The 16 days of Activism continue to be marked and celebrated across Australia and around the world. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is a global campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and its impact on women’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being. As AWAVA believes, human rights cannot be universal without human rights for women. “The 2013 16 Days Campaign advocates for awareness and action on the multi-faceted intersections of gender-based violence and militarism, while highlighting the connection between the struggle for economic and social rights and ending gender-based violence”. Women’s Health in the North has created a fantastic tool kit to assist organisations and individuals to participate in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign (16 Days Campaign). For further details, please follow the link
Around the Country
- In Victoria, “record numbers of domestic violence order applications and an all-time high in breaches of orders are drowning the Magistrates Court and family violence services“
- In NSW, Simon Gittany has been found guilty of murdering his fiancée Lisa Harnum. Louise Taylor writes that the trial should be “a wake up call for abusive men“
- Moo Baulch, Project Manager at Domestic Violence NSW, writes “We must stop judging and blaming victims when they struggle to leave and instead offer them support. We must stand up as active bystanders when we witness abuse”
- In Sydney, Sex workers have rallied at the Opera House “in protest against what they call the legal discrimination and human rights abuses they face“
- “Australian women and girls with disabilities are twice as likely as women and girls without disabilities to experience violence throughout their lives, yet this has remained largely outside public debate”, write Elizabeth Broderick and Graeme Innes
- Podcasts and Transcripts are now available from the National Symposium -Stop the Violence: Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities
- More than half of the women seeking accommodation from the Salvation Army are facing domestic or family violence according to a new report
Around the World
- The WHO reports that “violence against women interacts with the HIV epidemic in many ways, all to the detriment of women”
- Walter North, the US Ambassador to the Solomon Islands, writes “No nation can be truly free and independent when its women are wounded, shamed, and abused“
- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is calling for renewed efforts to end violence against women
- Women in Syria are increasingly the targets of violent abuse and torture by government forces and armed groups. Some 6,000 women have been raped since the start of the conflict in March 2011
- In Zimbabwe, Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development minister, Oppah Muchinguri notes “most married women in Zimbabwe have experienced marital rape at the hands of their spouses, greatly exposing them to HIV and AIDS”
- UNFPA has launched the Regional Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence in the Arab States Region for 2014-2017
- In the UK, London Mayor Boris Johnson Mayor has launched a “revised pan-London Strategy on Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) in November 2013 to build upon the success of his previous strategy and make sure that London continues to take a global lead in preventing and eliminating VAWG”
**Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of AWAVA and are included as items of interest only