Legal & Justice Archives

Funding for Legal Aid Kept

Attorney-General Senator the Hon. George Brandis and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash have announced that current levels of Commonwealth funding of Legal Aid
Commissions, Community Legal Centres (except Environmental Defenders Offices) and
Indigenous legal assistance will continue for another two years. In their announcement, the Government acknowledge the crucial role ready access to legal assistance plays in protecting and supporting women and children experiencing violence.

This announcement comes after a protracted campaign from a number of directions hoping to persuade the Government to maintain funding to legal assistance. A PDF of the joint media release from the Attorney-General and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women is available here.

Advocating for Inclusion of DV as Ground of Discrimination

AWAVA joined several of our Advisory Group member organisations in writing to the Attorney-General on 21 June in support of including domestic violence as a ground of discrimination in the consolidated Commonwealth Anti-Discrimination Laws.

In January 2012, AWAVA formally endorsed and supported the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse (ADFVC) submission to the Attorney-General’s Department.

AWAVA firmly agrees with providing an express protection for victims of domestic violence. The fact that women endure discrimination in the workplace, or in securing accommodation or services, as a consequence of experiencing, or having experienced domestic violence is unacceptable.

Read AWAVA’s letter

Read AWAVA’s endorsement of, and ADFVC’s submission, back in January 2012

Domestic Violence as a Ground of Discrimination

AWAVA endorsed the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse (ADFVC) submission on the consolidation of the anti-discrimination laws on 1 February 2012.

AWAVA strongly advocates for an express protection to be included in the consolidated Act for women who encounter discrimination in the workplace, or in securing accommodation or services, as a consequence of experiencing, or having experienced domestic violence.

The protections proposed by ADFVC would assist women who have experienced/are experiencing domestic violence and reduce further social and financial disadvantage.

Read the Endoresement of ADFVC Anti Discrimination Law Submission

Family Violence Bill Announced

The Attorney-General announced this morning that he is introducing the Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2011 into Parliament today. This followed consultation on the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence) Bill 2010 Exposure Draft, which was supported by 73% of respondents.

While the proposed changes are an important first step to better protecting the safety of women and children in the family law system, more changes are necessary to ensure the family law system does not jeopardise the safety of women and children.

Find out more at Women’s Legal Services Australia’s campaign page – www.safetyinfamilylaw.com

You can see our media release here.

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

Forced Marriage

The UTS Anti-Slavery Project at University of Technology, Sydney has asked us to poll our members about forced marriage.

Please share this link far and wide. AWAVA will provide your feedback to UTS for their submission to the A-G’s Department (see more about the call for submissions below).

[contact-form] [contact-field label=”Have you or your organisation received any training or guidance about identifying cases of forced marriage?” type=”text” required=”true” /] [contact-field label=”Have you or your organisation identified suspected cases of forced marriage” type=”text” required=”true” /] [/contact-form]

UTS is also hosting a Seminar on Forced Marriage in Sydney on 18 Feb 2011. If you are in Sydney and would like to attend please check out this link.

Call for Submissions

The Federal Minister for Justice, the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, is currently seeking public comment on available criminal sanctions for slavery and people trafficking offences. Comment is also invited on matters with relevance for people trafficking prosecutions including protections available for vulnerable witnesses, the use of victim impact statements, and the availability of reparation orders in criminal proceedings. There is more information on the A-G’s website here.

AWAVA/WLSA Submission on Family Law Amendment Bill

Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA) and AWAVA as the National Women’s Alliance focusing on combating all forms of violence against women have lodged a submission to the Attorney-General and the Australian Law Reform Commission on the Family Violence Bill.

Download our submission here

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.

AWAVA calling for contributions to the submission to the Family Violence Bill

AWAVA as the National Women’s Alliance focusing on combating all forms of violence against women will be preparing a submission to the Attorney-General and the Australian Law Reform Commission on the Family Violence Bill tabled for public consultation. The time line is very tight with the submission opportunity closing on 14th January 2011. This also means that the submission will be developed in December and the only window for endorsement is in the Christmas and New Year week which is not practical. Therefore the submission will indicate who has contributed to it rather than who has endorsed it.

If you wish to contribute your views to AWAVA’s submission please contact us by email. The submission will be developed within a framework which maximises the safety of women and their children and which reflects a sophisticated understanding of domestic and family violence in Australian society. You can find the proposed changes and other details here.

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