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Location: Home  »  International  » Australia's Achievements for Women  » Australia's Achievements for Women

Australia's Achievements for Women

47th Session of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

New York, 3-14 March, 2003

ATTACHMENT TO COUNTRY STATEMENT - AUSTRALIA

Delivered by the Hon Jackie Kelly, MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
(Head, Australian Delegation to the Commission)

Country Statement - Australia

Australia's Beijing Plus Five Action Plan

Over the past twelve months, the Australian Government has continued implementation of Australia's Beijing Plus Five Action Plan 2001-2005. The Action Plan was developed in early 2000, in consultation with a broad range of women's groups from diverse backgrounds. Australia has made copies of the Action Plan available for this session.

In 2000, the national Office for Women in Australia commenced a comprehensive implementation strategy, which focused on working closely with government departments. The Office has conducted a Beijing Plus Five roundtable with senior officials and one-on-one meetings with heads of government departments. These forums have been used to raise awareness about Beijing Plus Five and OfW is working closely with departments to increase their knowledge of gender mainstreaming and to help them focus on areas where improvements can be made for women.

The Government has produced a Beijing Plus Five Kit to assist government departments to integrate gender into their business. The Kit comprises: information sheets on the Beijing Platform for Action and Beijing Plus Five Outcomes Document; practical strategies' and 'how to' guides and checklists for project managers, policy makers and service providers. There are also plans to develop publications to which promote the sharing of information across departments on ways to ensure that the needs of women are considered in policy development and service delivery.

Indigenous women

The Australian Government has placed a very high priority on addressing family violence in Indigenous communities. The Australian Government supports a wide range of measures to improve opportunities for Indigenous women and to reduce violence in their lives. Efforts have focused on holistic and sustainable approaches to reduce, and better respond to, family and domestic violence.

Last year, a new national Indigenous Women's Advisory Group was established to further enhance the Government's work with Indigenous women. The Group comprises 9 Indigenous women from around Australia who work with the national Office for Women on policy and programme development.

Women's Ministers from Australia have recently developed a draft Women and Reconciliation National Action Plan that reflects the priorities under the Council of Australian Governments reconciliation process. The Plan covers a wide range of action areas including strategies to increase economic and leadership opportunities and to tackle violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Women's human rights and elimination of violence against women

Domestic violence

Eliminating violence from the lives of women and girls is a major priority for the Australian Government. In 1997, the Prime Minister launched the first National Summit on Domestic Violence and established the Partnerships Against Domestic Violence initiative (a $50 million commitment over four years).

The initiative aims to test new approaches to preventing domestic violence. Some recent innovative projects include: finding safe ways to reduce women and children's homelessness; raising young people's awareness of healthy relationships; trialing models of integrated work between crisis and housing services and the justice system; and grants to Indigenous organisations to help them find innovative ways to tackle family violence in their communities.

A number of projects are working with perpetrators of violence, through techniques such as mentoring and early intervention support in crisis situations as well as working with mothers and children affected by family violence.

Another very important initiative is the National Indigenous Family Violence Grants Programme which provides funding to local Indigenous organisations to run projects at the community level. Seventy Indigenous Communities have been funded to develop better ways of responding to and preventing family violence.

Some key projects include:

engaging young people and elders to find culturally appropriate alternatives to using violence and restoring self worth;
building community capacity (through awareness raising and training) for Indigenous leaders to take the lead against family violence.
Sexual assault

In 2001, the Australian Government established the National Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault, a commitment of $16.5 million over four years. The initiative aims to promote cultural change in attitudes and behaviours to reduce the incidence of sexual assault and to establish a framework for reduction, prevention and early intervention across all levels of government and the community. Some key measures include funding for the establishment of an Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault, a National Community Awareness Campaign, Australia's participation in the first International Violence Against Women Survey and development of a Sexual Assault Information Development Plan by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Another important feature is the sponsorship of national mainstream media-based arts festivals, inviting young people to express their views about sexual assault to the Government. One festival is being designed specifically for young Indigenous people.

Trafficking

At the Federal level, legislation addresses various aspects of trafficking including: slavery, sexual servitude and deceptive recruiting; organised people smuggling; child sex tourism; organised crime. Other significant Australian initiatives are outlined below.

In February 2002, Australia co-hosted (with Indonesia) the Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime.
Australia participated in the First and Second World Congresses Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in 1996 and 2001 and developed a National Plan of Action. The Plan provides for the development of a coordinated cross sectoral and inter-governmental response to commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Australia's aid programme supports a range of initiatives aimed at combating trafficking such as:
a multi-million dollar project to combat trafficking of women and girls in the Mekong Subregion (Cambodia, China - Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam). The project aims to enhance the capabilities of organisations and persons (especially women) and improve regional communication and cooperation;
an Asian regional trafficking project that focuses on information exchanges for early warning systems and the apprehension and prosecution of traffickers. The project aims to strengthen regional cooperation and legal policy frameworks through identified ASEAN and China national points of contact, and to build national and regional capacity to more effectively prevent trafficking in women and children.
Australia's aid programme

The protection and promotion of human rights is an integral component of Australia's aid programme which emphasises the need to support practical and achievable human rights activities. A number of projects aim to educate women about their human rights including: training of female legal counsellors in Pakistan; human rights training for officers of women's police cells in New Delhi; and support through the Pacific Commission to promote Pacific Islands' ratification of, and reporting on, CEDAW.

Australia continues to provide wide ranging support to other countries which are working on eradicating violence against women and girls. Australia is working with partner governments and NGOs in developing countries to find ways to change attitudes towards violence against women and children. Australia provides support to the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre. As the Secretariat of the Pacific Women's Network Against Violence Against Women, the Centre supports efforts to eliminate domestic violence in the region including by coordinating the services and advocacy of 23 agencies across 11 Pacific Island states. Australia also assists the Vanuatu Women's Centre, to fund 14 mobile clinics which give women in outlying islands access to counselling, education and legal advisory services. Another important initiative supported by Australia is the Violence Against Women Fund in South Africa which addresses gender violence by using the expertise, experience and networks of relevant civil society organisations.

The unique needs and rights of women in post-conflict situations are being addressed through a number of projects in the region. In Bougainville, the Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency addresses violence against women including through the dissemination of information about women's rights and provision of counselling and legal advice. In East Timor, Australia is addressing violence against women through capacity building support for community based mental health services.

Afghan women have been a key focus of Australian aid for many years, and all projects have been in accordance with the agreed United Nations principle that women and girls participate in, and benefit from aid received. Since September 2001, Australia has contributed $54.33 million to humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. A number of aid projects are providing funding to UNICEF to improve girls' access to education and to build the capacity of civil society, with a specific focus on women's participation and empowerment.

Gender-base persecution: Australia's efforts to support victims

Australia's Woman at Risk programme was established to advance the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) goal of protecting refugee women and women of concern to UNHCR. The programme recognises that women in particularly vulnerable situations where traditional support and protection have broken down are often exposed to risk of serious abuse, sexual assault or victimisation. 'Women at risk' applicants can include female heads of families, mothers, widows and abandoned or single women identified as being in need of resettlement. In 2001-02, 478 visas were granted to women at risk representing 11.5 per cent of the refugee component of Australia's offshore programme. This programme has resettled women from the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Sierra Leone.

The Australian Government has established comprehensive guidelines to assist officers involved in assessing gender-based claims for protection visas in Australia or entry to Australia under its offshore Humanitarian Programme. The Government recognises that women may experience persecution and discrimination differently from men, and so has developed guidelines which provide advice on how decision-makers can best approach claims of gender-based persecution. The guidelines provide practical guidance on procedural issues which can influence women applicants and which may affect their ability to present their claims.

Participation and access of women to the media and information and communication technologies

Women's access and participation in the media and information and communication technologies (ICTs) is an important priority for Australia.

The Australian Government supports a range of innovative measures to increase women's access and participation in the media and ICTs. Some examples include: the Government funds the Women and IT Scholarship; the Australian Broadcasting Commission Women in Engineering (Broadcasting) Scholarship; and an industry wide Women in Television initiative.

Australia also supports a suite of information resources for women. Australia's first Women's Portal (to be launched late March 2003) provides a single point entry to access online government information, research, services and resources that are relevant to women. Another first, is a women's data warehouse - Window on Women - an online facility for accessing data and research for and about women across a variety of issues of importance to women.

Other significant measures include:

an Information Economy Strategic Plan (Learning for the Knowledge Society: An Education and Training Action Plan for the Information Economy) which includes a framework for the education sector to develop strategies to ensure that all Australians possess IT skills for life and work; and
projects to improve rural and regional women's access to computer hardware and essential training, and relevant and appropriate content.