Weekly Round-up* 5 January 2016

• Improving access to justice for women facing violence
• Supporting the implementation of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children, and
• Promoting the role of specialist women’s services in preventing and responding to violence.

Thank you all for your support. Follow us on Facebook for more on our plans for 2016.

Around the Country

• The National Women’s Health Network is at risk of closing down after the organisation’s funding application from the Department of Health and Ageing was unsuccessful. NWHN is a valued and active member of AWAVA.
• Catharine Lumby has written about the importance of being an ethical bystander and the action that witnesses to violence can take.
• The ABC has honoured the women who were killed by their partners or ex partners this year through a webpage featuring stories of the women’s lives, as shared by their families.
• In the ACT, reports of domestic violence to ACT Policing dipped in the last financial year. However, as Sergeant Dave Williams from the Family Violence Coordination Unit has said, the figures are still too high, with an average of 12 incidents per day.
•  In NSW, Federal MP Justine Elliot is urging the NSW government to reopen the Tweed Valley Women’s Service after the organisation’s lead agency, On Track Community Programs, cut its funding.

Around the World

• In Egypt, NGOs have launched a campaign introduce sex education in schools, with the aim of reducing sexual and other violence against women.
• In China, the country’s first anti-domestic violence law was recently passed. While the introduction of the law has been welcomed by many, some activists have criticised it for its omission of sexual violence and failure to cover same-sex couples.
• In Illinois, USA, a new bill and funding agreement will provide women fleeing domestic violence situations with financial assistance.
• In Poland, campaigners are gathering to protest the ultra-conservative government’s new law to curtail the independence of the independent constitutional tribunal. The move will make it easier for the government to introduce extreme changes, expected to include a total ban on abortion.

Get involved!

• AWAVA, in conjunction with Our Watch and supported by WESNET, invite you to attend an international conference on violence against women. The conference will be held from 19 to 22 September 2016. More information here!
• The 21^st Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International Conference 2016 will be held from 26-28 October 2016. More information here!