Glenn Inquiry Attracts Impressive Experts from Overseas

Monday 17 December 2012 – The Glenn Inquiry has attracted the interest and support of more than a dozen leading international experts in the area of domestic violence and child abuse, who will join what’s being called the ‘Think Tank’. Director of the Inquiry, Ruth Herbert says the Think Tank will be an informal networked group of 25 to 30 international and New Zealand members.

“They won’t meet as a formal group but rather be engaged on an as required basis to advise the Inquiry Panel on specific issues, to develop/critique/peer review papers and to test the model before it is more widely distributed.”

Herbert says the 13 international experts bring with them an impressive breadth and depth of expertise that will be directly relevant to the work of the Inquiry including: child abuse and child protection, the prevention of violence against women and children, international human rights, sexual abuse, interagency responses to domestic violence, complex service systems, and justice system responses.

“Our international line up also includes extensive expertise in one of the most frequently ignored but most critical issues - the intersection of child abuse and domestic violence.”
Australian Lesley Laing, a senior lecturer in Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, is one of the international experts who is keen to be involved in the Inquiry.

"I regard the intersection of child abuse and domestic violence as one of the greatest policy and practice challenges that we face at present in all similar countries and I’m excited to hear of The Glenn Inquiry initiative."

All the international appointees have generously agreed to contribute their time to the inquiry at discounted fees.

"This is incredibly helpful as it will enable us to engage more people to help us with the Inquiry and the more committed, competent and visionary people we have on the job, the better the final product will be. This spirit of giving is reflected at many levels. We have already had a number of people come out of nowhere and offer to give of their time and expertise."

In July businessman and philanthropist, Owen Glenn, announced that he would fund an independent inquiry to produce a blueprint - a model for the future that will answer the question "If New Zealand was leading the world in addressing child abuse and domestic violence what would that look like?"

Glenn says since then his team has been inundated with messages of support from those with personal experience of violence, those working in the field and every day New Zealanders who want to be part of the Inquiry to help make a difference.

“The Glenn Inquiry is the people’s inquiry. Its power will come from the bottom up - informed by the real life experiences of ordinary New Zealanders. The Inquiry Panel will hear from those affected by child abuse and domestic violence and front line workers to find out which aspects of New Zealand's system response are working well and where things are failing and hence need to be improved. It’s our hope that the people of New Zealand will get behind this and register their support.”

Glenn says within the space of a week of an email going out, thirteen international experts from six different countries had signed up to its Think Tank.

“We were staggered that almost all the experts we approached said yes. Only four declined to participate and in all instances it was because the pressure of their day-to-day workloads is such that they couldn't commit the time. We would have loved to ask more but there is a limit and we want New Zealanders involved too."

The Glenn Inquiry want to hear from anyone who has personal experience of child abuse or domestic violence or work with those who do or who has time, energy or expertise or wishes to donate financially to help the Glenn Inquiry. People can register their interest via the website www.glenninquiry.org.nz

International Think Tank Member Bios

Graham Barnes - USA
Graham has been a resource specialist with the Battered Women’s Justice Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 2005. He consults with federal grantees nationally on developing their coordinated community response to domestic violence, trains for professional institutes. Previously, Graham was Team Leader of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project’s National Training Project in Duluth, Minnesota where he developed local Duluth practice on domestic violence into training packages and resources for other communities nationally and internationally. In 1990, Graham was the founding men's program coordinator at New Zealand’s Hamilton Abuse Intervention Project, a national pilot that adapted the ‘Duluth-Model’ to a New Zealand cultural setting. Between 1998 and 2002, Graham worked for Preventing Violence in the Home developing a health sector response to domestic violence in Auckland.

Jacquelyn Campbell - USA
Jackie is a national leader in research and advocacy in the field of domestic violence or intimate partner violence (IPV). Her studies paved the way for a growing body of interdisciplinary investigations by researchers in the disciplines of nursing, medicine, and public health. Her expertise is frequently sought by national and international policy makers in exploring IPV and its health effects on families and communities. Dr. Campbell currently serves as Co-Chair of the IOM Forum on the Prevention of Global Violence. She is the current Chair of the Board of Directors for the Futures without Violence and has served on the board for the House of Ruth Battered Women's Shelter and four other shelters. She was also a member of the congressionally appointed U.S. Department of Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence.

John Carnochan - Scotland
John is a Detective Chief Superintendent, Co-Director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. He has been a police officer for over 38 years working mostly as a Detective. Together with Karyn McCluskey, John established the Violence Reduction Unit in January 2005 with the aim of developing a strategy that would bring about sustainable reductions in violence within Strathclyde. In April 2006 the VRU assumed a Scotland wide role and are now supported by the Scottish Government. Their fundamental tenet is that “violence is preventable - not inevitable”. John was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in 2007. In 2010 John was made a Fellow by Distinction of the Faculty of Public Health.

Jeffrey L. Edleson - USA
Jeff is Dean and Professor in the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare. He is Professor Emeritus in the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work and founding director of the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse. He has published more than 120 articles and 12 books on domestic violence, group work, and program evaluation. Edleson served on the US National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.

Cathy Humphreys - Australia
Cathy is Professor of Social Work at University of Melbourne, a chair established by the Alfred Felton Trust to work with community sector organisations to capacity build research. She has a strong background in practice, research and publication in the domestic violence and child abuse areas. Her research has explored the major social problem of domestic violence through a range of different lenses: substance use; mental health; child abuse; multiagency working and reform. Her research is international with a specific focus on the UK where she worked for 12 years at University of Warwick before returning to Australia and the professorship at University of Melbourne.

Jude Irwin - Australia
Jude is Professor of Social Work and Social Justice in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Jude’s teaching , research and practice interests include violence against women, children and young people. In her most recent research projects she has used action research and focussed on improving collaboration between domestic violence and mental health services and working with residents. Jude has been on a number of committees including the NSW Ombudman’s Child Death Advisory Committee, the NSW Child Death Review Team, the NSW Council on Violence Against Women (Deputy Chair) and the Advisory Group, Australian Child Protection Research Centre. Jude has published widely, including books, journal articles and several public reports.

Lesley Liang - Australia
Lesley is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney, where her teaching and research focus on violence against women and children. She was the founding Director of the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse and the NSW Health Education Centre Against Violence (ECAV). Lesley’s child sexual assault research has evaluated treatment programs for intrafamilial assault and for young people exhibiting sexually harmful behaviours. Her domestic violence research, conducted in collaboration with specialist domestic violence services, focuses on interagency responses to domestic violence and on women’s experiences of navigating complex service systems: the Family Law system, mental health services and the civil protection order process. Lesley chaired the interagency panel that recommended the establishment of the NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team and has served as a member of the team since its inception in 2011.

Bonita Meyersfeld - South Africa
Bonita is the director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and an associate professor of law at the School of Law, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (NRF Y1 rating). She is an editor of the South African Journal on Human Rights and the founding member and executive director of Lawyers against Abuse. Bonita teaches international law, business and human rights and international criminal law. Prior to working in South Africa, Bonita worked as a legal advisor in the House of Lords in the United Kingdom where she worked on pension law reform and principles of responsible investment. Bonita obtained her LLB from Wits Law School and her masters and doctorate in law from Yale Law School. She is the author of Domestic Violence and International Law, Hart Publishing (UK) (2010).

Dipak Naker - Uganda
Dipak is the Co-Founder and Co-Director at Raising Voices, where he manages the work on preventing violence against children. He is also a Co-Founder of Center for Domestic Violence Prevention and serves on the Board of several dynamic organizations. Dipak has worked with a wide range of people, from rural community members in Uganda to academics in highly respected institutions to prevent violence against children. He is a skilled facilitator of capacity-building processes, and has consulted for various international agencies. He has developed an award winning multiyear, multimedia campaign for preventing violence against children in Uganda and written and edited several substantive publications including the Good School Toolkit that is being used in more than 500 schools. Dipak is passionate about developing practical ways of preventing violence against children.

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