Stopping Violence Against Women

In early November, Australia and the United States co-hosted a policy dialogue with Pacific nations to devise ways to stop violence against women in the Pacific. It’s an endeavour that sits sharply in my mind, having returned from a visit to Vanuatu only last month.

In Vanuatu, I was privileged to see the work of the AusAID-funded Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) to combat violence against women in that country.

Travelling with members of the VWC to the remote northern province of Torba, I met a local chief, Greg, who had walked for eight hours from his village in West Vanua Lava just to tell us his story. Disturbed by the high levels of violent attacks against women on his island, five years earlier Greg had become one of the local Women’s Centre’s male advocates working to combat violence against women. His dedication to the role was measured not only in each mile he walked through Torba’s jungle to chronicle his work but in the daily challenge of protecting the women in his community from vicious, often permanently disabling attacks.

I had the honour of being appointed by the Government to be Australia’s first Global Ambassador for Women and Girls in September this year, tasked with international advocacy to advance the position of women and girls across the globe but especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

My role as Global Ambassador was created by the Government and announced jointly by Prime Minister Gillard, the Foreign Minister, Mr Rudd, and the Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare and the Status of Women, Ms Ellis. A global scourge requires a global response. It’s a cause to which the Government is deeply committed.

Globally, one in three women will experience violence at the hands of men in their lifetime. In the Pacific this is as high as two in three – two-thirds of the female population experiencing violence from husband, partner, family or friend in their lifetime.

Violence against women is a fundamental development issue. Gender inequity, and the violence that attends it, must be tackled head on for developing nations to reach their full potential. As long as violence against women continues, women, their children, their families, whole communities and whole nations are at risk of entrenched poverty and suffering. By stopping violence, and empowering women, we bring untold flow-on benefits to nations, developed and developing alike.

That’s why Australia recently committed $96.4 million over four years to combat violence against women. This includes $25 million to expand efforts to end violence against women in Papua New Guinea and across the Pacific. In the Pacific, we are funding empowerment projects and contributing to the promising work already being done by Pacific communities themselves.

We are funding research to create a baseline for understanding the problem in the Pacific. Recognising the specific and universal aspects of this phenomena, we are supporting programs to improve women’s access to the justice system, strengthen the justice system so male perpetrators can be brought to justice, provide assistance for survivors, educate women, and educate men – changing consciousness about gender-based violence so we can bring about lasting change, relational change.

We are pleased to be working with partners like UN Women and neighbouring governments and non-government organisations on this important issue.

Critical are male advocacy training programs - like the one that has seen Greg in Torba become such a committed advocate for the rights of women and girls in his community. Men being trained to understand what violence against women is, how they can stop it, through modifying their own behaviour and the behaviour of other men.

By educating men in this way we will achieve real change for the future. As Australia’s Foreign Minister, Mr Rudd, said to the APEC Summit on Women and the Economy in September, “Gender based violence is not just a challenge for women, it is a challenge for men. The core problem is this, my gender, the male gender is responsible. Until we deal with this, in many of the developing countries of our part of the world, we will not be able to embrace full economic opportunities for women. That is a core truth.”

White Ribbon Day on 25 November, is a call to action for all men to stand up against violence against women across the world. Mr Rudd is a White Ribbon Ambassador and has ‘taken the oath’ never to commit, excuse, or remain silent about violence against women. In San Francisco he called on male leaders across the region to do the same.

In only a few short months as Australia’s Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, I have witnessed the changes that can occur if violence prevention programs work: women and girls free of violence, taking up their rightful equal place as productive members of society.

I greatly value the opportunity to work with our partner countries in the Pacific to learn how we can best assist to stop violence against women for good, and to learn from your experiences, to fight violence against women and girls in Australian society.

Every woman has a right to live a life free of violence. I join Mr Rudd in calling on men to take a stand on White Ribbon Day, for the women in your lives, and for women all over the world, sharing the path of Greg and other male advocates in Vanuatu, across the difficult terrain of this complex issue.

ENDS

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