This week the Women’s Electoral Lobby celebrates its 40th anniversary – find 15 minutes in your day to watch this YouTube clip and remember some of the great achievements of this group of women.
Around the Nation
- Graeme Innes, National Disability Discrimination Commissioner has called for the criminalisation of forced sterilisation
- In Victoria, new Family Violence Prevention grants have been announced
- Senator Bill Heffernan speaks out against Female Genital Mutiliation
- Western Australia’s Sex Offender Register went live and public this week
- Watch this YouTube clip Talk About It – a National Women’s Safety Survey by students, for students and encourage participation
- AWAVA’s joint media release with ERA and eS4W Motion Passed Calling for Employer Recognition of Domestic Violence is an important step forward to challenging the view that domestic violence is a private issue, it’s a workplace issue, a community issue and a societal issue
Internationally
- Many of you will have heard about the young woman, Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan for speaking out about her right to an education and trying to go to school – Australian singer/song-writer David Franj has dedicated this song to Malala and to raise awareness of the treatment of women and girls in Pakistan
- Islamabad – a new documentary focuses on survivors of forced marriage
- New Zealand has just hosted the 2012 World Safety Conference on community and family violence
- Watch this report on forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women in Kenya
- In Fiji, youth groups have highlighted domestic and sexual violence as a key concern in their submission to the Constitution Commission
- The United Nations has said Pervasive, Continued Violence Against Women is an appalling Human Rights Violation
Resources and Reports
New!
- From New Zealand: Preventing sexual revictimisation report and Voice of Experience a guide to involve family violence service users in organisations
- The ACT has released its Family Violence Intervention Program review
Get Involved!
- The Draft 5th Report by Australia on the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has been published on the Attorney General’s Department website for public comment. The Department will be accepting comments and submissions at [email protected] and by post until 11 November 2012
- A Reminder that the Not Yours To Promise survey closes 26 October – If you have had any experience with children in, or at risk of, a forced marriage, while the children were under 18, please contribute to the project by filling out this survey
- Kate Ravenscroft, a Friend & Supporter of AWAVA, is looking for support to assist with the costs of publication of We Will Not Go Quietly: A Zine for Survivors of Sexual Assault. The zine is written by survivors of sexual assault, for survivors of sexual assault and provides the community with a resource for understanding what it means to survive sexual assault.You can provide a financial contribution via: POZIBLE or through PayPal (Just click on the DONATE link)
CSW57
Results of the online discussions held during July and August can be accessed here
Upcoming Events
NEW!!
- The ACT will launch its Summer of Respect campaign with Reclaim the Night Friday 26 October
- Perth, Western Australia will hold a Reclaim the Night event also on 26 October
- Still in Western Australia, the Women’s Council will be holding training Lessons from Pippi Longstocking – How Children and Young People Resist Violence and Oppression –16 November
October
- WESNET’s Safety Net Technology Safety Training is coming to Canberra 31 October and 1 November – click here for more information and to register
November
- The No To Violence conference is in November 2012
- Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference in Melbourne, November 2012
- The First National Sexual and Reproductive Health Conference will be held 20-21 November
- 23 November 2012: Not1More/White Ribbon Day – White Ribbon Day activities in Melbourne include awareness-raising, White Ribbon Lunch, Walk Against Family Violence at 2pm, Not1more will be remembering victims of family violence and offering the opportunity for people to take the White Ribbon Oath in Federation Square, Melbourne
- 26-28 November 2012: Pathways to Change Conference for practitioners and policy developers to explore practice responses to children and young people displaying Problem Sexualised Behaviour and Sexually Abusive Behaviour. The conference is being held in Hobart, Tasmania, register now.
- The Annual Silent Domestic Violence Memorial March will be held Friday 23 November, Perth
Later
- Early Bird registrations are now open for the National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)’s inaugural Conference being held 18- 20 February 2013 in Canberra
- 21 March 2013: Australian Women’s Coalition is calling young women between 18 – 30 years who live, study or work in Auburn, Bankstown, Liverpool or Coffs Harbour NSW, or in Canberra, ACT to be a part of SHOUT! A series of three free workshops will run in each location, complemented by an online network of support and skills-sharing and a local network of participants and AWC member organisations. The workshops will culminate in community events on Harmony Day next year, . Find out more here
- Save the date: 28-30 April 2013 – The Australian Migrant and Refugee Women’s Alliance (AMaRWA) will be holding a 2 day national conference on the elimination of violence against culturally and linguistically diverse women, supported by AWAVA. Put it in your diary!
- ‘Miss Representation’ Screening Tour: Women in Film & Television (WIFT) NSW are planning a series of screenings of ‘Miss Representation’ across Australia in 2012/13. If you are interested in hosting a screening of this film in partnership with WIFT NSW please email them
Internationally:
- 7-9 November, Vancouver: 2012 National Research Day conference hosted by the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children (School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University), in partnership with the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia (EVA BC), the Canadian Observatory on the Justice System€™s Response to Intimate Partner Violence, and the BC Society of Transition Houses
- 4-15 March 2013: 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW57), New York, priority theme: Eliminating and prevention all forms of violence against women and girls