Archive for the 'Australasia' Category
The Wellington Sexual Abuse Network (WSAN), a.k.a. the joined forces of Wellington Rape Crisis, Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP and WellStop vote ‘Yes’ have a plan to prevent sexual violence among young people.
WSAN, with support from the Ministry of Justice, will pilot a revolutionary six-week Sex & Ethics programme at Victoria University over the next [...]
Calls to the rape crisis line have more than doubled as courageous victims taking on their attackers and winning have helped remove the stigma attached to sex assault.
But disturbingly, new figures show that up to four women a week are being gang raped.
Brave young women like Tegan Wagner – who gave up her right to [...]
Online pedophiles are becoming more aggressive in their pursuit of children, often using suggestive photographs or inappropriate online conversations to blackmail their victims into face-to-face meetings.
The head of the Virtual Global Taskforce into online child abuse, Jim Gamble, said police were witnessing an explosion in child pornography, driven by the ready availability of digital media [...]
Men enjoy power, privilege and status at the expense of women, a fact that contributes to persistent and widespread gender-based violence.
Stephen Fisher, an Australian trainer on masculinities at the Chisholm Institute, Melbourne, was speaking at the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre’s (FWCC) Pacific Regional Meeting on Violence Against Women at the Naviti Resort on the Coral [...]
Its president Dr Rajni Chand believes that not enough information is being provided to women in our communities.
Dr Chand says that not many academic women were actively involved in non government organisations and there was a need for it to happen.
WINET-Fiji liaises with other organisations and women’s groups to fill in the vacuum by networking [...]
Fiji, a multi-racial, multi-cultural country of 300 islands in the South Pacific, has undergone another coup – the fourth in 22 years. The women of Fiji want their voices to be heard as they work on ways to bring peace back to their country, and they are asking for the United Nations to support their [...]
“A disturbing trend we continue to see reflected in our statistics for Auckland are rapes that involve more than one perpetrator” says Kate Brady Kean, Crisis Services Manager for Auckland Sexual Abuse HELP Foundation, which today released statistics for 2008.
And over 62% of Auckland rapes are happening in places where the survivors feel safe.
In [...]
The federal Government will provide an additional $41.5 million to tackle domestic violence, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced last week.
“The Government’s position on violence against women is zero tolerance,” Mr Rudd said. “Laws must be strong enough to hold perpetrators to account and offer justice and safety for victims and their families.
“We must also [...]
The claim has been made by an international human rights group that visited New Zealand last year and compiled a report on how the country deals with domestic violence.
The report*, issued in Wellington by the Leitner Centre for International Law and Justice at New York’s Fordham Law School, considers violence against women in the light [...]
It was once widely assumed that children were better off with their mothers, especially after divorce. In part, that was because mothers did most of the child-rearing. They got pregnant, gave birth and did most of the heavy lifting – nappy changes, toilet-training and school pick-ups – as the children got older.
The role played by [...]
Pro-abortion group says she’s “cause celebre”
A Cairns teenager who allegedly self-aborted at two months with an abortion pill smuggled in from overseas has gained support from the pro-choice lobby.
Tegan Simone Leach, 19, is believed to be the first woman charged in Queensland in nearly 50 years for organising her own miscarriage and is facing [...]
For over 25 years I have worked in Australia and overseas to prevent the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. One of the most horrendous developments that we have experienced in the last 15 years is the dramatic explosion in the global trade of child sexual abuse images on the internet.
Critics have argued that ISP [...]
‘…what is most appalling is the PNG government’s lax attitude to the repeated abuse of women in its society. Despite women activists staging protests, demonstrations and walkouts in the country’s parliament, all the country’s leaders have done is pay lip service to the problems’
At a time when a nation is emerging at the top of [...]
From the south of Auckland to the southern Highlands of PNG, women of the Pacific claimed a historic moment at the opening of the 11th AWID International Forum at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa last month.
It was the first time they have gathered in numbers at any global forum since [...]
A coalition of non-government organisations in Fiji has staged a march to highlight human rights abuses by the country’s military-led government.
The 10 NGOs met in Suva on Wednesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Head of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Virisila Buadromo, said 80 to 90 people attended [...]
We have heard a lot about abortion recently. At federal level Senator Barnett is trying to have a Medicare item removed to reduce funding for abortion; and in Victoria, the parliament recently had a conscience vote on reforming their abortion laws. During this debate, many members of the Victorian Parliament asked: what is being done [...]
At this year’s “May Day” March in Perth, ACTU President Sharon Burrows called for a publicly-funded paid maternity leave scheme, demanding that the Rudd Government demonstrate its support of women in paid employment and “working families”.
Despite the potency of this “call” Ms Burrow’s declaration received little attention from the May Day crowd. Still carrying banners [...]
Prime Minister Helen Clark says a big rise in recorded domestic violence offences is because the issue has been brought “out from under the carpet”.
Annual crime statistics released on 1st October showed a small drop in the crime rate for the year ended June 30, but a surge in reported family violence offences which pushed [...]
After much debate, mounting pressure from the Catholic Church and attempted legislative amendments, the Victorian Abortion Law Reform Bill was passed unamended by the Victorian Upper House on October 10.
A week earlier, on October 4, more than 200 people had rallied to support the bill, which would finally decriminalise abortion in Victoria. The rally [...]
Recent postings- Murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova condemned
- Three publications from AWID’s Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms
- Rabbanit? Rabbah? Maybe just plain Rabbi? What should be the title of an Orthodox woman who happens to also be a rabbi?
- Inquiry urged after Sudan women flogged for wearing trousers
- Accountability To Women Could Upset Business As Usual
- Fight Sexism to Help Young Mothers – South Africa
- Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone: Sexual Violence and Military Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Worrying increase in gang rape say police in Angola
- Repatriation of Rwandan Women Refugees in Uganda could increase hardships
- HRW condemns Rwanda’s draft law on HIV tests and sterilisation
- Gender Wire
- AFRICA: Organic Farming Could be Answer to Food Insecurity
- EDUCATION: Mother Tongue Absent in Thousands of Classrooms
- Q&A: 'Farmers Can Gain From Crisis'
- DR-CONGO: Rape by Regular Army a Growing Problem, HRW Says
- PERU: Going to School Still a Feat for Rural Girls
- CUBA: What Schools Can and Cannot Do for Equality
- FILM: Graphically Condemning a "Barbaric and Horrific Punishment"
- ECONOMY: Accountability To Women Could Upset Business-As-Usual
- POLITICS-US: Sotomayor Poised Amid Senatorial Jousting
- Q&A: "My Boyfriend Insisted I Quit Dancing, My Answer Was No"
- new on womensgrid
- Natalya Estemirova
- A Woman of Substance Award – nominations close 31st July 2009
- Art Exhibition & Panel Discussion – Women in Conflict – 31st July and 1st August 2009
- Public Meeting: Margaret Prescod – Tell us about Obama, about US policy in Haiti & Honduras …
- Disproportionate number of children who are killed came from homes with domestic violence
- Lost daughters campaign
- Refused asylum seekers forced to eat from bins says Rowntree trust
- Four years on Tesco still stalling on South African women’s farm pay
- The words of God do not justify cruelty to women
- Irish Women Challenge Abortion Ban in European Human Rights Court
- new on women in london
- 4 vacancies - Refuge - 28th July 2009
- Female Community Outreach Officer - Kiran - 14th August 2009
- Volunteer Co-ordinator - Jewish Women’s Aid - 10th August 2009
- 2 vacancies - Eaves - 17th and 22nd July 2009
- Public investment in childcare : who cares, who pays? - Daycare Trust - 17th November 2009
- Feminism in London - conference organised by London Feminist Network - 10th October 2009
- GLDVP Newsletter - July 2009
- GLDVP Stella Project advanced training for experienced workers - 6th August and 8th September 2009
- Being a mum has ‘devastating’ impact on earnings - new report - Fawcett
- The GLDVP response to: The Way Forward – A call for action to end violence against women
Economic Crisis: Women Will Suffer Most – a comment from Australia
27 April 2009 in Australasia, Employment Work, Equality, Financial, Opinion Comment
As the economic crisis continues to worsen, with capitalism unable to stop the spiral towards a global depression that will plunge millions into poverty, women will experience the negative consequences more rapidly and with more severity. While the ruling class — owners of banks, corporations and also governments — search for ways to make workers [...]