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Weekly Round-Up * 10 March

Welcome to the latest edition of the AWAVA Weekly Round-Up. This week has seen a huge number of events and developments for women in Australia and around the world. In particular, this week marks the start of the59^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59) in New York City! AWAVA will be hosting three parallel events during the next 2 weeks and we can’t wait to engage with our international colleagues around violence against women.
Our Program Manager Sophie has recorded the following video to give a brief introduction to CSW and explain why this year in particular is important (hint: it’s the 20^th anniversary of a certain conference in Beijing!):

With International Women’s Day just behind us, it has also been a week of speeches. From the Federal Government, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash have both spoken about gender equality in Australia, as have Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek. We have also seen recognition of powerful women speakers more broadly, with Emma Watson giving a Q&A on Facebook about gender equality, Amy McQuirespeaking about her life and work as an Aboriginal Feminist, and this round up of ‘5 speeches by women that you need to hear.’ We hope that these powerful words translate into positive action throughout the community in the weeks, months and years to come.

Around the Country

The Federal Government has announced $120,000 of funding over 2 years to assist women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to navigate the court system
Leaders from all three major political parties signed on to the UN HeforShe campaign at an International Women’s Day breakfast in Canberra
The Federal Government has announced a $30 million joint commonwealth-states campaign to address the issue of rising domestic violence
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, in conjunction with Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, hascalled for a national crisis summit on violence against women
Women’s Agenda has partnered with Twitter Australia with the goal of empowering women to speak out on the platform
In Queensland, domestic violence services have praised the Domestic Violence Taskforce’s report as‘holistic and thorough’ with two new domestic violence shelters announced by the State Government in line with the report’s recommendations
In the ACT, donations and public support continue to flow in memory of murdered woman Tara Costigan, with the accused also charged with breaching a domestic violence order
[TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence, death] and the ACT Domestic Violence Crisis Service reporting a spike in demand for support and information in the aftermath [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence]
Senior vascular surgeon Dr Gabrielle McMullin has received intense criticism after stating that she advises young female medical trainees to comply with sexual harassment if they hope to keep their career [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of sexual harassment]
In New South Wales, the State Government has announced the development of a domestic violence disclosure scheme to allow people to ask authorities for information if they are concerned their partner may represent a risk. The ACT Government has said they will monitor the pilot
In Victoria, country areas have the highest rates of family violence offenses reported to police with domestic violence support service the Centre for Non-Violence appealing for police in those areas torefer more victims to them for help
In Tasmania, the Law Society has called for legal change to allow judges and magistrates to order domestic violence perpetrators to undergo counselling and therapy
Author and activist Tara Moss has called for the full funding of the 1800 RESPECT free phone line
In New South Wales, the Salvation Army has issued an apology following comments from the manager of a Broken Hill refuge suggesting that women “use and abuse” the service
In Tasmania, a class action is being launched on behalf of underage female victims of sexual abuse after a convicted child sex offender allegedly ‘bragged’ about his actions on social media

Around the World

In Morocco, a new report has found that over 62% of the country’s women have experienced gender-based violence
In Europe and Central Asia, NGOs from nine countries have participated in a workshop aimed at eliminating violence against women
A United Nations funded educational soccer video game, Breakaway, has recently been shown to be effective in teaching young boys about gender-based violence
In Hong Kong, calls have been made for criminal law reform to better address domestic and family violence
In Somalia, representatives of the African Union and the United Nations have called for greater efforts to address gender-based violence
In Brazil, a law has been passed to make “feminicide,” or the killing of a woman because of her gender, a specific crime [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence]
In Turkey, a lack of official statistics on violence against women has led to speculation that the issue is worsening under the current government [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence]
In the United States, Native American tribes have gained the legal rights to prosecute non-Native menwho commit crimes of domestic violence, dating violence or who violate a protection order against a victim who lives on tribal land
International evidence has shown that despite an increase in international aid focusing on gender equality, less than 1% of that money is reaching grass-roots women’s groups

Research, Resources and Reports

1800 RESPECT has developed a new app, Daisy, designed to connect women experiencing gendered violence to services in their state and local area. The app was launched in Melbourne last week by the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, and Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has launched their free new ‘Good practice, good business’ resources to provide advice on a range of issues including recruitment and retention of older workers, gender equality, sexual harassment, race discrimination, employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, employment of people with disabilities, domestic and family violence, mental illness and supporting carers in the workplace
Paul Harpur and Heather Douglas have published a paper entitled ‘Disability and domestic violence: protecting survivors’ rights’ in the Griffith Law Review
The Australian Institute of Criminology has published a paper entitled ‘Exploring the feasibility of an enhanced monitoring program on human trafficking and slavery’
Human Rights Watch has published a new resource on gender-based violence designed for people with disabilities [TRIGGER WARNING: Descriptions of violence]

Get Involved!

Become an AWAVA Volunteer Intern! We’re looking for 2 Canberra-based interns – a Policy Intern and a Research Intern – to work 1 day per week and get some behind-the-scenes experience at a small NGO in the preventing violence against women sector
During the next 2 weeks, you can get involved with the action at the Commission on the Status of Women by tweeting along under the hashtag #CSW59

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

“We need to keep our promise to women and children who are victims or survivors of any form of violence against women, to end that violence. Globally, nationally, locally we must take responsibility, each and every one us, and commit to speaking out against violence and changing attitudes and behaviour that allow it to continue unabated. The levels of violence are unacceptable, we are facing a global pandemic, we must act now.”

Julie Oberin, Chair of AWAVA

Read AWAVA’s International Women’s Day 2013 Media Release which includes AWAVA’s international and national efforts to raise awareness and to end violence against women and girls.

Happy 101st International Women’s Day

Here is a short video by AWAVA celebrating the milestones and achievement of Australian women over the past 100 years or so.

Joint Media Release: International Women’s Day 2013

International Women’s Day 2013 – joint media release with Homelessness Australia, Equality Rights Alliance and WESNET.

Women more vulnerable than ever

“”The face of homelessness is increasingly that of a woman. Women are more vulnerable than ever with a greater likelihood of experiencing poverty and violence, putting their risk of homelessness at an all time high. Is this the face we want to show to the world on International Women’s Day 2013?”

Read media release here

Women’s Timeline – Centenary of International Women’s Day

To celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day, the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) has created a timeline of significant events and achievements affecting Australian women.

The timeline includes major political, educational, legal and social milestones, and demonstrate that despite improvements in gender equality over the past 100 years, women still experience violence at intolerable levels.

AWAVA has produced print- and web-based resources for use in upper primary and secondary schools and by community organisations. We are also using social media (twitter AWAVAWomen) and local events to spread the message that all forms of violence against women are unacceptable and must stop.

The timeline was created with assistance from the Australian Government Office For Women. It took months and hundreds of hours from a small group of women to gather the content that is included on the website. Only a small portion of the events we have collected currently appear on the timeline. New events will be added over coming months.

The timeline can be viewed by clicking on our grey Timeline tab and contains timelines for upper primary (junior) and secondary school and above (senior) timelines. In addition there are resources available to promote the timeline and assist educators with using the timeline.

This is from all of us at AWAVA, to all of you, on the Centenary of International Women’s Day.

And here is a short YouTube video we created about the timeline:

Weekly Round-up* 4 March 2011

A busy week as usual in the AWAVA office, with plenty of news coming out of New York (see below) as well as preparations for International Women’s Day Celebrations – I hope you’re all planning something special!

The Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis, has been in New York this week attending a UN convention on the Status of Women, where she spoke about the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children
There has also been a focus on investing in and empowering adolescent girls at the convention.
Click here to listen to speeches from the convention

IMPORTANT!!

The World Shelter Conference Planning Committee has announced that they have decided to extend the deadline for submitting presentation proposals. After many requests, they will extend the deadline to March 31, 2011.

If you are an advocate or activist, working with survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking and other forms of violence against women, we encourage you to share your expertise, knowledge, approaches, challenges and successes with us at the conference.

Click here to submit a proposal

International Women’s Day News:

NATSIWA are holding a rally on the 10th March – read all the details here
Economic S4W have released their IWD campaign “Don’t be Short Changed”
Make sure you watch this clip showing the journey of Women’s Rights over the last 100 years

Reports released since our last round-up:

The Australian Law Reform Commission has released the first in a series of Issues Papers on Family Violence and Commonwealth Laws and
The Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault has released a paper on Supporting women from CALD backgrounds who are victim/survivors of sexual violence: Challenges and opportunities for practitioners

In other news across our virtual desks:

The Age is running a poll on who is Australia’s most inspiring woman.
The Daily Telegraph reports that preventative action will be taken with children who show signs of harmful behaviour as part of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children
The Queensland University of Technology published an article on female genital mutiliation
The Herald Sun reports on YouTube clips depicting self-harm being watched by teenagers
The Age reports on how pornography is hurting women
The Age has also published a profile on Elizabeth Broderick
ABC news reports that the Defensive Murder law may be under review after a Victorian woman was convicted.

And don’t forget, the following events are still open for registrations:

WESNET’s Technology Safety Training in Victoria and Tasmania
The Australian Women Educators conference White Ribbon Day Every day

*The opinions expressed in the articles aren’t necessarily the opinions of AWAVA

Media Release – 25 Nov – Day Against Violence

In 1999 the United Nations declared November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with the aim of inviting the organisation of activities designated to raise public awareness. Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981 marking the brutal assassination in 1960 of the three Mirabel sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders from Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo.

November 25th is also White Ribbon Day. AWAVA supports White Ribbon Day which urges men to speak out against violence against women. White Ribbon Day was established by men on the second anniversary of one man’s massacre of fourteen women in Montreal. AWAVA calls on all men to step forward speak up and join the campaign to stop the endemic violence against women and their children in Australia and across the world.

Click here to download the full media release from AWAVA.