Please note this weekend’s newsletter discusses gender-based violence, which includes sexual, family, and domestic violence.

Last Monday, a global campaign kicked off: 16 Days of Activism.

Headed by United Nations Women, it’s an international campaign against gender-based violence, starting on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November) and concluding on International Human Rights Day (10 December). Rallies and demonstrations have been held across Australia, by organisations like 1800 RESPECT, as part of the global movement.

Gender-based violence takes many forms, including family and domestic violence, sexual assault, emotional or psychological violence, and coercive control.

UN Women reports that globally a woman was killed by a close partner or family member every 10 minutes in 2023.

Earlier this year, the Australian Institute of Criminology reported that the rate of a woman killed by a partner in Australia increased by nearly 30% in 2023.

This week, I sat down with Simone Clarke, the CEO of UN Women Australia, to talk about how gender-based violence can be addressed, if we’re seeing progress in Australia, what role education plays, and what different levels of government are doing.

In Australia, around one in four women (23%) and one in 14 men (7.3%) have experienced intimate partner violence, according to Federal Government research published in 2021.

Women with a disability (33%) are twice as likely as women without a disability (16%) to experience sexual violence.

While gender-based violence predominantly impacts women and girls, Clarke told TDA that when it comes to addressing the issue, it’s “not just all about women, it’s about all of us”.

Clarke said “global action is also needed” to address gender-based violence “because it’s not an issue that’s peculiar to Australia”.

However, she described the rate of gender-based violence in the country as “high and appalling… mirroring what’s happening across the globe.”

Despite community action and government investments, particularly at a state level, the rate of gender-based violence is not improving.

Clarke said: “If your overarching indicator is the rate of [gender-based violence] incidents… we’re actually going backwards, and unfortunately we’re seeing that across the spectrum of human rights, particularly women’s rights.”

She pointed to societal attitudes and the need for “a cultural revolution” in Australia “around how we view women and how we value women.”

The goal is to create a world where women are “able to go for a run at 4am in the dark without looking over our shoulder wondering if that footstep behind us is a perpetrator”.

While support for victim-survivors is a crucial aspect to addressing gender-based violence, Clarke said prevention is “the key to a future that is violence-free.”

“We need to look at behaviour change and… education,” Clarke said.

Clarke used changing behaviours around smoking as an example of how education, over time, can shift attitudes.

According to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) an advertisement for cigarettes ran every 14 minutes on TV in 1968.

In the decades following this, however, various anti-smoking advertisements and campaigns shifted Australians’ attitudes.

In 1991, 24% of people over the age of 14 smoked daily; this figure more than halved to 8.3% in 2022/23, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Now, educational programs are making their way into the classroom to encourage conversations around gender-based violence. For example, Clarke mentioned The Man Cave, a program that runs workshops for boys in schools to change attitudes and behaviours, and break down gender stereotypes.

“It’s this whole notion of showing and helping young men think about what it means for them to be a man,” Clarke said.

She also pointed to Teach Us Consent, an organisation that drove the addition of mandatory consent education to the National Curriculum.

While advertisements and educational campaigns played a large role in discouraging smoking in Australia, these campaigns were coupled with government reforms like taxes on cigarettes and policy initiatives.

This year, we’ve seen various levels of government introduce law reforms, particularly around domestic and family violence.

In September, the Federal, state, and territory governments announced a $4.7 billion support package to support domestic and family violence frontline services, and victim-survivors.

At a state level, in NSW it’s become a requirement for domestic violence offenders on bail to wear electronic monitoring devices (e.g. ankle bracelets). This reform also made it harder for alleged perpetrators of “serious” domestic violence to be granted bail.

Over in Victoria, the State Government has proposed justice system reforms aimed at protecting victim-survivors in court.

Under a new bill, alleged victims would only be required to give evidence during court proceedings, not during pre-trial hearings. Ideally, this reduces the number of times a victim-survivor has to recount potentially traumatic experiences before the court.

This reform was suggested after the state’s Victims of Crime Commissioner found that three in four victim-survivors were concerned about their safety in court. The bill still needs to pass the state’s upper house to become a law.

As for the upcoming federal election, set to be called early next year, Clarke said gender-based violence will be “an election issue”.

Clarke said: “When we have more women in leadership… we get slightly different outcomes.”

“Violence against women is an issue for all of us, and by extension, it’s a political issue.”

Clarke added that in the upcoming election, “the role of women, gender equality, and violence against women… will certainly be part of that mix.”

Gender-based violence is a systemic issue that has taken, and will continue to take, decades of campaigns, education, and work to solve.

While bigger level campaigns and programs are taking place in a global setting, by governments, and not-for-profit organisations — how can progress be made on a day-to-day basis?

Clarke suggested going “back to the root causes. What’s causing the violence? Why is it permissible?”

She said it’s up to individuals and their communities to “determine what we will tolerate and what we won’t tolerate.”

Clarke said this could include “little things like changing the way we talk about women” and “calling out bad behaviour”.

“So if there's one thing you can do, [it’s] go and have a conversation, or if you see something, have a chat to someone.”

If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800 RESPECT.

Call: 1800 737 732
Text: 0458 737 732
Video: 1800RESPECT.org.au

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In this week's wrap of good news, we discuss the reopening of a famous Parisian cathedral, the good news about walking in a straight line across NZ and the Hawaiian birds coming back from extinction.