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Settle in with a cuppa – it’s a very full round-up this week!

Around the nation:

• In this article Kelly Hinton, Executive Director of Project Respect, urges government to take action to end trafficking
• More on the Victorian State Government proposed changes to stop sex-trafficking can be found here
• Read more on this topic in Dr Caroline Norma’s opinion piece
• the Queensland Government is set to start putting GPS tracking devices on sex offenders from November.
• The Victorian Government has announced additional funding to improve mental health services for women – particularly women’s safety
• The Federal Government has announced an investigation into student visa’s and links to sex slavery
• An enquiry and report into the conditions of the womens prison, Bandyup, reveals some worrying findings
• In Queensland, October is Sexual Violence awareness month
• Still in Queensland, and the LNP says it will back changes to laws to prevent sexual violence against children
• A new Factsheet has just been released by the Global Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care: ˜Against Her Will: Forced and Coerced Sterilization of Women Worldwide™ – available for download here

There have been some important announcements this week from the Federal Government

• South Australian Vietnamese organisation funded to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children
• More Funding to fight Slavery and Labour Trafficking
• Community Groups encouraged to take part in extended school chaplaincy and welfare program

Around the world:

• Three women shared the Nobel Peace Prize – read more here
• A new study by the University of British Columbia (Canada) has found even after women have separated from an abusive partner, the violence still costs Canadians an estimated $6.9 billion a year. The study analysed categories of cost to publicly funded programs and services that include hospitalization, X-rays, visits to the doctor, legal aid, children protection worker, unemployment insurance and social assistance. The study also calculated private, third-party costs such as psychologist, dentist, counseling and food bank use.
• A Lancet study shows how general practice can substantially improve care for women experiencing domestic violence.
• There are several articles here regarding ‘Rape Pages”” on Facebook
• In New Zealand, there has been a rise in sexual assaults in Cantebury – click here to learn more
• This article looks at the increasing risk to women’s safety in Haiti
• In PNG, Social Media is being used to express  outrage and demand action to end violence against women
• In Kansas, USA, the city of Topeka is considering decriminalising domestic violence as a money-saving measure. Read more detail on this topic here
• This article reports that sexual violence in Somalia is being ignored

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events:

• Reclaim the Night Canberra Friday October 28th

Get Involved!

Get Involved!

• Nominations are now open for the National Homelessness Services Achievements Award – click here to find out more
• ACSSA needs participants for their new research project – The role of social networking services and mobile phone technology in sexual violence

Another week, another round-up! Get comfy for some interesting reading…

• The Australian Institute of Family Studies has published a paper looking at conventional and innovative justice responses to sexual violence
• This Media Release provides information on 2 of the 17 projects that will receive funding as part of the Community Action Grants under the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children
• The Age reports on funding for homelessness services in Victoria

And Internationally:

• This interesting article from the Guardian in the UK looks at the advances women in Iceland have made, but also how Violence Against Women still remains as a major issue
• The UK Telegraph ran an article this week claiming that more middle class women are reporting domestic violence during the economic downturn.  Middle class women are coming to refuge due to emotional and financial abuse.
• Palau, Samoa and Solomon Islands committed to establish national human rights commissions and take steps to combat violence against women. You can read more about it here in the Pacific Scoop article.

Members of AWAVA today attended the NGO Round Table preparing for the 56th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women which will be held at the UN in New York in March 2012.  The theme for the 56th Session will be on the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.

The Minister for Women, the Hon Kate Ellis MP video-linked in from her electoral office to talk to the group and tell us how committed she is to preparing for the 56th session, and thanked all the participants for attending today.  She also announced the three NGO delegates that will attend the 56th Session, all of whom were at the round table today.  You can read more about here.

The Office for Women canvassed issues that concern women in rural, regional and remote Australia, and as most would expect, the discussion was wide ranging.  Violence Against Women was raised by many organisations and intersected with a number of other important issues raised by the group.  For example – access to housing, transport, health services and technology were all discussed and all could be related to Violence Against Women.

We’ll keep you posted on preparations for CSW as we hear about it.  In the meantime if you are interested in finding out more about the CSW JERA has a great website full of resources and you can also subscribe to OFW’s mailing discussion list here. BPW has a handbook to help NGOs understand the UN and CSW at the bottom of this page.

AWAVA will be actively trying to build our capacity in this area as the theme for 2013 is Violence Against Women.

We are back at our desks here at AWAVA after a week away in the NT and running the first of our community engagement events in Katherine.  You can read more about how the event went here.

It’s been a big week.

National news

• FaHCSIA has released an Easy English version of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children.  Its available for download about three-quarters down this page on FaHCSIA’s website.
• Violence against women is strongly correlated with both financial and personal stress according to a new study released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
• The transcript of Prime Minister Gillard’s Inaugural EMILY’s List Oration is now available if you didn’t quite make it to the event. Our sources tell us the PM got a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ at the event as well.
• The Protection of Australia’s Children Research Audit 1995-2010 is now available to download from the national child protection clearinghouse. The audit covered Australian research projects (including program evaluations) undertaken during the 1995-2010 period on topics relating to the protection of children.
• A new female-only psychiatric unit has been opened at the Alfred hospital in Melbourne following complaints of harassment and sexual assault by male patients. Read more here.
• Lesley Cannold wrote an article this week that presented some interesting statistics about women’s reasons for late term abortion and they include rape, incest and domestic violence and honour killings.  She notes that psychosocial reasons for late term abortion also include “cases of women from religious migrant families that might, upon learning of the pregnancy, set them alight”.
• In a week when the Tasmanian House of Assembly gave in principle support for same-sex marriage, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick called for greater inclusion of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, intersex and queer in domestic violence responses. Services like the Brisbane Domestic Violence Advocacy Service, who are already doing this, also got coverage.
• Sex, Love and Other Stuff was officially launched on Thursday 22 September by the Hon. Mary Wooldridge, Minister for Mental Health, Women’s Affairs and Community Services, at DVRCV’s annual Partners in Prevention forum held in Melbourne.

Internationally

• Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, spoke out about violence against women at a UN Forum earlier this week.
• Ireland has been urged to sign a groundbreaking European convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence according to the Irish Examiner.
• There was a call for domestic violence to be counted in South African crime statistics earlier this month.
• The United Nations released a report last week on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Timor-Leste and highlighted sexual violence against women with disabilities (see page 27 of the report).
• A group called Walk 4 Life finished a walk across Canada from Vancouver to Ottawa and conducted a protest about the rising levels of violence against Indigenous women and growing number of  murdered and missing Aboriginal women. There was press coverage here and here.
• In New Dehli, the Hindustani Times reports that a recent UN report has found that Domestic Violence kills more than terror attacks. 8,383 deaths because of domestic violence in 2009 as compared to 2,231 deaths resulting for terror activities including left wing extremism. It goes on to say “Apart from deaths, about 90,000 complaints of domestic violence were received in 2009, indicating that dowry is considered as a perfect instrument to “get rich quick” and “upward material mobility”.”