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

As CSW57 is winding up in New York the AWAVA delegation have been working hard to support negotiations and secure outcomes to end violence against women and girls.  No doubt there will be lots of newsworthy items from the UN early next week on the Agreed Conclusions – although news reports this week suggest continual blocking by some member states may stall negotiations. Women’s organisations globally have signed a statement urging member states not to renegotiate women’s rights.

CSW57 News

• The New York Times reports concerns there will be no Agreed Conclusions
• The Washington Post reports that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood says the current CSW57 draft violates islamic rules
• This article looks further at women’s sexual and reproductive rights

Around the nation

• This media release from Minister Collins gives a Pledge to All Women and Girls to continue Australia’s efforts to eliminate and prevent violence against women and girls
• New funding has been announced by Foreign Minister Bob Carr to help end violence against women in Cambodia
• Clementine Ford questions why we keep asking women to protect themselves from rape
• ABC reports on the Senate Inquiry into forced sterilisation
• Julie McKay, UN Women Australia says that violence against women is why we need to keep discussing gender equality

Internationally

• The UN  has announced a study on the extent of violence against Indigenous women and girls
• The small nation of Tuvalu has recognised violence against women as a growing concern
• In Kenya, new Rites of Passage are being introduced as a step to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C)
• A Director of Public Prosecutions study from the UK shows false allegations of rape and domestic violence are very rare
• The UK National Union of Students have published a new research report looking at ‘Lad Culture’ in British Universities
• In India, the prime accused in the Delhi Gang rape case was found dead in his jail cell in New Delhi
• Read these great articles, one following on from Steubenville We’re Sick and Tired of Rape Being Treated Like an Unavoidable Joke and 5 ways we can teach men not to rape 
• From New Zealand this excellent video avoids victim-blaming and highlights responsibilities of others

AWAVA are now on Facebook – if you haven’t already ‘like’d our page, please do so to receive regular posts and updates from AWAVA and help us to build a Facebook following: http://www.facebook.com/AWAVAaustralia

ACT Women’s Grants Program 

The Minister for Women, Joy Burch has called for applications for the ACT Women’s Grants Program.  In 2012–13, there is a total funding of $130,000 available including an additional $30,000 for the inaugural Audrey Fagan Violence Prevention Grants.

Funding is available under the following three categories:

Category One – Capacity Building: seeks to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of community organisation to advance the objective and priorities of the ACT Women’s Plan.

The maximum funding available for a Capacity Building Project is $5,000 (GST Exclusive).

Category Two – Special Projects: seeks to advance the objectives and priorities of the ACT Women’s Plan by contributing to public policy, service development, or gendered research.

The maximum funding available for a Special Project is $25,000 (GST Exclusive).

Category Three – Audrey Fagan Violence Prevention Projects (new): seeks to progress one or more of the objectives outlined in the ACT Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Strategy 2011–2017.

The maximum funding available for an Audrey Fagan Violence Prevention Project is $15,000 (GST Exclusive).

Please note only one application per category may be submitted by an organisation/group. Applications close on 22 April 2013.  All applications must be submitted online. This can be accessed at  http://dhcs.smartygrants.com.au/

Please refer to the ACT Women’s Grants Guidelines 2012-2013 to ensure that your organisation/group is eligible. A copy of the guidelines are on the Women ACT website at: http://www.dhcs.act.gov.au/women/grants_and_scholarships

For further information or assistance please contact the ACT Office for Women on 6205 0515 or 02 6207 2552 or via email [email protected]

 

Today is the National Day of Action Against Bullying here in Australia.

For those interested in real social change and the prevention of bullying and violence, the Social Justice Education service provides a range of supports for leaders, managers, policy officers and practitioners, in government, schools and universities, and also works with social service and other education service organisations, and parent, childcare, community and sporting organisations.  Visit www.teachjustice.com.au for more information

 

 

*Articles published are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of AWAVA, and are published as general information only

The AWAVA crew were busy, busy, busy this week with final preparations for CSW57! AWAVA are very pleased to be sending a delegation of 7 women, with expertise across the preventing violence against women sector, joining hundreds of women globally, to negotiate outcomes for eliminating and preventing all forms of violence against women and girls. AWAVA are sponsoring 4 parallel events with international partners from the Power of Peaks and Alliances and Thinking Big: A Convention for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to Australian-focussed events Using the Strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities to End Violence Against Women and Stopping Violence Before It Happens: Primary Prevention Tools.

Keep an eye out on the website on on Twitter for updates and report-backs from the delegation – but to get things started, click here for the latest UN media release

Around Australia

• The Sydney Morning Herald reports on new findings on the factors that increase the risk of violence
• There are calls in Victoria to re-instate funding for the Systemic Review of Family Violence Deaths which had its funding cut in 2010
• In South Australia, the AHRC has told a Senate Inquiry that forced sterilisation is a form of violence against women and girls
• The Herald Sun announces changes that will mean police can now issue on the spot ADVOs in NSW
• From the Attorney General’s office this media release – New laws tackle forced married, people trafficking and other exploitation. Read Nine News’ take on the story here
• The Federal Government announces the appointment of a National Children’s Commissioner
• Telstra announces free silent phone numbers for victims/survivors of domestic and family violence
• Australia Post joins with UN Women to raise funds for International Women’s Day
• A new theatre production will help raise community awareness of violence against women

Internationally

• In South Africa, amid ‘media frenzy’ over Oscar Pistorius, this article looks how “”Life as normal”” involves daily violence against women
• In Egypt, rape and sexual assault in Cairo’s Tahrir Square are becoming increasingly more common and organised
• Read and view this compelling story as a journalist captures domestic violence on camera (note: the photos at the beginning of the story are compelling, moving and at some stages quite graphic. To view them, use the scroll arrow on the right)

Get Involved!!

International Women’s Day

Call to Action!  How you can make a difference without even leaving your seat!

This International Women™s Day, AWAVA wants to raise the profile of violence against women, and make it a topic of discussion in households around Australia and the world. We all know that the brighter we can shine a spotlight on this epidemic that affects 1 in 3 women around the world, the more action our communities and governments will take to end it, and make a real difference in the lives of women who are victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

It is AWAVA™s aim to raise awareness and get the conversation started by reaching out to the millions in the twitter-sphere and other social media spaces, and letting people know that violence against women must stop. On 8 March, International Women™s Day, we will be doing all we can to make ending violence against women (#endvaw) a  ˜trending topic™ “ which means that millions of people are accessing the information and conversations on this issue – and this is where we need your help.

How you can help:

Already got a twitter account? Great!

• Make sure you are following AWAVA_Women and re-tweet re-tweet re-tweet all of our messages on that day
• Follow any other organisations/individuals who you notice are also tweeting with the hash tag #endvaw and retweet all of the tweets that are supportive of the message to end violence against women
• Send this email to your friends, family, colleagues, networks, parliamentarians, neighbours, anyone you can think of that can help share this important message
• Tweet tweet tweet all day long with your thoughts on why ending violence against women is important and what can be done “ make sure to include #endvaw every time you tweet! That is the only way someone looking for your message can find it

No twitter account? No worries!

• Go to www.twitter.com and set one up in a few easy steps. You don™t have to use your real name, or enter your real location.
• Take some time to ˜follow™ as many individuals and organisations supportive of the #endvaw message as you can “ many of these will in return follow you, so they will see all your posts to #endvaw
• Make sure you are following AWAVA_Women and retweet retweet retweet all of our messages on that day
• Follow any other organisations/individuals who you notice are also tweeting with the hash tag #endvaw and re-tweet all of the tweets that are supportive of the message to end violence against women
• Send this email to your friends, family, colleagues, networks, parliamentarians, neighbours, anyone you can think of that can help share this important message
• Tweet tweet tweet all day long with your thoughts on why ending Violence Against Women is important and what can be done “ make sure to include #endvaw every time you tweet! That is the only way someone looking for your message can find it

AWAVA will provide some example tweets leading up to the day, and some fast-fact sheets, and of course will be tweeting all day long with plenty of information you can re-tweet and share.

Set your reminders for 8 March and let™s get the conversation started!

Upcoming events

March

• Register for AMaRWA’s Stand Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference on 28-30 April, early bird registration closes on 8 March: http://www.amarwaconference.org
• For those of you based in Canberra, if you haven’t already make sure you take the opportunity to see The Women Who Made Canberra – an exhibition celebrating women in Canberra’s history, closing 17 March
• 21 March: Australian Women’s Coalition is calling young women between 18 – 30 years who live, study or work in Auburn, Bankstown, Liverpool or Coffs Harbour NSW, or in Canberra, ACT to be a part of SHOUT!  A series of three free workshops will run in each location, complemented by an online network of support and skills-sharing and a local network of participants and AWC member organisations. The workshops will culminate in community events on Harmony Day next year,  Find out more here

April

• Stand-Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference, 28-30 April, Canberra
• 11-12 April: Child Aware Approaches Conference, Melbourne
• 16 April:Due to overwhelming demand WIRE in Victoria present another session of Understanding Financial Abuse in the context of Family Violence

May

• 13-15 May The White Ribbon International Conference, Sydney

Later

• 25-28 August  8th Australasian Council of Women and Policing conference will be held in Adelaide. Call for papers has been extended until 25 March

Internationally:

• 4-15 March 2013: 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW57), New York, priority theme: Eliminating and prevention all forms of violence against women and girls

*Articles published are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of AWAVA, and are published as general information only

AWAVA’s Chair, Julie Oberin, attended the inaugural National Rural Women’s Conference in Canberra to showcase Stopping Violence Against Women Before It Happens: A Practical Toolkit for Communities, developed in partnership with NRWC and CQU’s CDFVR.  The National Women’s Alliances also launched Priorities for Women 2013, a joint project encouraging women to enrol to vote and to vote as women.

In other news around the country

• Excellent news!  The Senate Committee has recommended that domestic violence is included as a protected attribute in the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 (recommendation 3).  The Committee added:

“”…this is an area where the Commonwealth must lead the way….The committee considers that this action, together with a further amendment to the Draft Bill, will assist victims of domestic violence to increasingly participate in the workforce and broader community…””

• Read more on the announcements on flexible work and domestic violence
• Minister Julie Collins says that domestic and family violence ‘is above politics‘
• Victoria launches the Go4Zero campaign for eliminating violence against violence against women, a partnership between Victoria Police, the Victorian Coalition Government and the community
• Victoria have also announced grants to address Koori Family Violence
• Again in Victoria, research from the Australian Institute of Criminology has revealed Victorians are 4 times more likely to have been killed as a result of domestic violence or by an acquaintance than under other circumstances, read more in: 80% of killers are known to their victim
• Queensland announces its contribution to the National Centre of Excellence
• The ABC reports that around the globe women and girls are being most affected by the economic crisis, with an increase in sexual abuse and forced prostitution
• From last week, read Minister Collins’ remarks on V-day and comments on the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children

Internationally

• Globally preparations for the 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women are ramping up, listen to this podcast on how effective global high-level meetings can be at tackling violence against women or if grassroots community work holds the key
• Advocates  in India say more needs to be done to end violence against women whilst women are being held in police or military custody
• Watch this youtube clip from Jackson Katz on Violence and Silence
• Laura Bates asks Does Facebook have a problem with women?
• There are calls in the UK to keep the identity of alleged rapists hidden
• Still in the UK, and prosecutions are set to begin for parents who send their children overseas for female genital mutiliation/cutting
• Iceland discusses tactics to ban access to violent pornography on the internet, and the UK says it will follow their lead
• Many of you will remember the graphic we shared a few weeks ago showing the numbers of rapes and the legal outcomes (prosecution, conviction) – click here to access the UK version

Resources and Reports

New Reports:

• The ADFVC have released Preventing the Abuse of Older People by their Family Members
• Partners for Prevention (International) have published Preventing Violence Against Women: from Community Activism to Government Policy

Upcoming Events

February

• 27 Febuary: Getting Safe Against the Odds – Family violence and women with a disability – Training  for workers who are currently working in the family violence sector to gain a better understanding of the context and experiences of women with disabilities who experience violence

March

• Register for AMaRWA’s Stand Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference on 28-30 April, early bird registration closes on 1 March: http://www.amarwaconference.org
• For those of you based in Canberra, if you haven’t already make sure you take the opportunity to see The Women Who Made Canberra – an exhibition celebrating women in Canberra’s history, closing 17 March
• 21 March: Australian Women’s Coalition is calling young women between 18 – 30 years who live, study or work in Auburn, Bankstown, Liverpool or Coffs Harbour NSW, or in Canberra, ACT to be a part of SHOUT!  A series of three free workshops will run in each location, complemented by an online network of support and skills-sharing and a local network of participants and AWC member organisations. The workshops will culminate in community events on Harmony Day next year,  Find out more here

April

• Stand-Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference, 28-30 April, Canberra
• 11-12 April: Child Aware Approaches Conference, Melbourne
• 16 April:Due to overwhelming demand WIRE in Victoria present another session of Understanding Financial Abuse in the context of Family Violence

Later

• 13-15 May The White Ribbon International Conference, Sydney
• 25-28 August  8th Australasian Council of Women and Policing conference will be held in Adelaide . Call for papers is currently open

Internationally:

• 4-15 March 2013: 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW57), New York, priority theme: Eliminating and prevention all forms of violence against women and girls

*Articles published are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of AWAVA, and are published as general information only

Yesterday, 14 February, saw supporters of women’s rights come together worldwide to dance and celebrate V-Day’s One Billion Rising, calling for an end to violence against women. To read more about the UN’s support for this campaign click here.  Access more information and see live recordings of One Billion Rising events from around the world by following this link. This will continue to be updated, so make sure you pop back often to see the latest posts.

In other news this week:

Around Australia

• In exciting AWAVA news, continuation of funding for the six National Women’s Alliances has been confirmed – read our full media release here, and Minister Collins’ media release here
• Want to know what AWAVA and the other Alliances have been doing? Read the summary report of the independent review of the National Women’s Alliances
• Prime Minister Gillard announces policy to provide victims/survivors of domestic and family violence the right to request flexible work arrangements. Ludo McFerran from Safe at Work, Safe at Home, says that Australia is ‘leading the world’ on domestic violence workplace rights. Read more from Ludo in When domestic violence becomes a workplace problem
• As part of Victoria’s Action Plan to Address Violence Against Women and Children, Victoria will introduce an Australian first in addressing adolescent violence in the home
• Nouria Salehi says that Australia must help fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan where close to 9/10 women have experienced violence

National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children Update

• An update on the National Centre of Excellence (NCE) from the Office for Women:

The NCE will serve as a national research hub to enable researchers, policy makers and practitioners to link-up and provide evidence based responses to reduce domestic and family violence and sexual assault. This includes through facilitating strategic partnerships, both in Australia and overseas, between organisations, government agencies and services in a range of sectors that intersect with violence against women and their children, such as the mental health, drug and alcohol, justice, children™s programs, housing and Indigenous and men™s service sectors.  The first priority for the NCE will be to develop a National Research Agenda to address gaps across sexual assault and domestic violence research, in primary prevention, children, service provision, justice responses, perpetrator interventions and workforce considerations, as well as taking into account international work.Processes are being finalised to establish the National Centre of Excellence in Sydney early this year. 

• And from the Minister’s office, the Chair of the National Centre of Excellence is announced

Internationally

• Good news from the USA where the Senate has overwhelmingly voted in favour of re-authorising VAWA – something our American colleagues have been strongly lobbying, campaigning and advocating for, for months
• In South Africa the rape and murder of a young woman just may be the tipping point to call government to account and to take action to end violence against women
• In Ireland, women subjected to forced labour and abuse in Magdalene laundries have rejected the Prime Minister’s apology

Reports, Research and Resources

• Position Paper – The Multi-Cultural Centre for Women’s Health has released its position paper on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
• The Australian Institute of Family Studies has released The role of emerging communication technologies in experiences of sexual violence: A new legal frontier
• The Australian Institute of Criminology’s Evaluation of the ACT Sexual Assault Reform Program is now available
• AusAIDS’ report, Triple Jeopardy, from Cambodia looks at violence against women and disability and is relevant to the Australian context

CSW57 Preparations

How you can get involved:

Take some time to read and have your say by commenting on the CSW57 draft Agreed Conclusions  by 20 February.  Email us with your suggestions on UN language that should be included.

Get Involved!

FORCED CHILD MARRIAGE RESEARCH  The National Children’s and Youth Law Centre (NCYLC) is continuing Australia’s first national research into the forced marriage of children.

How you can help

• If you have had any experience with children in or at risk of a forced marriage, please contribute to the project by filling out the Centre™s survey by 22 March 2013
• If you know of any caseworker, practitioner or organisation that has had experience with child victims of forced marriage, please forward this survey to them

You can access the survey by clicking here

If you have any feedback on the Draft Best Practice Response Guidelines on Forced Child Marriage please email AWAVA by 27 February.

If you would like any more information about the project,  please contact the Project Officer, Ms Tina Jelenic, on (02) 9385 9589 or by email.

Upcoming Events

February

• 18- 20  February: The National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)’s inaugural Conference, Canberra
• 19 February: Attend the launch of Keeping You and Your Job Safe: Information for workers experiencing family violence, Canberra
• 20 February: Launch of We Will Not Go Quietly – zine by and for sexual assault survivors, 6.30pm-8.00pm, Melbourne
  
• 27 Febuary: Getting Safe Against the Odds – Family violence and women with a disability – Training  for workers who are currently working in the family violence sector to gain a better understanding of the context and experiences of women with disabilities who experience violence

March

• 21 March: Australian Women’s Coalition is calling young women between 18 – 30 years who live, study or work in Auburn, Bankstown, Liverpool or Coffs Harbour NSW, or in Canberra, ACT to be a part of SHOUT!  A series of three free workshops will run in each location, complemented by an online network of support and skills-sharing and a local network of participants and AWC member organisations. The workshops will culminate in community events on Harmony Day next year,  Find out more here
• For those of you based in Canberra, if you haven’t already make sure you take the opportunity to see The Women Who Made Canberra – an exhibition celebrating women in Canberra’s history, closing 17 March

April

• Stand-Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference, 28-30 April, Canberra
• 11-12 April: Child Aware Approaches Conference, Melbourne
• 16 April:Due to overwhelming demand WIRE in Victoria present another session of Understanding Financial Abuse in the context of Family Violence

Later

• 13-15 May The White Ribbon International Conference, Sydney
• 25-28 August  8th Australasian Council of Women and Policing conference will be held in Adelaide . Call for papers is currently open

Internationally:

• 4-15 March 2013: 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW57), New York, priority theme: Eliminating and prevention all forms of violence against women and girls

*Articles published are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of AWAVA, and are published as general information only.

This week we were reminded of the complexities of addressing female genital cutting/mutilation (FGM/C), and the global fight to end it, as we recognised International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation on 6 February. We hope you found some time to read AWAVA’s post and to have a look at some of the great work both in Australia and internationally – take a few minutes to watch Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, address to Parliament on FGM.

But that wasn’t the only thing making the news this week:

Around the nation:

• Minister Julie Collins announces the four community sector members who will form part of the official Australian Government delegation to CSW57
• New research highlights the increasing link between emerging technologies and sexual violence

Internationally:

• In Somalia, the Prime Minister says the Government will do more to protect rape victims after the country has come under UN and International criticism. This criticism follows the recent conviction of a rape victim for insulting the Government
• Kurdistan women say that laws are not enough, and their Government need to focus on implementing laws that stop violence against women
• The Philippine Star reports new laws being introduced to combat the ever-increasing instances of ‘E-VAW’ – Electronic Violence Against Women
• Recently in Central America and Washington DC a 24 Hour “”hackathon”” was held to look at ways that technology can be used to protect women from violence
• This article from the USA gives Ten Things You Can Do to End Rape Culture – a good article to share with friends/family and colleagues
• Julie Bindel from the Spectator says that legalising prostitution in Amsterdam ‘has been a disaster‘

One Billion Rising – 14 February!

• Find out what is happening in Melbourne and how you can be involved
• If you’re in Sydney here is how you can join in
• And check out what is happening in Adelaide
• Read more about the movement in this article, One Billion Rising: ‘It’s like a feminist tsunami‘

International Women’s Day

Remember to email us at [email protected] and let us know what you and your organisation will be doing on 8 March this year!

• The Women’s Council in Western Australia is again hosting its Sparkling High Tea to raise Funds For Freedom

Reports, Research and Resources

New Reports

• The ABS this week released Defining the Data Challenge: Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Australia 2013 sets the scene for developing nationally consistent data and will make it easier to measure progress against the National Plan’s goal of reducing violence against women
• Have a look at, and provide your feedback on, Spotlight on Economic Abuse, this project is a partnership between Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service and Kildonan Uniting Care which aims to raise awareness and provoke discussion of the practice and impacts of economic abuse
• The Victorian Attorney General’s Office this week released Addressing Homelessness: Partnerships and Plans.  The report found that family violence initiatives significantly over performed on meeting targets

Upcoming Events

New!!

• 19 February: Attend the launch of Keeping You and Your Job Safe: Information for workers experiencing family violence. Canberra

February

• 18- 20  February: The National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)’s inaugural Conference, Canberra
• 20 February: Launch of We Will Not Go Quietly – zine by and for sexual assault survivors, 6.30pm-8.00pm, Melbourne, RSVP by 11 February
• 27 Febuary: Getting Safe Against the Odds – Family violence and women with a disability – Training  for workers who are currently working in the family violence sector to gain a better understanding of the context and experiences of women with disabilities who experience violence

March

• 7 March WIRE in Victoria present Understanding Financial Abuse in the context of Family Violence
• 21 March: Australian Women’s Coalition is calling young women between 18 – 30 years who live, study or work in Auburn, Bankstown, Liverpool or Coffs Harbour NSW, or in Canberra, ACT to be a part of SHOUT!  A series of three free workshops will run in each location, complemented by an online network of support and skills-sharing and a local network of participants and AWC member organisations. The workshops will culminate in community events on Harmony Day next year,  Find out more here
• For those of you based in Canberra, if you haven’t already make sure you take the opportunity to see The Women Who Made Canberra – an exhibition celebrating women in Canberra’s history, closing 17 March

April

• Stand-Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference, 28-30 April, Canberra
• 11-12 April: Child Aware Approaches Conference, Melbourne

Later

• 13-15 May The White Ribbon International Conference, Sydney
• 25-28 August  8th Australasian Council of Women and Policing conference will be held in Adelaide . Call for papers is currently open

Internationally:

• 4-15 March 2013: 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW57), New York, priority theme: Eliminating and prevention all forms of violence against women and girls

*Articles published are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of AWAVA, and are published as general information only.

There are plenty of good articles this week in the round-up to keep you reading for a while, but, before you start, make sure you watch this insightful YouTube clip featuring speaker Leslie Morgan Steiner, a domestic violence survivor sharing her own experience, and answering Why domestic violence victims don’t leave.

Last week on 23 January, Safe at Home Safe at Work, the National Alliance of Working Women™s Centres and AWAVA made a comprehensive verbal submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Senate Committee on the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 calling for ‘the status of victim/survivor of domestic violence’ to be included as a protected attribute so that victims/survivors of domestic violence can be protected against discrimination, including both employment and housing discrimination.

This week we submitted AWAVA’s Federal Pre-Budget Submission_2013-14 calling for increased investment and focus on primary prevention and continued focus on the implementation of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.

Around the nation

• Julia Baird in The Age says the ‘tables have turned on ‘Slut Shamers’
• Social Justice Commissioner says that cooperation is needed to end sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities
• This infographic from Homelessness Australia shows that the main reason for homelessness in this country, 25%, is domestic and family violence

Around the world

• Indian activists say that words are not enough, and action is needed to end violence against women
• Read this excellent article A Rape a Minute, a Thousand Corpses a Year from US writer Rebecca Solnit
• This article looks at the US culture of masculinity and violence against women

One Billion Rising

• Find out what is happening in Melbourne and how you can be involved
• If you’re in Sydney here is how you can join in
• And check out what is happening in Adelaide
• Read more about the movement in this article, One Billion Rising: ‘It’s like a feminist tsunami‘

Research and Resources

New Resource – VAWnet, the national online resource centre on violence against women (USA) have released this report How effective are campus-based gender violence prevention programs? which many of you may find useful in your work, particularly with students and young people

Get Involved!

• Have your say on the world you want to live in, by completing this United Nations Global Survey

Upcoming Events

New!!

• For those of you based in Canberra, if you haven’t already make sure you take the opportunity to see The Women Who Made Canberra – an exhibition celebrating women in Canberra’s history, closing 17 March

February

• Calls for papers close 5 February – 13-15 May The White Ribbon International Conference, Sydney 
• 18- 20  February: The National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC)’s inaugural Conference, Canberra
• 20 February: Launch of We Will Not Go Quietly – zine by and for sexual assault survivors, 6.30pm-8.00pm, Melbourne, RSVP by 11 February 2013
• 27 Febuary: Getting Safe Against the Odds – Family violence and women with a disability – Training  for workers who are currently working in the family violence sector to gain a better understanding of the context and experiences of women with disabilities who experience violence

March

• Read more about UN Women’s International Women’s Day Events and get involved
• 7 March WIRE in Victoria present Understanding Financial Abuse in the context of Family Violence
• 21 March: Australian Women’s Coalition is calling young women between 18 – 30 years who live, study or work in Auburn, Bankstown, Liverpool or Coffs Harbour NSW, or in Canberra, ACT to be a part of SHOUT!  A series of three free workshops will run in each location, complemented by an online network of support and skills-sharing and a local network of participants and AWC member organisations. The workshops will culminate in community events on Harmony Day next year,  Find out more here

April

• Stand-Up! Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against CALD Women national conference, 28-30 April, Canberra
• 11-12 April: Registration is now open for the Child Aware Approaches Conference, Melbourne

Later

• ‘Miss Representation’ Screening Tour: Women in Film & Television (WIFT) NSW are planning a series of screenings of ‘Miss Representation’ across Australia in 2012/13. If you are interested in hosting a screening of this film in partnership with WIFT NSW please email them
• 25-28 August  8th Australasian Council of Women and Policing conference will be held in Adelaide . Calls for papers is currently open

Internationally:

• 4-15 March 2013: 57th Session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW57), New York, priority theme: Eliminating and prevention all forms of violence against women and girls