Violence – Page 28 – Feminist Legal Clinic

Don’t let feminism get hijacked for racist ends

While we all celebrate International Women’s Day in different ways, there’s one under-discussed issue I hope all of us will take up – the way racist policies across the globe are being enacted under the guise of protecting women.

Stoking racial hatred by invoking the protection of women – white women, in particular – is nothing new in the United States, of course. The fear of rape has historically been used to justify horrific violence against American black men

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/08/feminism-hijacked-migrants?

For Aboriginal women, International Women’s Day is not a celebration

Aboriginal women are the “fastest growing” prison population in Australia and it is well-known incarceration rates for Aboriginal women are linked to the double discrimination women face in the criminal justice system on the basis of both race and gender.

Aboriginal women also spoke of the suffering resulting from child protection practices leading to widespread removal of Aboriginal children, including newborns, from their mothers at rates exceeding those that occurred under the discriminatory era of The Stolen generations.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-09/international-womens-day-aboriginal-women-no-celebration/8338282

Calling for smarter approaches to violence, offending that address underlying causes of crime

Family violence is both a cause and a consequence of imprisonment. Our women are at the epicentre of the national family violence crisis. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are currently 34 times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of family violence than non-Indigenous women and 10 times more likely to be killed as a result of violent assault.

At the same time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women also represent the fastest growing prison population in Australia and it is estimated that around 90 percent of our women in prison have previously been a victim/survivor of family violence.

https://croakey.org/calling-for-smarter-approaches-to-violence-offending-that-address-underlying-causes-of-crime/

Male Violence Is The Worst Problem In The World

It is everyday terrorism against women, but it is not recognised as such because the targets are women, and the perpetrators are the very people who claim to love us. While many of us have been directly harmed by male violence, the threat alone is enough to keep women as a class in a state of fear, controlled, pliable.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/caitlin-roper/male-violence-against-women_b_14982898.html

UN expert reminds Australia of obligations on gendered violence

The federal government has been reminded by the United Nations of its human rights obligations to women fleeing from family and domestic violence, and is being advised to provide appropriate funding for Australia’s community legal centres.

Wrapping up her two week examination into the “scourge” of violence against women, the UN special rapporteur Dubravka Simonovic gave her preliminary findings of a problem which takes the lives of one or two Australian women every week.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/02/27/un-expert-reminds-australia-obligations-gendered-violence