Weekly Round-Up * 2 December

Welcome to the latest edition of the AWAVA Weekly Round-Up. It has been an exciting and inspiring week for the AWAVA team this week. Last Tuesday 25 November was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and we participated in a range of activities across the country to mark this day. Many of the links that we are sharing relate to International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women initiatives.
AWAVA has also just held our annual Members Symposium, where all of our member organisations come together for two days of reflection, dialogue, and strategic planning. The symposium was informative, engaging and inspiring and we look forward to continuing to work collectively to prevent male violence against women.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

• Leaders of all three major parties have come together to support the White Ribbon campaign
• Police Commissioners from across Australia and New Zealand came together at Parliament House on Monday 24 November to take a stand against violence against women
• Ambassador for Women and Girls Natasha Stott Despoja has pointed to the clear and established link between gender inequality and violence against women when calling for cultural change in Australia
• The UN has launched its #OrangeUrHood campaign to end gender based violence
• Many organisations have used increased media coverage to remind the public of the connection between homelessness and domestic and family violence 
• 1800 RESPECT have released a huge variety of amazing resources starting from International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and continuing right throughout the 16 Days of Activism, including resources for survivors, family and friends in 28 different languages; an interactive map listing more than 300 services that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, children and families experiencing sexual assault, domestic and family violence; and some wonderful videos for people working with women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

Around the Country

• “The Victorian Government has pledged to hold an inquiry into the state’s disability sector as allegations emerge that one of Australia’s biggest disabled service providers failed to act on warnings about carers who sexually assaulted clients”
• In the Northern Territory, newly proposed legislation would introduce a presumption against bail for perpetrators who breach a domestic violence order 
• Virgin Australia and the Transport Workers Union have called on other airlines to implement domestic violence leave for employees
• The president of the Australian National Imams Council, Imam Abdel Aziem, has called on imams around the country to speak against family violence in their khutbah – a sermon delivered before prayers on Friday
• The NRL is continuing to attract criticism over its reactions to recent domestic violence cases involving players
• Kate Marsh from Brisbane based pro-choice counselling service Children by Choice highlighted the need to recognise reproductive coercion as a common marker of domestic violence 
  [TRIGGER WARNING: Description of violence]

Around the World

• UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called men to join the effort to eliminate violence against women
• In Venezuela, president Nicolas Maduro has signed a law recognising femicide as a hate crime 
• Rachel Jewkes asks in PLoS Medicine, ‘(How) Can We Reduce Violence Against Women by 50% over the Next 30 Years?’
• In South Africa, Shaheema McLeod, Director of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children, has stated that there is not sufficient political will to effectively address gender based violence 
• In Tanzania, experts have identified as a major obstacle the fact that the majority of gender violence victims find no place to report their experiences for further actions
• A new film, Brave Miss World, follows former Miss World Linor Abargil as she speaks with other survivors of sexual violence and abuse including Joan Collins [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of sexual assault, drink spiking]
• In New Zealand, UN Women National Committee for Aotearoa [http://www.unwomen.org.nz/] released ‘The People’s Blueprint’ Report on 29 November, which is the culmination of two year’s research on violence against women and girls. They are urging the New Zealand Government to implement the recommendations outlined within the report.
• In Malaysia, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has called for more action on violence against women saying the issue cannot be swept under the carpet
• In Canada, senior administrators from each of Ontario’s publicly funded universities are vowing to prevent and respond to sexual assault on campus and are taking steps to fix systems that are not working
• In the UK, Louise Tickle has discussed how the UK’s legal system is failing victims of domestic violence [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence, rape]

Research, Resources and Reports

• No to Violence have produced a response to the One in Three organisation’s comments about male victims made at Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee Inquiry into Domestic Violence in Australia
• Kristin A. Bell has published an dissertation entitled, ‘Victims’ voices: sexual violence in the Armenian and Rwandan genocides’
• Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy has published an article by Joanne Payton entitled ‘Honor-based violence: policing and prevention’
• The journal Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry has published an article from Karin Pernebo and Kjerstin Almqvist entitled ‘Young children’s experiences of participating in group treatment for children exposed to intimate partner violence: A qualitative study’
• The Women’s Law Centre of WA has adapted a resource from NSW as a toolkit for GPs in the state, entitled ‘When She Talks to you about the Violence: A Toolkit for GPs in WA’

Get Involved!

• Share the 1800RESPECT 16 Days campaign and for each email share they’ll donate $1 to Our WATCh – an organisation dedicated to ending violence against women and children
• Have you been following our 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence social media campaign? See them all, as well as some fantastic images from other organisations around the world,on our Pinterest page!

 

 

**Articles published do not necessarily reflect the view of AWAVA and are included as items of interest only.