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International Human Rights Day
76 years ago today, a landmark document – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It enshrined the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Importantly, it set out for the first time, that fundamental human rights must be universally protected.
76 years later, the rights of the billions of people – most predominantly women and children – around the world are under unprecedented threat.
This is why, this International Human Rights Day, the Loddon Consortium for Gender Equality & Violence Prevention has united to stand up and demand that protecting human rights is the only way forward.1 We must protect:
Our right to exist.
Our right to live in safety.
Our right to equality.
Every 10 minutes a woman is killed around the world as a result of intentional violence. In 2023 alone, over 51,000 women had their lives forcibly cut short by acts of violence, mostly by someone known to them.2
Devastatingly, the violence does not stop there.
Globally, 650 million (or 1 in 5) girls and women alive today have been subjected to sexual violence as children.3
State-sanctioned violence is also escalating in unprecedented magnitude.
Globally, tens of thousands of lives have been intentionally, and forcibly ended due to violence, with unprecedented violence escalating over the last 14 months. War and conflict, disproportionately impacts women, children and diverse communities. A 2023 UN Women report stated that in 2023:
[T]he proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubled compared to 2022. Four out of every ten people who died as a result of conflict in 2023 were
women. UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent.4
In Gaza alone, more than 43,000 people have been killed – 70 per cent of whom are women and children.5 We know that this figure is underreported, with conservative estimates as published by numerous agencies, including the United Nations, the Gaza Ministry of Health, and world-renowned medical journal, The Lancet recently estimating that the death toll will eventually fall within the hundreds of thousands.6
We are what we allow.
The hard truth is, that as a community, we allow human rights abuses.
In Australia, we are bearing witness to the intentional killings of women as a result of gender-based violence every three days. During the last week of November, at the height of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, 6 women in 7 days were killed.
This is not an anomaly. Every six minutes Victoria Police respond to a family violence incident. The Victorian Crime statistics to June 2024 paint a sobering picture: police recorded over 98,000 family violence incidents in the previous 12 months. This signalled a
6.1 percent increase from the previous year. Victim survivors of family violence continue to predominantly be women and children, while perpetrators continue to predominantly be men.7
Rates of sexual violence in Australia over the last 12 years, have also increased year on year. Samantha McNally, ABS head of crime and justice statistics, stated that 2023 “[…] is the highest rate of sexual assault victim-survivors recorded in our 31-year dataset.”8
Nationally9:
- 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence since the age of
- 1 in 16 men have experienced sexual violence since the age of
- 98% of reported sexual violence are perpetrated by
And as rates of violence increase, funding models continue to be unsustainable. Core services for sexual violence, family violence, housing, and allied health operate under conditions that are defined by short-term, underfunded budgets that were never going to be able to allow services to meet demand.
Unilateral budget cuts and funding provisions to services are increasingly decided without consultation, without impact assessments and importantly, without future planning in place to safeguard victim survivors from further harm.
Politically, we are witnessing a disturbing trend towards an extremist right that is actively seeking to dismantle the inroads that feminists and human rights activists have fought long and hard for. Marginalised communities who are already experiencing increased rates of harm, particularly those from First Nation, LGBTQIA+, CALD and people with disability are at profound risk of further harm where human rights are not universally protected.
Within a context where gender equality has always been far from reach, the reality is that what was built over decades, has in just a handful of years, been dismantled, and we are again fighting on the frontlines for the most basic of human rights.
The incredible advocacy work of the trailblazing feminists that came before us must serve as an important reminder of why, more than ever, we must not be complacent in our advocacy.
Now is the time for us to make a united stand, to mobilise and take action to create a free and just world for all. Because now – more than ever – those at greatest risk of harm are facing extraordinary threats to safety and wellbeing.
We cannot do this alone. We cannot do this in isolation.
The only way forward is together, connected, with feet on the ground demanding collective action from each other, our peers and allies:
In solidarity for the victim survivors. In solidarity for the peacemakers.
In solidarity for the humanitarian workers. In solidarity for the specialist services.
In solidarity for the advocates.
In solidarity for the women, children and those from diverse communities of whom each and every life matters.
It’s back to the grassroots.
Signed:
Julie Oberin, Annie North Women’s Refuge
Kate Wright, Centre Against Sexual Assault Central Victoria
Margaret Augerinos, Centre for Non-Violence
Jeremy Hearne, Sunbury and Cobaw Community Health
Kellie Dunn, Women’s Health Loddon Mallee
1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1. Available from: https://www.un.org/en/about- us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights [Accessed: 3 December 2024]
2 United Nations 2024. ‘One woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by their intimate partner or family member’, Press Release, 25 November. Available from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news- stories/press-release/2024/11/one-woman-or-girl-is-killed-every-10-minutes-by-their-intimate- partner-or-family-member [Accessed: 3 December 2024]
3 United Nations Children’s Fund, 2023. International Classification of Violence against Children, New York, 2023.
4 UN Women 2023. ‘War on women – Proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubles in 2023’, press release, 22 October 2024. Available from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news- stories/press-release/2024/10/war-on-women-women-killed-in-armed-conflicts-double-in- 2023#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20the%20proportion%20of,increased%20by%2050%20per%20ce nt. [Accessed: 9 December 2024]
5 Khatib R, McKee M and Yusuf S 2024. ‘Counting the Dead in Gaza: difficult but essential’, Vol.404(10499), p. 237.
6 Ibid.
7 Victorian Crime Statistics 2024. ‘Family Incidents’. Available from: https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/crime-statistics/latest-victorian-crime-data/family-incidents-2 [accessed: 28 November 2024]
8 Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024. ‘Recorded sexual assaults reach 31-year high”, media release, ABS, Canberra. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/recorded- sexual-assaults-reach-31-year-high [Accessed 9 December 2024]
9 Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023. ‘Personal Safety Survey’, available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release and Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021. ‘Sexual Violence – Victimisation’, 24 August. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/sexual-violence-victimisation [Accessed: 9 December 2024]