The Senate took an important step forward in support of conflict prevention with introduction of the Global Fragility and Violence Reduction (GFVR) Act, S.3368, on August 22.
The strongly bipartisan effort is being led by Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) along with original co-sponsors Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Todd Young (R-IN), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
FCNL supports this initiative as part of our long-standing commitment to preventing violent conflict and our work to encourage congressional leadership and action. As Executive Secretary Diane Randall stated:
Growing levels of global violence counter our belief in shared security and human dignity. The Friends Committee on National Legislation calls on Congress to make prudent investments in the peacebuilding and development tools needed to successfully inoculate against outbreaks of future violence and truly build sustainable peace.
The legislation would:
- require the U.S. government to develop a 10-year strategy for reducing violence and fragility in no less than six priority countries,
- require the U.S. government to measure and evaluate progress in reducing violence, instability, and fragility and to use the results of monitoring and evaluation to update programming, and
- increase the flexibility of funding in priority countries to enable programming to be adapted to better address conditions on the ground.
A similar bill, H.R.5273, was introduced in the House of Representatives in March.
Additionally, the GFVR Act complements FCNL’s work over the past three years on the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act (S.1158, H.R.3030). The Elie Wiesel Act requires a report on existing efforts to prevent mass atrocities and genocide and training on atrocities prevention for key civilian staff of U.S. embassies around the world.
All these efforts are designed to improve U.S. government capacities to prevent violence from breaking out, and to reduce violence when it does arise. At a time when global violence is at a 30-year high, these are the type of investments the U.S. government must prioritize to interrupt cycles of conflict and support sustainable peace.
