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

On 15 February 2011 the Australia Government published Safe and Free from Violence – The National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-22 (The National Plan), outlining a 12-year strategy to address domestic and sexual violence by coordinating action across all Australian governments and communities. The National Plan is based on four three-year rolling Action Plans.

AWAVA commends the Commonwealth Government for its release of the National Plan and for its leadership in addressing Australia’s violence against women epidemic. We are particularly encouraged by the National Plan’s strong focus on prevention, which is fundamental for the prevention of gender-based violence. The National Plan has a long term focus – building respectful relationships and working to increase gender equality to prevent violence from occurring in the first place.

The vision of the National Plan:  Australian women and their children live free from violence in safe communities

National Plan Target: a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children,’ during the next 12 years, from 2010 to 2022

National Outcomes:

1. Communities are safe and free from violence
2. Relationships are respectful
3. Indigenous communities are strengthened
4. Services meet the needs of women and their children experiencing violence
5. Justice responses are effective; and
6. Perpetrators stop their violence and are held to account

Key initiatives under the National Plan include:

• established a 24-hour telephone counselling hotline 1800 RESPECT, to support victims of domestic violence and sexual assault
• launched a social marketing campaign, The Line, which encourages young people to develop healthy, respectful relationships
• Established Our Watch to drive nation-wide change in the culture, behaviours and attitudes that lead to violence against women and children
• Established Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, which is responsible for delivering relevant and translatable research evidence which drives policy and practice leading to a reduction in the levels of violence against women and their children
• increased support for frontline workers and rewards States and Territories when they promote best practice perpetrator intervention

National Plan Links:

Second Action Plan: Moving Ahead 2013-2016

Brochure: The Second Action Plan

Fact sheet: How the Second Action Plan helps Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women

Fact sheet: How the Second Action Plan helps Women with Disability

Fact sheet: How the Second Action Plan helps Indigenous Women

Translated versions of the Second Action Plan Brochure and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse fact sheet can be found here.

What is CEDAW?

The United Nations Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, is an  international treaty that Australia is signatory to.  Many countries around the world, including Australia, signed on to this convention and agreed to try and implement mechanisms in their country to eliminate discrimination against women.

What does it aim to achieve?

The convention aims to:

When was Australia last reviewed?

In July 2010 the UN CEDAW Committee reviewed the Australian Government’s compliance with CEDAW and how Australia has implemented the treaty into its laws and policies. The committee made two specific recommendations for actions on violence against women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, in its Concluding Observations and requested an update on progress at the 2-year mark, prior to a full review in 2014. The Australian Government has to report back to the CEDAW committee on its progress on these two areas (paragraph 29 and 41) by July 2012

For more information about the 2010 review of Australia and the CEDAW Committee’s other recommendations please see the Australian NGO CEDAW Action Plan.

Why submit an NGO report?

The NGO report provides additional information and an alternative view to the CEDAW Committee when it considers Australia’s response to its recommendations.

The diagram below developed by the Kingsford Legal Centre outlines the CEDAW process and time-frames:

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. It is an internationally agreed plan for achieving equality for women across 12 critical areas – poverty, education and training, health, the economy, power and decision-making, human rights, armed conflict, institutional mechanisms, the environment, violence against women and the girl child.

Following the 1995 Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women, the United Nations General Assembly mandated the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to integrate into its program a follow-up process to the Conference, regularly reviewing the critical areas of concern in the Beijing Platform for Action and to develop its role in mainstreaming a gender perspective in United Nations activities.

The CSW meets annually in February/March in New York and is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. The meeting is attended by representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited NGO’s from all regions of the world.

More information on the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action can be found here.

More Information on the Commission on the Status of Women can be found here.