Prevalent & Preventable has come to a close, after three positive, fascinating, challenging and heartening days in which over 300 people gathered to talk about how to prevent violence against women and their children. AWAVA and our co-hosts, Our Watch, are deeply grateful to the delegates, speakers, facilitators, sponsors and organisers who made the conference possible, especially the stream convenors and their organisations, who worked so hard to develop a great program:
- Adele Murdolo and Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (Putting Intersectionality into Practice);
- Tracey Currie and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (Preventing Violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women);
- Sharon Smee and International Women’s Development Agency (Learning from Prevention Work in our Region) and
- Maria Delaney, Social Change Agency (Children and Young People as Agents of Change).
ANROWS has published a great wrap-up of the conference, focusing on the theme of intersectionality. Keep watching Facebook and Twitter (@AWAVA_women and @OurWatchAus #PPVAW2016) for more details of how to view write-ups, photos and presentations from the conference over the coming days.
Around the Country
- The Victorian Government has allocated $12 million to build new “core and cluster” refuges, as part of its response to the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
- In the Northern Territory, coroner Greg Cavanagh has criticised the Northern Territory justice system for failing to stop the high rates of domestic violence in Aboriginal communities, following his inquest into the deaths of two Aboriginal women from domestic violence.
- In New South Wales, six western Sydney suburbs have been identified as domestic violence hotspots, comprising a region in which 17 per cent of survivors do not speak English and 49 per cent speak a language other than English at home.
- In Central Queensland, a grassroots charity group called Helping from Heaven has been founded by Jody Campion to meet basic material needs and provide counselling and court support for women victims/survivors of domestic violence in Capricornia.
- Also in Queensland, an initiative called ReNew has been established to stop violence perpetrated by traumatised boys against their mothers, led by Leia Mackie from the Ipswich-based Domestic Violence Action Centre and Dave Burc from Carinity, an organisation that specialises in dealing with child trauma.
- Read ANROWS’s summary of recent news and media on violence against women and their children, both Australian and international.
Around the World
- In the United States, the Office of Justice Program has awarded $38 million to the processing of sexual assault kits that are still in the custody of law enforcement and require forensic examination.
- Also in the United States, women’s and children’s rights activist Anuradha Bhosale has been chosen as one of the recipients of this year’s “Women Have Wings” Award. Bhosale founded Avani, a non-government organisation working to end child labour and improve the lives of homeless women in Kolhapur.
- In the United Kingdom, the Women’s Equality Party has re-launched the “What Women Want” project, an online survey intended to change policy to benefit women from different backgrounds across the UK.
- Also in the UK, a new report has documented the practice of some British Asian men marrying South Asian women to gain control of large dowries, after which the women are kept as domestic slaves and abandoned by their husbands.
- The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Dubravaka Simonovic has visited Israel and the Palestine territories, marking the first time someone holding that post has visited the area in 11 years. In her report, Ms Siminovic highlighted issues including honour crimes, child marriage, marital rape, discrimination, outdated legal systems and oppressive religious laws.
Research and Reports
- The Tasmanian Commissioner for Children and Young People has released a report on Children’s and Young People’s Unique Experiences of Family Violence.
- Research by Jaime A. Campbell has examined representations of intimate partner homicide in law procedural dramas, finding that such dramas reinforce misogynist tropes and mistakenly suggest that the legal system meets abused women’s needs.
Get Involved!
- Save the date: WESNET is pleased to announce it will be hosting the Inaugural Technology Safety Summit in Sydney on 21 November 2016. This one-day conference will focus on the various complex issues and concerns that come from the intersection of technology and domestic and sexual violence, and stalking. The Tech Summit will bring together those working with women and their children experiencing violence and other stakeholders from government and corporate Australia. Attendees of the Tech Summit will learn how technology can be misused as a tactic of abuse, how women experiencing gender-based violence can use technology to improve their safety and privacy, how digital evidence can be collected to hold perpetrators accountable, and how agencies can strengthen policies and practices to improve service delivery, and what other support technology and telecommunications companies can provide. To find out more, register your interest here!
- The Adelaide White Ribbon Breakfast will be held on 25 November at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 6:45 am to 9:00 am. The guest speaker will be the honourable Marcia Neave, chair of the recent Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. Book here.
- Lucy’s Project is hosting the second annual conference on Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse-International Perspective to be held from 5-6 November at the Portside Conference Centre, level 5 Symantec House, 207 Kent St., Sydney. Book here.
- The University of Melbourne has created a website called ‘NotTheOnlyOne’ where women can anonymously read and share stories about experiencing family and domestic violence.
- The National Multicultural Women’s Conference will be held on 3 and 4 November 2016 in Parkroyal Parramatta, Sydney. Find out more here.
- Soroptomist International Australia is sponsoring the Rosie Batty Roadshow from 5 October to 7 November 2016, travelling from Brisbane to Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne and Adelaide. Proceeds will go to the Women’s Legal Services in each capital that Rosie will visit. To buy your tickets click here.