The power of collective lobbying and advocacy last week made two great impacts – pressuring Facebook to review its policies and training to include gender-based hate speech in their moderating of online material; and, in Australia, much-needed amendments were made to NSW’s compensation to victims of violence against women.
In other news…a busy week around the country!
- AWAVA added our support to the Facebook campaign, see SBS News item: Facebook cracks down on sexism. Adding support to the Open Letter to Facebook campaign to include violence against women in the ‘hate speech’ definition, Clementine Ford writes Hey Facebook, rape is not a punch line
- This The Conversation article Sexual abuse, celebrity and ‘grooming’ the community highlights “Our social and institutional responses to sexual abuse are realigning to acknowledge the power dynamics of abuse and victimisation”
- This piece argues for the Government to abolish defensive homicide as it legitimises lethal male violence and has allowed for manipulation, victim-blaming and misuse of the justice system
- The Age reports on one of Australia’s biggest businesses, NAB offering domestic violence leave for employees
- The Attorney General has introduced legislation to protect vulnerable witnesses and victims in Commonwealth criminal proceedings; vulnerability can include the nature of the offence, or relate to a particular characteristic, such as age, cultural background, or a disability. The protections will apply automatically to victims of forced marriage
- The Victims Rights and Support Bill 2013 (NSW) was passed in the NSW Upper House, see Women’s Legal Services NSW’s article in The Drum and Sydney Morning Herald article ”Outrage over plans to cap abuse claims”. An amendment was made to remove the 10 year-time limit for victims of child sexual abuse so there are no time limits for such victims in applying for some limited forms of financial assistance and a recognition payment, see CLCNSW’s media release
- Also in NSW, the NSW Government have published the national response to the Family Violence – A National Legal Response report by the Australian and NSW Law Reform Commissions
- From Victoria:
- The Eliminating Violence Against Women Media Awards, EVAs 2013 Finalists have been announced, the winners will be announced on Friday 19 July
- Victoria Police have recorded about 12 more domestic assaults every day this year than in 2011-12, despite this, there are plans to axe the unit investigating family violence deaths at Vic Coroners Court
- ABC News reports on Ruby Gaea’s new resource: Tiwi Islanders star in animated short films to raise awareness about sexting, cyberbullying and child abuse
Around the world
- In response to the global Facebook campaign, Soraya Chemaly writes, Facebook rejects rape culture. Can you? The US peak organisation for domestic violence, National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNDEV), supports Facebook’s efforts to take a stand against violence against women
- Seven governments adopted a statement on violence against women and girls at the 66th World Health Assembly, declaring violence against women and girls “a major global public health, gender equality and human rights challenge, touching every country and every part of society”
- Read here about a UN study launched this week, “Breaking the Silence on Violence against Indigenous Girls, Adolescents and Young Women: A call to action based an overview of existing evidence from Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America,” which highlights that Indigenous girls are at heightened risk of violence due to the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination they face
- In the UK another campaign is taking off to pressure supermarkets to stop selling Lads’ Mags on the grounds that it may breach sexual discrimination legislation and constitute harassment to employees
- Italy is likely to become the 5th country to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence Against Women
- From earlier this month, this article highlight the abuse of young girls with disabilities in institutions in India
Resources
- Ruby Gaea launched the long awaited Bikkies project this week with project partners Bima Wear and the NT Police Child Abuse Taskforce. A series of animations provide educational messages on child and sexual abuse issues to remote Aboriginal Communities throughout the Northern Territory
- Episode 1 Letting the CAT out of the bag
- Episode 2 You’re not the only one, Indie providing information about the risks of “sexting”
- Read Anti-Slavery Australia’s Forced Marriage in Australia, an up-to-date review
- Last month, the Minister for the Status of Women, Julie Collins, launched “Girls Gotta Know”, a free mobile web-based app providing young Tasmanian women with quick access to legal info on a range of topics. Click here to access the site
**Articles published here do not necessarily reflect the views of AWAVA and are included as items of interest only