Welcome to this week’s edition of the Weekly Round-Up, now coming to you through our brand new newsletter distribution system!
This week has seen massive public conversations as people process the reality of gender-based violence and misogyny in our communities. The poignant and unfiltered conversation taking place under the hashtag #yesallwomen is discussed in several of the links below, as it has spread from a response to a single violent incident to a larger examination of sexism and violence in our society. This discussion, and the discussions happening within it concerning intersectional issues such as race and class, need to happen.
AWAVA believes that violence against women is both a consequence and a cause of gender inequality, and we must all engage with these ideas if we are to address the violence in our communities.
Around the Country
- A senior employee at Victoria’s largest non-government disability service has been charged with a number of serious sexual offenses against a woman with disabilities under his care
- In Victoria, service providers continue to advocate against Clause 4 of the proposed Crimes Amendment (Protection of Children) Bill 2014 which they say would see many victims of family violence criminalised
- The Family Court is being called upon to do more to protect vulnerable women and children from violence
- Brett Williamson has written about the process of understanding domestic violence and how it hides in our communities
- In Queensland, a man who is the subject of a domestic violence order has been arrested for stabbing a woman repeatedly [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence]
- In NSW, a bill is before parliament to make specific provision for ‘offenses that involve choking, suffocation or strangulation’
- A campaign has begun in Australia, echoing ’Counting Dead Women’ from the UK, to retain a public count of the number of women who die from violence
- Telstra have introduced a new assistance program which provides pre-paid mobile recharge cards at no cost to support community agencies helping survivors of domestic violence
- As the NSW Government continues to explore restructuring its funding to homelessness services, representatives from women’s shelters have said they may be forced to shut their doors. A number of women’s services have launched a campaign, Save Women’s Refuges, to argue against the changes in their current form
Around the World
- In the United States, a man has killed six people and injured seven more after making several threatening and misogynistic statements on YouTube and elsewhere. A global conversation has begun about the violent sexist culture that influenced him under the hashtag #yesallwomen
- Also in response to the mass killing of people in the United States, a webpage has been created to record incidents of violence entitled ‘When Women Refuse’
- In Nigeria, Air Marshal Alex Badeh has announced that the military has located the hundreds of school girls abducted in April but is as yet unable to free them
- In the UK, lawmakers are considering creating a separate criminal offence to address family violence
- An artist has created a new project to highlight the seriousness of verbal abuse [TRIGGER WARNING: images of injuries, violence language, violence against children]
- In the United States, a student is suing Duke University after being expelled for sexually assaulting another student
Research and Reports
- The Australian Institute of Family Studies has released ‘Independent Children’s Lawyers Study: Final Report’
- Submissions remain open for funding from the newly established Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety to conduct research into stemming rates of violence against women
Get Involved
- The Fitzroy High School Feminist Collective have launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a feminist teaching resource for Australian schools addressing sexist language and objectification
- Women in South Australia are being asked to contribute to Government consultation by sharing which issues are important to them
**Articles published do not necessarily reflect the view of AWAVA and are included as items of interest only.