[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 193 (Monday, October 6, 1997)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 52007-52008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-26558]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 193 / Monday, October 6, 1997 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 52007]]
Proclamation 7030 of October 1, 1997
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 1997
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
In observing the month of October as National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month, the American people reaffirm
our commitment to prevent and eliminate violence
against women. Domestic violence is not simply a
private family matter--it is a matter affecting the
entire community.
Too many of America's homes have become places where
women, children, and seniors suffer physical abuse and
emotional trauma. Domestic violence is a leading cause
of injury to women in our country, and it occurs among
all racial, ethnic, religious, and economic groups. It
is a particularly devastating form of abuse because it
wears a familiar face: the face of a spouse, parent, or
partner. This violence too often extends beyond the
home and into the workplace.
My Administration is committed to ending this violence
and to protecting women in all aspects of their lives,
whether in the home, in the community, or in the
workplace. In 1994, I fought for passage of the
Violence Against Women Act, which combined tough new
penalties for offenders with funding for much-needed
shelters, counseling services, public education, and
research to help the victims of violence. The Federal
penalties and prevention efforts included in this
legislation have improved our ability to deter crimes
of domestic violence.
Early in my Administration, as outlined in the landmark
Crime Bill, I established the Office of Violence
Against Women in the Department of Justice to lead our
comprehensive national effort to combine tough Federal
laws with assistance to States and localities to fight
domestic violence and other crimes against women. In
February 1996, the Department of Health and Human
Services launched the 24-hour-a-day, toll-free National
Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-797-SAFE, so that
those in trouble can find out how to get emergency
help, find shelter, or report abuse. To date, the
hotline has received more than 118,000 calls from all
50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and
the U.S. Virgin Islands. We also initiated an Advisory
Council on Violence Against Women to bring together
experts in the field, including representatives from
law enforcement, business, health and human services,
and advocates, to focus national attention on
successful, multifaceted solutions to combating
violence and sexual assault.
We cannot simply rest on past efforts. My
Administration is continuing its work to prevent
domestic violence and to care for survivors in their
communities and workplaces. We are committed to
strengthening the health care system's ability to
screen, treat, prevent, and eliminate family violence
by supporting training of health care providers and
projects to assist those in the substance abuse field
to address domestic violence. We are working to improve
collaboration between human services providers,
advocates, and the criminal justice community to
enhance responses to domestic violence. The Department
of Health and Human Services is sponsoring projects and
programs to coordinate community responses to domestic
violence, to focus on youth and children who witness
violence, and to link child protection services with
community providers who work with abused women and
their children.
[[Page 52008]]
Finally, as a further enhancement of my 1995 directive
to all Federal departments and agencies to conduct
employee awareness campaigns on domestic violence, the
Office of Personnel Management is producing a guide to
help agency representatives develop programs to prevent
and respond to all types of workplace violence against
Federal employees, including domestic violence. This
guide, drafted by experts in the areas of mental
health, investigations, law enforcement, threat
assessment, and employee relations, will serve as a
useful tool in providing step-by-step information to
identify, prevent, and respond to violence so that we
can protect those in the Federal work force.
I encourage the private sector to expand its role in
preventing and eliminating domestic violence. We must
also strengthen coordinated efforts between the public
and private sectors to combat domestic violence in the
home, the community, and the workplace. These efforts
must ensure that no survivor of domestic violence lives
in isolation and that the families of victims also have
our support. No child should have to live in an abusive
home. No woman should live in fear in her home, on the
streets, or on the job. Only through a national
commitment to this effort can we stop domestic violence
and ensure that its survivors are safe.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim October 1997 as National
Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I call upon
government officials, law enforcement agencies, health
professionals, educators, community leaders, and the
American people to join together to end the domestic
violence that threatens so many of our people.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the two hundred and
twenty-second.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 97-26558
Filed 10-3-97; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
