Welcome once again to AWAVA’s Weekly Round-Up. Last week, many news items have focused on what happens after a woman or girl has experienced violence. AWAVA strongly highlights the need for primary prevention of violence against women and the parallel obligation to support women victims and survivors. In other news, our delegates from The fifty-eighth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will be back shortly, we are excited to share more information about their participation and engagement in the coming weeks! We also thank the Australian Government Delegation, headed by the Hon. Minister Senator Michaelia Cash, for their excellent advocacy at the Commission to ensure gender equality and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls is front and centre of the Post 2015 agenda. To read the Hon. Minister’s National Statement at the Commission on the Challenges and Achivements in the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls, follow the link
(Australian NGOs at CSW 58 )
Around the Country
- ‘The Warrnambool Co-ordinator of an Aboriginal family-led decision-making program has lost his job and been placed on a community corrections order after assaulting his partner’ [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence]
- Concerns have been raised in NSW about whether new child protection measures would discourage women from seeking help and protection from violence
- More charges have been laid in relation to the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in Sydney
- Researchers and Indigenous leaders have expressed strong opposition to a Northern Territory proposal to criminally charge women who drink while pregnant
- Rachel Olding writes about high rates of domestic violence in rural Australia
- Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek has joined calls for certainty on funding for the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH)
- There has been controversy in Western Australia following the release from prison of ‘one of WA’s worst sex offenders’
Around the World
- In the United States, almost 50,000 people have signed a petition in response to Dartmouth College’s handling of the sexual assault of a student
- An ex-model has publicly told her story of being assaulted by photographer Terry Richardson [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of panic attacks]
- In a speech to the UN, Laura Bates has highlighted the fact that sexism and violence against women are more than simply ‘women’s issues’
- In Nepal and Bangladesh, sanitation activists are working to eradicate menstrual taboos used to justify the abuse of women
- In Belgium, a new law may lead to fines and even prison sentences for sexual harassment, including street sexual harassment
- Anndee Hochman writes about the types of comments people make about her young daughter and how they reflect our values and stereotypical images of beauty
- A man is in police custody in the United States in relation to the murder of his daughter and her alleged girlfriend
- In Egypt for the first time, two men are being prosecuted for performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on one of the men’s daughter, who later died
- HIV/AIDS eradication activists have highlighted the key importance of preventing and eliminating violence against women
Research and Reports
- Women’s Legal Services NSW have published their report Women Defendants to AVOs: What is their experience of the justice system. The study findings include that over two-thirds of our women clients defending AVOs reported that they were the victims of violence in their relationships. Fewer than 40% of these clients had a final AVO made against them when the case came before the court. In the majority of cases where women were defending AVOs, the other party’s complaint related to a single incident only. In several of these cases injuries to the other party could be indicative of self-defense, such as scratching or biting on the arm or hand. The report calls for others to gather data about women defendants of AVOs so there is an evidence base with which to inform policy and legal practice in the area of domestic violence and intervention orders.
- From NUI Galway and Rape Crisis Network Ireland: ‘Young People, Alcohol and Sex: What’s Consent Got To Do With It?’
**Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of AWAVA and are included as items of interest only