Action to tackle gender-based violence in Australia & UK
So much can be learnt and applied through the sharing of successful initiatives to tackle violence against women and children. Both Australia and the United Kingdom have National Plans to end and address violence against women and girls.
As part of this months’ bilateral conversations on strengthening ties between Australia and the UK the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and Minister for Women and Equality, the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, focused attention on sharing experiences, initiatives and successes in ending violence against women and girls.
On 20 January 2022 Violet Co Principal Karen Iles (pictured) was invited to attend the Australia and UK Roundtable ‘Supporting Women’s Personal Security in All Settings’. The Roundtable discussion provided an opportunity to share experiences on supporting women in all settings – at homes, at work, in schools, in the community, and online, with a focus on their personal security.
Karen spoke both as a victim of sexual assault and as a legal practitioner.
As a practitioner I am a fierce advocate of trauma informed approaches. They are critical to eradicate the re-traumatisation of women who come forward about their experiences of sexual assault, harassment and discrimination.
She spoke of the increasing trend of workplaces to use external workplace investigators and the re-traumatisation, and material impacts, that can occur when these investigations do not occur in a trauma-informed, culturally safe way with an underpinning understanding and embracing of systemic gender inequality and other intersectional inequalities.
Interestingly in the UK National Plan Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy provides a positive duty on employers to ensure the safety of women in workplaces - safety from sexual harassment. This has been echoed in Australia in the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins’ Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020). In September 2021 the Australian Government introduced new changes, Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act 2021, in response to Commissioner Jenkins report to give added protections against sexual harassment. If you aren’t across these changes and what they mean for you or your organisation we would be happy to discuss with you.
This month has seen the release of the Australian Government’s Draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. Consultation is open until 25 February 2022. You can review the draft and provide your feedback here.