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Around the country

• AWAVA’s lead agency, WESNET, has said that services are stretched as reports of domestic violence have increased across the country, with Chair Julie Oberin warning that women should seek help from a specialised family violence service before they indicate their intention to leave the family home.
• In Queensland, the domestic violence hotline, DV connect, has experienced an unprecedented rise in the number of women calling their service, taking over 2000 calls in the four days following New Year’s Day.
• Also in Queensland, the trial period for specialised domestic violence courts has been extended to mid-2017.
• In the ACT, abusive ex-partners have been using federal laws to continue to harass and intimidate domestic violence victims when arranging child custody.
• In Western Australia, a lawyer and a law student have launched Australia’s first means-tested domestic violence legal practice.
• In Victoria, new research has shown that women are now more confident that reaching out for help would be beneficial.
• The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has warned that current laws do not offer women adequate protection against “revenge porn”, or the sharing of private sexual material.
• Emily Hehir has written about the role of schools in the campaign against family violence and the challenges that teachers face due to lack of support and training.

Around the world

• In Pakistan, activist-lawyer, Nighat Dad, leads a campaign to address online abuse through her organisation, Digital Rights Foundation. Read more about her work here!
• In South Africa, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women has found that high levels of violence continue to exist in the country despite a range of progressive laws and policies.

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!
• For Purpose Australia is running a three day professional development workshop for people working in the not-for-profit sector. The workshop will be held in Canberra from 17-19 February, with the option of enrolling in individual seminars on each of the days.
• The 21^st Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International Conference 2016 will be held from 26-28 October 2016. More information here!

Correction: In our last Round-Up, we mistakenly referred to the Australian Women’s Health Network as the “National Women’s Health Network”. Apologies to our valued member organisation, AWHN.