Yesterday, 14 February, saw supporters of women’s rights come together worldwide to dance and celebrate V-Day’s One Billion Rising, calling for an end to violence against women. To read more about the UN’s support for this campaign click here. Access more information and see live recordings of One Billion Rising events from around the world by following this link. This will continue to be updated, so make sure you pop back often to see the latest posts.
In other news this week:
Around Australia
- In exciting AWAVA news, continuation of funding for the six National Women’s Alliances has been confirmed – read our full media release here, and Minister Collins’ media release here
- Want to know what AWAVA and the other Alliances have been doing? Read the summary report of the independent review of the National Women’s Alliances
- Prime Minister Gillard announces policy to provide victims/survivors of domestic and family violence the right to request flexible work arrangements. Ludo McFerran from Safe at Work, Safe at Home, says that Australia is ‘leading the world’ on domestic violence workplace rights. Read more from Ludo in When domestic violence becomes a workplace problem
- As part of Victoria’s Action Plan to Address Violence Against Women and Children, Victoria will introduce an Australian first in addressing adolescent violence in the home
- Nouria Salehi says that Australia must help fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan where close to 9/10 women have experienced violence
National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children Update
- An update on the National Centre of Excellence (NCE) from the Office for Women:
The NCE will serve as a national research hub to enable researchers, policy makers and practitioners to link-up and provide evidence based responses to reduce domestic and family violence and sexual assault. This includes through facilitating strategic partnerships, both in Australia and overseas, between organisations, government agencies and services in a range of sectors that intersect with violence against women and their children, such as the mental health, drug and alcohol, justice, children™s programs, housing and Indigenous and men™s service sectors. The first priority for the NCE will be to develop a National Research Agenda to address gaps across sexual assault and domestic violence research, in primary prevention, children, service provision, justice responses, perpetrator interventions and workforce considerations, as well as taking into account international work.Processes are being finalised to establish the National Centre of Excellence in Sydney early this year.
- And from the Minister’s office, the Chair of the National Centre of Excellence is announced
Internationally
- Good news from the USA where the Senate has overwhelmingly voted in favour of re-authorising VAWA – something our American colleagues have been strongly lobbying, campaigning and advocating for, for months
- In South Africa the rape and murder of a young woman just may be the tipping point to call government to account and to take action to end violence against women
- In Ireland, women subjected to forced labour and abuse in Magdalene laundries have rejected the Prime Minister’s apology
Reports, Research and Resources
- Position Paper – The Multi-Cultural Centre for Women’s Health has released its position paper on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
- The Australian Institute of Family Studies has released The role of emerging communication technologies in experiences of sexual violence: A new legal frontier
- The Australian Institute of Criminology’s Evaluation of the ACT Sexual Assault Reform Program is now available
- AusAIDS’ report, Triple Jeopardy, from Cambodia looks at violence against women and disability and is relevant to the Australian context
CSW57 Preparations
How you can get involved:
Take some time to read and have your say by commenting on the CSW57 draft Agreed Conclusions by 20 February. Email us with your suggestions on UN language that should be included.
Get Involved!
FORCED CHILD MARRIAGE RESEARCH The National Children’s and Youth Law Centre (NCYLC) is continuing Australia’s first national research into the forced marriage of children.
How you can help
- If you have had any experience with children in or at risk of a forced marriage, please contribute to the project by filling out the Centre™s survey by 22 March 2013
- If you know of any caseworker, practitioner or organisation that has had experience with child victims of forced marriage, please forward this survey to them
You can access the survey by clicking here
If you have any feedback on the Draft Best Practice Response Guidelines on Forced Child Marriage please email AWAVA by 27 February.
If you would like any more information about the project, please contact the Project Officer, Ms Tina Jelenic, on (02) 9385 9589 or by email.
Upcoming Events
February
- 18- 20 February: The National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)’s inaugural Conference, Canberra
- 19 February: Attend the launch of Keeping You and Your Job Safe: Information for workers experiencing family violence, Canberra
- 20 February: Launch of We Will Not Go Quietly – zine by and for sexual assault survivors, 6.30pm-8.00pm, Melbourne
- 27 Febuary: Getting Safe Against the Odds – Family violence and women with a disability – Training for workers who are currently working in the family violence sector to gain a better understanding of the context and experiences of women with disabilities who experience violence
March
- 21 March: 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
- For those of you based in Canberra, if you haven’t already make sure you take the opportunity to see The Women Who Made Canberra – an exhibition celebrating women in Canberra’s history, closing 17 March
April
- Stand-Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference, 28-30 April, Canberra
- 11-12 April: Child Aware Approaches Conference, Melbourne
- 16 April:Due to overwhelming demand WIRE in Victoria present another session of Understanding Financial Abuse in the context of Family Violence
Later
- 13-15 May The White Ribbon International Conference, Sydney
- 25-28 August 8th Australasian Council of Women and Policing conference will be held in Adelaide . Call for papers is currently open
Internationally:
- 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
*Articles published are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of AWAVA, and are published as general information only.