Veronika Wild

  Domestic Violence and Violence against Women and Children are a major problem in many parts of the world and just like Australia, many countries have created National Plans to counter it.  I must confess, I have not read many of these – just one subsection in Australia’s ran to 283 pages, but there is considerable similarity between them. For example, they almost always include Helplines, Emergency Shelter and support, changes to legislature, and efforts to improve Gender Equality, workplace culture and the underlying norms which contribute to the mistreatment of women. With the broad brushstrokes already established, this post will mainly be about recent changes and some of the more innovative programs. EUROPE The European Union and associated countries – 45 to date, have recently ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence – more generally known as the Istanbul Convention , which came into effect in October

 Continued from previous post...         6. ENSURING SAFETY IN ALL SETTINGS This seeks to ensure that there is high quality Respectful Relationships Education in Schools Building awareness of sexual violence in mainstream services among health professionals   and frontline workers Safety at work   All 55 recommendations of the Respect @Work Report will be implemented including the establishment of Women’s Centres in each State. The Australian Government has ratified the International Labour Organization's Convention 190 (Violence and Harassment Convention). It will come into effect on June 9, 2024.   Ratified by 39 countries to date, it includes the right to safety and dignity at work and places a duty of care on employers to take a pro -active approach to prevention, protecting, enforcement, training and awareness As of March 6, 2023 the Australian Government has also amended the Fair Work Act 2009 to expressly ban sexual harassment at work. This protection now also cov

OOPS! This has gotten impossibly long, so I'll split it into two parts. Here's Part 1 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC Australia is making a huge effort to address its domestic violence problem and hopes to end it in one generation. On the day before International Women’s Day, it launched its new 10 -Year National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children. It is also putting its money where its mouth is. Over the next four years it is allocating just under one billion dollars for a large range of programs, some of which will be delivered by state governments and Non Government Organisations, partly because things like Law   Enforcement and Education for example, are State responsibilities and because some organisations already have an established track record in this sector. However, the Federal Government will co -ordinate and oversee them.  An additional $589 million will go towards its Five-Year Action Plan which we’ll discuss more