This week three of the National Women’s Alliances – Australian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Alliance (AIRWA), Equality Rights Alliance (ERA) and AWAVA – met with a Chinese delegation, organised by JERA International, to discuss how the Alliances work together, and with the Government.  Other news in Australia and around the world:
  • Findings from the first survey of the whole of Queensland, by the Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, provide a benchmark for measuring against the 12-year national plan to reduce violence against women and their children by 2022
  • The Australian reports on the launch of the AFL Tackling the Tackle: Respect is for Everyone DVD which will help spread the message to young footballers across Australia that violence against women will not be tolerated
Internationally
  • The Himalyan Times reports on the National Alliance for Women Human Rights’ Defenders (NAWHRD) letter to Kathmandu’s Prime Minister Babu Ram Bhattarai asking him to end Gender Based Violence (GBV)
  • Turkish Women’s Rights’ group urged ‘Forget the flowers, stop the violence for Valentines Day’ read more here
  • Read here how the Violence Against Women Act has become a partisan issue in the US for the first time in its history, it will now go to the full Senate for consideration
  • Dominican leaders signed an agreement to end violence against women, read more here
  • Eve Ensler launched V-Day’s One Billion Rising campaign for a global strike to end violence against women on 14 February 2013. Read more in Eve’s article here, or sign up now
Coming Up

20 February: Exploring sexual violence and institutionalisation in the ACT Public Forum, on Monday, at the National Library in Canberra
23 February: ERA Federal Budget Training in Brisbane
28 February: ERA Federal Budget Training in Canberra
2 March: if you’re in Canberra, don’t miss the National Women’s Alliances International Women’s Day Event
7 March: in Western Australia Robyn McSweeney MLC, Minister for Women’s Interests, is holding an International Women’s Day Discussion Lounge on the theme of “The mothers of invention – women as innovators and agents of change”