Special 2015 Event for Students at Parliament House!

Our ‘My Voice, My Vote’, Beijing + 20  event at the Parliament of Victoria will be on Thursday 26th March 2015 – Date to be confirmed

Young NCWVic is a group of young members of National Council of Women of Victoria. Our 2015 event will be held close to International Women’s Day and will celebrate 2015 being the 20th anniversary of the 4th World Conference of Women held in Beijing, China. (See beijing20.unwomen.org/ )

Annual Luncheon - Thursday December 4 2014

At this time of the year we pause, in the company of colleagues and friends, looking forward to the summer break and reflecting  on the successes - and failures perhaps - of our year’s work. Sadly as the three reports in this newsletter on ending violence in the community show, there is still work to be done when we return refreshed in the New Year.

We are honoured to have with us at the luncheon, our Patron in Chief, Mrs Elizabeth Chernov, wife of the Governor of Victoria, the Hon Alex Chernov.

The guest speaker is Elida Brereton FACE FACEL whose topic is ‘Adventures Along the Silk Road’.

Our fund raising at the Luncheon is generously supported by our affiliated organisations who have contributed to the table centre pieces forming a ‘Display of Festive Baskets of many nations’. Guests are encouraged to move round the room to look at the baskets and greet those at other tables.

Generous members and friends have helped us ensure that  a quarter of those in attendance are the young women who have helped our umbrella organisation during 2014 as volunteers, interns, Advisers and as members of short term working groups like the YoungNCWVic group who are preparing for the 2015 My Vote My Voice event in March as our contribution to International Women’s Day celebrations.

There is also an opportunity for donations to be made to support the Purple House Social Enterprise, health promotion projects of the Western Desert NWPT Aboriginal Corporation. Those of us who visited Alice Springs for the NCWA Mid-Term conference in May were able to visit the Purple House in Alice Springs, winner of the Ethical Enterprise Award in 2013. It is a non-government, not-for-profit, indigenous governed health organisation, established when Western Desert people who knew the need for remote area renal dialysis and health promotion programs, decided to ignore the lack of encouragement by the NT  and the Australian Government and raise their own funds.

See www.caritas.org.au for further information.

Mrs Elizabeth Chernov lunches at Angliss

Mrs Elizabeth Chernov, wife of Victoria's Governor His Excellency the Honourable Mr Alex Chernov, attended a luncheon at William Angliss Institute.

Mrs Chernov was at the Angliss Restaurant for the Annual Luncheon of the National Council of Women of Victoria, an organisation for which she is the Patron in Chief. The National Council of Women of Victoria is one of the oldest women's organisations in Victoria and aims to encouraging the participation of women in all aspects of community life.

Angliss students prepared and served the luncheon which had a traditional Christmas menu and was held at the on campus Angliss training restaurant.

All in all it was a very successful event, and a great opportunity for Angliss students.

Originally published on the William Angliss Institute website.

Landscapes of Violence

Has there ever been another election in our State when the issue of gender based or family violence has been such an issue?

It is two years since Minister Mary Wooldridge introduced the Victorian Government’s whole of government strategy ‘Ending Violence’  in October 2012, and the member-based women’s and community organisations have worked hard to keep track of the many government and community partnerships for  reducing if not eliminating violence against women and children. What is working and what is not? What more needs to be done?

Focussed research and data collection has to be a key to finding better ways for dealing with what seems to be endemic violence in our community.  This is why the research project Landscapes of Violence: Women Surviving Family Violence in Regional and Rural Victoria’, authored by Amanda George and Dr Bridget Harris at the Deakin University’s Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, is really significant.

Landscapes of Violence is being launched on Friday 7 November, 9:45 for 10:00 am, at the Deakin University CBD campus, Level 3, 550 Bourke Street Melbourne and at five rural locations via videoconference: Bendigo, Churchill, Geelong, Mildura, Warrnambool. 

I am delighted to have been asked to speak at the launch along with Dr Patricia Hamilton, President, National Rural Women’s Coalition Ltd. A full report of the findings of the project will be supplied in the next NCWV newsletter.

Review of Australia’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women

Not only is next year the 20th anniversary of the UN’s 4th World Conference of Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995, but we have been engaged this year in the lead up to periodic review of Australia’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women.

For this reason we have been looking carefully at the Beijing Platform for Action including the section on the needs of young women – the Girl Child. A number of strategic objectives were identified in 1995 including to eradicate violence against the girl-child and to promote the girl-child's awareness of and participation in social, economic and political life.

As part of the review process there has been a series of relevant speakers at NCWV meetings including

• Erin Wicking, Girl Guides Victoria, on their new initiatives including the PLAN international  ‘Because I Am a Girl’ partnership and focussing on International Day of Girl Child October 11;
  
• Christine Carolan, Project Officer, ACRATH, on forced and early marriage;
  
• Lisa Wilson, River Nile Learning Centre, on off-campus re-engagement for young African women; and then
  
• at the 111th AGM on  September 4, Dr Debbie Ollis, Deakin University,  delivered a thought provoking address on the experience of boys and girls in a school setting as the basis for 'Building Respectful Relationships in Schools – from research into practice'.
  

Taking this as a starting point, it seems timely to use the October meeting of Council – always devoted to a  UN related topic - to complete this series of talks by looking at  the earliest years of children’s lives. Next year is also the 20th Anniversary the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to which Australia is a signatory. See https://www.unicef.org.au/Discover/What-we-do/Convention-on-the-Rights-of-the-Child/childfriendlycrc.aspx

NCWA supported calls for Australia to have a Children’s Commissioner, and applauded Commissioner Megan Mitchell’s first report released in 2013 that highlighted key themes for work with young children, subsequently adopted by the peak body Early Childhood Australia: the right to be heard; freedom from violence, abuse and neglect; the opportunity to thrive; engagement round  civics and citizenship; action and accountability.

The October 2 meeting of Council is an opportunity to look at current issues that have drawn fresh attention to some of the Articles of the Convention for example;
Article 7 - Children have the right to a legally registered name and nationality. Children also have the right to know their parents and, as far as possible, to be cared for by them.
Article 8 - Governments should respect a child’s right to a name, a nationality and family ties.
Article 9 - Children should not be separated from their parents unless it is for their own good. … if a parent is mistreating or neglecting a child. Children whose parents have separated have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might harm the child.
Article 20- Children who cannot be looked after by their own family must be looked after properly by people who respect their religion, culture and language.
Article 21- When children are adopted the first concern must be what is best for them. The same rules should apply whether children are adopted in the country of their birth or if they are taken to live in another country.
Article 22- Children who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children who are born in that country.
Article 29 - Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children to respect their parents, their cultures and other cultures.

Building Respectful Relationships as a Way to End Violence?

Next year is the 20^th anniversary of the UN’s 4^th World Conference of Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995. The Platform for Action included a section on the need to focus on the needs of young women – the Girl Child. A number of strategic objectives were identified including to eradicate violence against the girl-child and to promote the girl-child's awareness of and participation in social, economic and political life.

 In the light of the review and NCWV’s 2014 focus on ‘Young Women’  it was very gratifying that  NCW Victoria’s 2013 resolution for the 2014 Mid-term Conference in Alice Springs , was carried unanimously, calling on Australian governments to take further action to  better document the incidence of forced and early marriage in Australia and monitor the effect of the legislation;  to encourage increased community awareness of the law through educational, faith-based and civil society organizations;    and to facilitate culturally sensitive training to state and territory departments of justice, existing service providers and support agencies.

Now the latest funding round has recognised several NGOs for their work in this field including ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans). NCWV’s August Council meeting at Ross House, Flinders Lane, included a two member panel on the Girl Child theme: Erin Wicking, Girl Guides Victoria, Community Development Officer, speaking about some new initiatives including the ‘Because I Am a Girl’ partnership, and Christine Carolan, Project Officer, Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans, who provided a brief account of one what ACRATH was already doing and how ACRATH  will use its new funding.

While the community continues to struggle with what seems to be an epidemic of violence, there seems to have been little attention given to what might be done at school level. So we welcome the recent announcement from Education Minister the Hon Martin Dixon MP that a program aimed at Year 8 and 9 students is to be rolled out in State, Catholic and other private schools. The program, which has been successfully tried at four secondary schools, follows a 2009 VicHealth report that identified schools as high-risk areas for gender-based violence. Wes Hosking report in the Herald-Sun June 12, quoted Deakin University’s Dr Debbie Ollis, who helped write the program, as saying“… we’ve got to find a new way to try and prevent violence against women. “And it’s not just violence against women or children — it’s violence against men as well.”

There will be an opportunity to hear Dr Ollis speak on Building Respectful Relationships  at the NCW Victoria AGM on September 4. Click here to download the flyer for the AGM

Violence against women and their children

The Commonwealth, state and territory governments worked with the community from 2009 to develop a National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 (the National Plan). Over 12 years the National Plan aims to achieve a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children.

We welcome the announcement on Friday June 27 by the Australian Government of the Second Action Plan to stop domestic violence and violence against women and their children. This is the second phase in a 12-year strategy to curb violence against women and children in Australia and will span the next four years, bringing to $200 m the total committed between 2009 and 2017.

Assistant Minister for Women m Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash said migrant women are often not aware of their rights in Australia, particularly in relation to forced or under age marriage and female genital mutilation. “This is where the Second Action Plan steps in, ”Senator Cash said. “Forced and under age marriages are not tolerated in Australia, the same applies to the abhorrent practice of Female Genital Mutilation”. he plan also means that will mean foreign-born spouses who come to Australia on marriage visas will receive additional support. Their husbands or fiancés will have to provide authorities with additional information, and new material will be developed to inform these women about essential services and emergency contacts in Australia.

“We must be aware that sadly, some women coming to our country are not afforded the same rights at home and we must as a Government ensure they are equipped with the knowledge they need to prevent being subjected to violence and abuse,” Senator Cash said.

Northern Territory Minister Bess Price, who also attended the launch, said she was pleased the Second Action Plan has specific initiatives to deal with violence against Indigenous women. “ I have been a victim as well, and I know how it is, and I want to make sure the future is better for women and their families and that help is provided so women can feel safe.”