Eliminating violence against women: 2013 conference represents voices of migrant and refugee women in Australia

The First National Australian Migrant and Refugee Women's Alliance (AMaRWA) Conference was held in Canberra from 28-30 April 2013. The objectives of the conference (called Stand Up!) align with the Australian Government's National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010-2022). AMaRWA's vision is to represent the voices and interests of the 6.6 million migrant and refugee women in Australia at the national level.

AMaRWA identified violence against culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) women as being a national concern because it is a barrier to their ability to participate in the workforce, to protect their children from harm, and to engage with mainstream society. In Australia, 33% of women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and almost 20% have experienced sexual violence. Figures may be higher among women of non-English speaking backgrounds because they are usually less likely to report violations. Globally, two million girls are at risk of violence each year.

In order to break the cycle of violence, AMaRWA organized a conference to bring together experts to develop a national policy framework for eliminating violence against CaLD women. Hence the theme of the Stand Up! National Conference was “Eliminating all forms of Violence against culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) women.”

On Sunday, April 28, the Conference of Champions, as part of the Stand Up! National Conference brought together survivors of all forms of violence in a closed session. These 30 champion survivors, from across Australia, also attended the 2-day conference as VIP guests, continuing to work with AMaRWA to formulate and develop a policy framework.

In Canberra, the Stand Up! National Conference opened on Monday, the first day of official sessions, with an acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the ACT land, the Ngunnawal, past and present. Guest speaker, Dr. Casta Tungaraza, African Women’s Council of Australia and Murdoch University’s Gender, Equity, Diversity and Social Justice Manager presented the keynote address on Female Genital Mutilation, before splitting into two workshops: FGM and Human Trafficking.

Due to my work on child labour and human trafficking, particularly the trafficking of girls into the domestic and entertainment/hospitality sectors, I attended the Human Trafficking workshop. Three speakers presented information on human trafficking in Australia. They included Jennifer Burn, Director of Anti-Slavery Australia at the University of Technology of Sydney (UTS); Brigid Corcoran, Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH); and Samantha Lyneham of the Australian Institute of Criminology in Canberra.

Since 2004 in Australia, there have been 381 women reported as trafficked, with 18 convictions against their perpetrators. On International Women’s Day on March 8, 2013, the Australian Government announced amendments to the crimes legislation, passed on February 27, that now criminalizes forced marriage, forced labour, and organ trafficking.

The Stand Up! National Conference concludes today and aims to submit a number of recommendations to the Australian Government for the elimination of all forms of violence against CaLD women in Australia.

www.amarwa.org

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).