House of Representatives should reject a dangerous version of a bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Human Rights Watch said today. The bill would undermine the law and expose immigrant women and families to abuse, Human Rights Watch said. The House Judiciary Committee on May 8, 2012 approved a version that makes multiple changes to VAWA’s existing provisions addressing immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence.

The bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) faces a likely vote in the Senate next week, but its provisions that would assist immigrant women who are victims of violence have drawn some inexplicable opposition. The country’s single most important law for addressing domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking has offered life-saving protections to immigrant women since it first passed in 1994.