Australia unveils plan to stop violence against women and children News
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Australia unveils plan to stop violence against women and children

The Australian government Sunday released the “National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032,” (National Plan) outlining steps to end these forms of violence within one generation. The National Plan was unveiled by the Minster for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth MP and the Minster for Finance, Women and Public Service, and Senator Katy Gallagher.

The purpose of the National Plan is to end all gender-based or gendered violence by 2032. The Department of Social Services outlines that these forms of violence are “a problem of epidemic proportions in Australia.” They continued by stating that:

One in 3 women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and one in 5 has experienced sexual violence. On average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every 10 days. Rates of violence are even higher for certain groups, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. All Australian governments are united in their commitment to addressing the unacceptable rates of violence in our communities.

A separate media release from Rishworth also said that in creating the National Plan:

extensive consultations were held with victim-survivors, advocacy groups, specialist services, researchers, representatives from the health, law and justice sectors, business and community groups, and state and territory governments.

The National Plan has four distinct approaches specifically prevention, early intervention, response, and recovery. The plan will have two phases, the first phase ending in 2026 with a reflective evaluation to inform the second phase of the National Plan. There will be a specific action plan for Aboriginal and Torrens Strait Islander women and children, created by those people to “lead culturally appropriate and trauma-informed efforts to achieve the Closing the Gap target.”

The results of the National Plan will also later be evaluated against data collected from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Criminology and the findings from them will be made available to the public.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.

Former communist countries admitted for EU accession

On April 16, 2003, the 2003 Treaty of Accession was signed by 10 countries, admitting them for European Union (EU) ascension. After Malta and Cyprus, eight of the ten new EU nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were former communist countries. The signing of the treaty in Athens marked the first time that former members of the Soviet Bloc joined the EU.

Learn more about EU expansion from the organization's website.

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