AWAVA News Archives - Page 3 of 17

AWAVA Submission: Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children

On 26 July 2013, the Commonwealth Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon Julie Collins MP, and the Victorian Minister for Community Services, the Hon Mary Wooldridge, MP, announced the Foundation to Prevent Violence against Women and their Children (the Foundation). The Commonwealth and Victorian Governments have partnered to establish the Foundation, which will be a national organisation to advocate and engage with the community about preventing violence against women and their children. The Foundation will harness community energy to reject inequality and violence against women, and drive a change in attitudes and behaviours.

AWAVA welcomes the opportunity to take part in the national consultations on the future directions of the Foundation. Our response to the written consultation on primary prevention can be found here

Farewell to Amy Blain

It is with sadness that we inform you that Amy Blain AWAVA’s Program Manager has resigned. Amy has been on parenting leave and has made the difficult decision to not return to AWAVA. Amy felt it was time to move on, seeking new challenges and opportunities in the preventing violence against women sector. Amy has been an amazing Program Manager for AWAVA over the last 18 months and we are all sad to see her go. We wish her all the very best for whatever she decides to do in the future. Amy has been integral in establishing AWAVA as a sound and strong National Women’s Alliance focusing on all forms of violence against women and their children. Staff, the AWAVA Advisory Committee and the WESNET Committee as lead agency of AWAVA thank you Amy and wish you all the very best for the future. Amy passes on her thanks and gratitude to all having thoroughly enjoyed her position with AWAVA. If you would like to contact Amy, her personal email is here

Media Release: New National Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children

The Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) commends the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments for the establishment of the new National Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children. As the Commonwealth funded, issue based alliance on violence against women, AWAVA believes that the $6.5 million invested in the new Foundation is evidence of bipartisan government support for and a strong commitment to the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. We extend our congratulations to Natasha Stott Despoja inaugural Chair of the Foundation and the other members of the Board on their appointments.

Read the full media release here

Media Release: Violence against Women- Research to stop repeat offending

The Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) commends the Commonwealth
Government’s investment of $3 million to support research looking at ways to prevent
perpetrators of violence against women from reoffending. AWAVA welcomes the initiative to
develop national outcome standards for perpetrator interventions via consultation with the
Australian women’s sector.

Read the full media release here

Priorities for Women – Violence Against Women Policies

As part of AWAVA’s ‘Priorities for Women’ activities, AWAVA sent letters to all major parties asking them about their policies for addressing violence against women and girls; their views of the challenges; their commitment to the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their funding commitments.

We asked the following four questions (in no more than 500 words per question) and requested meetings with the politicians that hold the violence against women portfolio:

1.What are your party’s major priorities for addressing violence against women and their children?

2. What does your party see as the major challenges in addressing violence against women and their children?

3. Given that ending violence against women and girls requires long-term investment and a sustained approach, will your party continue to commit to the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and Their Children 2010-22?

4. What funding commitment is your party making to address and prevent violence against women and their children?

Here’s what they had to say, unedited:

What is the Priorities for Women Project?

The ‘Priorities for Women‘ project encourages women to vote independently, effectively and in an informed manner; it is a joint National Women’s Alliances project led by Equality Rights Alliance.

Weekly Round-up* – 28 June

It was a tumultuous week in politics. During the last Parliamentary Sitting for the year, turmoil reached new heights with a change in Prime-Minister and a Cabinet reshuffle. As election campaigning begins, AWAVA continues to focus on the policy platforms on violence against women presented by each major political party. As part of AWAVA’s contribution to the ‘Priorities for Women‘ project, a joint National Women’s Alliances project led by Equality Rights Alliance, AWAVA has sent letters to major parties to discuss their policies on gender-based violence; their views of the challenges; their commitment to the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and funding frameworks. The ‘Priorities for Women‘ project encourages women to vote independently, effectively and in an informed manner. Look out for activities relating to its upcoming launch on the ‘In Focus’ section of our website, along with Facebook and Twitter.

No matter which party becomes the government of the day, the fight to end violence against women and girls continues.

Around the nation

AWAVA Advisory Group Member and Executive Officer of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Chrystina Stanford, spoke out against the under-reporting of sexual violence in the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development’s new short film ‘1 in 3’
In NSW, the long-awaited Domestic and Family Violence Framework was released for public comment, with the Women’s Legal Service New South Wales and the Office of the Attorney-General both issuing media releases
The Victorian ‘Policing Just Outcomes Report’ delivered damning findings on the nature of sexual assault investigations that were covered by the Herald Sun Newspaper
The Sydney Morning Herald critically reflected on Australia’s ranking in the WHO report on violence against women (see last week’s round-up) noting that “the rate of violence against women in Australia is not that much lower than the rates in developing countries and that’s not good enough.”
A St Kilda Football Club fan deconstructed the harmful ‘good bloke’ narrative that devalues the experiences of victim/survivors in response to the allegations against Stephen Milne
The CEO of Project Respect, a non-governmental organisation supporting women in the sex industry, gave a compelling interview with the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault
Anna Johnson, an Australian delegate to the UN’s 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, criticised the lack of preventive education for young people, “we have failed to explain to young people the concepts of consent, sexual assault and domestic violence”

Around the world

Massive protests in the streets of Kolkata shone a spotlight on spiralling levels of violence against women in West Bengal where supporters said “this unending violence against women and the general sense of insecurity…has gripped the state”
For the first time in its 60 year history, the World Bank South East Asia office joined the global movement to end gender-based violence, which is crucial considering a UNFPA report called this region the most ‘gender-insensitive’ in the world.
As the Syrian conflict escalates, women and girls are being increasingly targeted and the Human Rights Watch is overwhelmingly concerned for female detainees
In the UK, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children launched a helpline to protect children from female genital mutilation because “…child victims of female genital mutilation are hidden behind a wall of silence. Like other forms of abuse, if female genital mutilation is not exposed it will continue to thrive and more children will suffer.”
The Government of Canada took bold new steps to end violence against women and girls in the Yukon by funding a 24-month bilingual project engaging men and boys in responses to gender-based violence
A powerful piece in the Huffington Post reversed the conventional conversation about violence against women
Soraya Chemaly hit back at the grossly misinformed comment from Republican Jodie Laubenberg that rape kits are a form of abortion and meant to “clean” women out

Reports

Recently, the UK Commons International Development Committee published a report on violence against women and girls
Complementing the WHO report (published in last week’s round-up), the Lancet Journal published a systematic review of the global prevalence of intimate partner homicide finding that “awareness of violence against women as a health problem (and not just a criminal justice or domestic issue) is still low in many countries…”

Opportunities

UN Women has called for written communications on human rights violations to be submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women by 1 August 2013
The NSW Domestic and Family Violence Framework is open for public comment until 23 July 2013, so please follow the link for more details

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

Weekly Round-up* – 21 June

This week, AWAVA joined the five other Commonwealth-funded National Women’s Alliances at the joint annual forum. Discussions focused on achievements and challenges during the first three years and future plans for the Alliances individually and collectively.

Margaret Augerinos, an Executive Member of our Advisory Group, also represented AWAVA’s CSW57 delegation in a panel discussion chaired by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick. This formed part of a high-profile event at Parliament House in Canberra for the launch, by the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, of the Parliamentary Group of Population and Development’s “One in Three” campaign.

Around the country

St Vincent de Paul’s CEO Sleepout for Homelessness on Thursday 20 June was a timely reminder of gendered nature of homelessness, especially the intersection between women who are homeless/sleeping rough and their experience of domestic and family violence
Clementine Ford delivered a powerful analysis on the short-sighted destructiveness of victim-blaming in this response to the sentencing of Jill Meagher’s killer

Around the world

Minister Collins this week led the Australian delegation to Bangladesh for the 10th Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting, and highlighted that Australia has a strong role to play internationally in preventing gender-based violence and advancing gender equality
The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a new report on partner and non-partner violence finding that gendered violence is a “global health problem of epidemic proportions”
Read up on AWAVA Chairperson Julie Oberin’s speech at the UK & Ireland’s Feminist and Women’s Studies Biennial Conference on Feminist Advocacy and Policy Work here
Italy became the 25th member state of the Council of Europe to ratify a convention adressing violence against women
At a joint conference consolidating the positions of the World Bank and OxFam International on violence against women, the CEO of Oxfam India said “achieving the Millenium Development Goals is not possible if we overlook violence against women…we do not address this like poverty, although the same number of women, a billion, are suffering from violence around the world.”
Criticism of the culture of bystander complicity surrounding violence against women continues with this piece written in response to the Nigella Lawson incident

Reports

See the full report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) referred to above – “Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women”

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

Weekly Round-up* – 15 June

The news this week in Australia has been dominated by examples of sexist behaviour and attitudes – a strong reminder that there is a way to go to address gender inequality and, ultimately, the prevention of violence against women, which is both a cause and consequence of gender and social inequalities.

(more…)

Weekly Round-Up* – 7 June

US rapper, Tyler-the-Creator has been in Australia this week giving concerts; his song lyrics promote violence against women, so should we really be giving him a platform to do this? We can’t excuse songs about rape, genital mutilation, raping corpses and burying bodies, as ‘entertainment’ or ‘free speech’. A resolution in the Philippines was filed this week aimed at celebrities and entertainment personalities “observing the utmost sensitivity to victims of violence against women during their public performances, given their position of influence.” Violence Against Women is preventable if we challenge and change attitudes that condone it – that means not giving a rapper who promotes violence against women an audience.

Around the country

Read this Human Rights Defender article ‘Rising up’ to end violence against women – how far have we come in twenty years? by Women’s Legal Service NSW, which highlights the “primary challenge for our community is to hold our government accountable for its international commitments to a society free of violence so that this becomes a lived reality for women.”
This article in the Courier Mail gives more details about the US hip-hop singer, Tyler-The-Creator and the granting of his visa by the Federal Government
This Age opinion piece questions why efforts to reduce family violence aren’t the funding priority (including Family Violence Death Reviews) when it accounts for 84% of the rise in recorded assaults in Victoria
$3 million will be spent on services in WA and across The Kimberley to cater particularly for victims of domestic violence, to provide educational resources, culturally appropriate counselling and to support and increase community awareness
Listen to Ludo McFerran speak about Safe at Home, Safe at Work

Around the world

Lakshmi Puri, Acting Head of UN Women and Assistant Secretary-General says that ending violence against women and girls must be a priority in the post-2015 development agenda
Read Soraya Chemaly’s response to the assertion that the Facebook campaign challenges freedom of speech and is feminists censoring the Internet: Facebook “with more than a billion users, is an influential force. It is both a mirror and a microcosm of a global culture. As such, it is no more or less sexist or misogynistic than any other company or aspect of media. However, by creating a review process it became an arbiter of norms and provided a way to challenge those that encourage and perpetuate gross and easily demonstrable prejudices against girls and women.”
Women, Action and The Media have issued guidelines for reporting content on Facebook that glorifies, promotes or makes light of gendered violence:
- First, report it to Facebook using their standard reporting guidelines
- If the content has been reported and Facebook has declined to remove it, email WAM, and they will take further action. Please include any information you have about when and how you reported the content, and what response(s) you’ve received from Facebook
In the Philippines, a resolution has been filed directed at media and entertainment personalities: one way “society can change its anti-women views and attitude toward rape victims is to hold media and entertainment celebrities/personalities to the highest standards of responsibility”
Experts and technologists will come together in Kathmandu on 16 June, 2013 to address the challenges of violence against women by finding innovative technological solutions to issues surrounding prevention, response and awareness at the Violence Against Women Hackathon

Contribute to the August edition of Parity Magazine!

The August edition of Parity is dedicated to Preventing Homelessness.

Section 1: Conceptualising Homelessness Prevention
Section 2: Homelessness Prevention Policies and Strategies
Section 3: Preventing Homelessness in Practice
Section 4: Overseas Models and Experience

Deadline: All contributions need to be submitted by Friday 9 August 2013. Submissions: All contributions should be submitted as Word attachments to an email addressed to [email protected]

Word limits: Contributions can be up to 1,600 words (double page spread) in Parity. Single page articles can be up to 800 words . Contributions of a greater length should be discussed with the Parity Editor.

If you have any questions at all about contributing to this edition please contact the Parity Editor by email [email protected] or ring 03 8415 6200.

Resources and Reports

Read the latest Report of the Special Rapporteur, Professor Rashida Manjoo, on violence against women, its causes and consequences
The Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse latest fast facts on Domestic Violence and Mental Health is out
Women’s Health, Goulburn North have developed downloadable resources raising awareness of financial abuse as a form of family violence. Six postcards were developed as part of the Keeping Your Boat Afloat project each detailing a young women’s experience of financial abuse. Helplines available are listed on the back of the cards. The postcards were developed in consultation with young women.
Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria’s Women Surviving Violence Cultural Competence in Critical Services highlights that, while there is no evidence that family violence is more endemic, or profound, in CALD communities, when it does occur, the Australian justice and protection services are not adequately accounting for the additional complexity that can be embedded within CALD women’s experiences of violence. These service gaps have led to lower rates of reporting and disadvantage in access.
A report published by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in England: A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the Effects that Access and Exposure to Pornography has on Children and Young People found:
“…compelling evidence that too many boys believe that they have an absolute entitlement to sex at any time, in any place, in any way and with whomever they wish. Equally worryingly, we heard that too often girls feel they have no alternative but to submit to boys’ demands, regardless of their own wishes.”
NUS Scotland Women’s Campaign have teamed up with White Ribbon Scotland, to create a series of postcards for women’s officers, women’s groups, equality committees and volunteers to use as conversation starters for feminist campaigns on campuses.

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

Weekly Round-up* – 2 June

The power of collective lobbying and advocacy last week made two great impacts – pressuring Facebook to review its policies and training to include gender-based hate speech in their moderating of online material; and, in Australia, much-needed amendments were made to NSW’s compensation to victims of violence against women.

In other news…a busy week around the country!

AWAVA added our support to the Facebook campaign, see SBS News item: Facebook cracks down on sexism. Adding support to the Open Letter to Facebook campaign to include violence against women in the ‘hate speech’ definition, Clementine Ford writes Hey Facebook, rape is not a punch line
This The Conversation article Sexual abuse, celebrity and ‘grooming’ the community highlights “Our social and institutional responses to sexual abuse are realigning to acknowledge the power dynamics of abuse and victimisation”
This piece argues for the Government to abolish defensive homicide as it legitimises lethal male violence and has allowed for manipulation, victim-blaming and misuse of the justice system
The Age reports on one of Australia’s biggest businesses, NAB offering domestic violence leave for employees
The Attorney General has introduced legislation to protect vulnerable witnesses and victims in Commonwealth criminal proceedings; vulnerability can include the nature of the offence, or relate to a particular characteristic, such as age, cultural background, or a disability. The protections will apply automatically to victims of forced marriage
The Victims Rights and Support Bill 2013 (NSW) was passed in the NSW Upper House, see Women’s Legal Services NSW’s article in The Drum and Sydney Morning Herald article ”Outrage over plans to cap abuse claims”. An amendment was made to remove the 10 year-time limit for victims of child sexual abuse so there are no time limits for such victims in applying for some limited forms of financial assistance and a recognition payment, see CLCNSW’s media release
Also in NSW, the NSW Government have published the national response to the Family Violence – A National Legal Response report by the Australian and NSW Law Reform Commissions
From Victoria:
- The Eliminating Violence Against Women Media Awards, EVAs 2013 Finalists have been announced, the winners will be announced on Friday 19 July
- Victoria Police have recorded about 12 more domestic assaults every day this year than in 2011-12, despite this, there are plans to axe the unit investigating family violence deaths at Vic Coroners Court
ABC News reports on Ruby Gaea’s new resource: Tiwi Islanders star in animated short films to raise awareness about sexting, cyberbullying and child abuse

Around the world

In response to the global Facebook campaign, Soraya Chemaly writes, Facebook rejects rape culture. Can you? The US peak organisation for domestic violence, National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNDEV), supports Facebook’s efforts to take a stand against violence against women
Seven governments adopted a statement on violence against women and girls at the 66th World Health Assembly, declaring violence against women and girls “a major global public health, gender equality and human rights challenge, touching every country and every part of society”
Read here about a UN study launched this week, “Breaking the Silence on Violence against Indigenous Girls, Adolescents and Young Women: A call to action based an overview of existing evidence from Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America,” which highlights that Indigenous girls are at heightened risk of violence due to the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination they face
In the UK another campaign is taking off to pressure supermarkets to stop selling Lads’ Mags on the grounds that it may breach sexual discrimination legislation and constitute harassment to employees
Italy is likely to become the 5th country to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence Against Women
From earlier this month, this article highlight the abuse of young girls with disabilities in institutions in India

Resources

Ruby Gaea launched the long awaited Bikkies project this week with project partners Bima Wear and the NT Police Child Abuse Taskforce. A series of animations provide educational messages on child and sexual abuse issues to remote Aboriginal Communities throughout the Northern Territory
- Episode 1 Letting the CAT out of the bag
- Episode 2 You’re not the only one, Indie providing information about the risks of “sexting”
Read Anti-Slavery Australia’s Forced Marriage in Australia, an up-to-date review
Last month, the Minister for the Status of Women, Julie Collins, launched “Girls Gotta Know”, a free mobile web-based app providing young Tasmanian women with quick access to legal info on a range of topics. Click here to access the site

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

This site is being archived soon. Visit wesnet.org.au for more information.