Shock Rape Figures Spark Plan for Sex Crimes Court
By Eamonn Duff
A sex crimes court is one of several measures being considered by the State Government after it was presented with horrifying new rape statistics.
The existence of hundreds of previously unreported gang rapes and child sexual assaults has prompted Attorney-General Bob Debus to appoint a special taskforce that would begin work "as soon as possible" to make it easier for rape victims to give evidence.
"A meeting took place a fortnight ago in which it was decided to move forward with plans that will improve the system as far as sexual assault cases are concerned," Mr Debus told The Sun-Herald yesterday.
"The taskforce will begin work in the new year. Some of that work will include looking at existing models overseas to see how they operate."
The NSW sexual assault and court conviction statistics, to be released on Thursday, reveal that 11,000 people contacted NSW Police in the past financial year to report a sexual assault.
This included 63 gang-rape offences and 320 child sexual assaults.
A further 3352 cries for help were received by the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, the state's only 24-hour rape counselling service. The historic reforms would be a first for Australia and were the result of intensive lobbying by the NSW Rape Crisis Centre.
Centre manager Karen Willis, who attended a crisis meeting with Mr Debus, his senior policy advisers and the State Government's law reform section,
said: "We spoke at length about a place where everybody from the judge to the cleaner would be trained to deal specifically within this area; the idea being that victims get treated with greater dignity, respect and, of course, that justice is served."
Ms Willis said the gathering was sparked by statistics, which she argued proved rape victims were being let down more than ever.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report figures show a dramatic increase in the number of sexual assaults reported to police - from
9151 in 2002-03 to about 11,000 to the end of June 2004.
As well as the staggering number of reported gang rapes and child sexual assaults, the NSW Rape Crisis Centre reported 196 adults stepping forward for the first time to admit they were sexually assaulted when they were children. There were 77 people aged 55 and older who reported being raped.
The bureau report also showed 63 people contacted the service believing they had fallen prey to drink spiking.
Ms Willis said: "Sexual assault figures are increasing across the board, but it's impossible to know whether it's the number of incidents that are rising or the number of women deciding to come forward. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics collated the police figures ... we only recently finalised ours.
"When you consider the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that only 20 per cent of rapes get reported, it means we're looking at a potential figure of around 60,000 sexual assaults in NSW in the past year. For that same period, there were just 247 convictions." Ms Willis presented these figures to Mr Debus.
Source: The Sun-Herald -- Sydney -- Sunday November 21 2004
Break the Silence
The Hindu Sunday Magazine - November 21 2004
Violence against women is a brutal reality in many parts of India. ADITI KAPOOR writes about grassroots campaigns in Bundelkhand and stresses the need for politicians to wake up to this issue.
K. BALCHAND: Women need a life of dignity, free from violence.
THE hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee had activists up in arms about "human rights" and capital punishment but no one bothered to raise the issue of women's human rights — a right to a life free from violence.
The media focused on Dhananjoy's fate but not on the fate of lakhs of women who live in the shadow of death every minute of the day, every day. Remember the recent Tehelka expose on husbands who procure false medical certificates to prove their young wives are insane and relegate them to a life full of sorrow and humiliation?
Sanctioned by society
Violence meted out to women in the country is widespread and inhuman; worse, is sanctioned by society. Politicians are as much responsible for this shame as each of us.
Whether it is the Shah Bano case, the cohesiveness across parties on opposing reservation of women in Parliament or lifting the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act following women's rapes, murders and humiliation, politicians hold the key in upholding the rights of women.
And, as the poor women of Chhattarpur district — in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh — will tell you, they have found one rare politician who realises this.
In Chhattarpur, violence against women is not only rampant but is also brutal. Women are shot, burnt, raped and thrown in front of running trains.
Mental torture seems to be almost universal and incessant.
Social indicators are abysmal and female education (about 80 per cent are
illiterate) is almost non-existent. Child marriage is still prevalent. So are illegal second and third marriages, "formalised" on stamp paper by the many lawyers who make a business out of this.
The reputed private law college at Chhattarpur produces at least 20 lawyers every year, many of whom take up court cases pertaining to crimes against women — dowry deaths, rape and maintenance. A 2003 study by Oxfam GB and Sahyogini Trust reveals that between 1989 and 1998, registered court cases alone went up by a whopping 70 per cent! Most of them pertained to rape, and then, suicide.
Interestingly, one of the biggest change agents in the district is a politician — Gayatri Devi, now 75 years of age, lawyer and elected MLA from Bijawar in Chhattarpur during the first assembly elections in 1957.
Her political affiliation and family background gave her the confidence and protection to deal with sensitive issues like violence against women (VAW) in the feudal district. Yet, more than politics, it was her own convictions as an individual that helped her hold steadfast to the contentious issue.
Initiating public action
After all, the fiery Uma Bharti's maiden victory to Lok Sabha in 1989 was from the Khajurao constituency in Chhattarpur. She won from the same seat in successive Parliamentary elections in 1991, 1996 and 1998. Yet, the horrifying violence on women in this region was not raised as a major issue in Parliament in all these years.
It has not been easy to take grassroots action in the feudal and backward region.
When Gayatri Devi first spoke against the local police in her maiden public speech, she was reprimanded by former President, Shankar Dayal Sharma, then a State Minister.
Yet, she continued to commit the same "mistake" and has today motivated a second line of women leaders who not only speak out strongly against VAW but also initiate public action to break the silence. New grassroots institutions today take up different kinds of cases and have even influenced the police department by working closely with it.
Mobilising support
More recently, several NGOs from across 14 districts in the Bundelkhand region have come together under a network called Samaan (meaning "equal") to mobilise public support on VAW.
Indeed, both at the national and international level, our politicians continue to shirk their responsibility with regard to domestic violence.
When India agreed to ratify the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) back in 1993, it had filled violated women with hope.
Yet, the politicians absolved themselves of obligations by not agreeing to two critical articles of CEDAW.
India has registered reservations on article 5 (a), which obliges the government to intervene in private life and eliminate "prejudices and other customary practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women".
It also has reservations on article 16 (1), which requires the state to guarantee relations of equality within marriage and family relations.
Recognised by law:
Ironically, women's equality rights are recognised and even respected in many of India's laws affecting public life.
However, CEDAW clearly brings out the integral connection between equality in private life and equality in public life. CEDAW requires that the state — steered by politicians — should ensure conditions of equality in all aspects of women's lives.
Even the Supreme Court, in 1997, had based its guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace on the provisions of the Indian Constitution and those of CEDAW's to define sexual harassment and give further meaning to this constitutional guarantee.
The going, however, continues to be rough. Political parties, even where they reserve seats for women, are wary of taking up this issue.
Government institutions like the Family Counselling Centres, for instance, are set up in various States by the Central Social Welfare Board to empower women but focuses more on counselling and reconciliation because they are not mandated to give legal aid for divorce or maintenance.
Every woman wants a life of dignity, free from violence. And India can "shine" only when the politics of the mind changes. The coming and going of political parties, or politicians, is incidental. Only spirited politicians can make that real difference. The electorate is still waiting.
Rage out as excuse in killing
By Padraic Murphy
October 05, 2005
MEN who kill in jealous rages will no longer be able to avoid murder convictions by claiming they were provoked, under changes announced by the Victorian Government.
The move was described by Attorney-General Rob Hulls yesterday as the most significant reforms to homicide laws in 30 years. It means men who kill their partners will no longer be able to have a murder charge reduced to manslaughter by claiming that they were provoked.
"If Victoria is to lay claim to a truly just legal system, it cannot condone behaviour that is rife with the stench of male aggression and ownership of women," Mr Hulls said yesterday.
Provocation as a defence to murder has long been criticised by victims and legal groups because it has been used in the past by men who have killed their partners to successfully avoid murder convictions.
"This Government will not support a mechanism that, implicitly, blames the victim for a crime - one that has been relied upon by men who kill partners or ex-partners out of jealousy or anger; by men who kill other men who they believed were making sexual advances towards them and even by men who kill their own daughters because they believe they have dishonoured them," Mr Hulls said.
Jane Ashton, whose sister Julie was killed by her enraged and jealous husband James Ramage, welcomed the reforms.
A Supreme Court jury in November last year acquitted Ramage of murder after agreeing he had been provoked and instead convicted him of manslaughter.
Ms Ashton said more change was still needed in the "chauvinistic" judicial system.
"You have a sister or daughter that's murdered and they're murdered by someone you know and then you feel betrayed by the court system," she told reporters.
"The way the defence QCs behave is quite barbaric."
The move means Victoria will follow Tasmania as the only states to have abolished provocation as a defence.
But high-profile Melbourne broadcaster Phil Cleary, whose sister was murdered in 1987 by a man who served less than four year's jail after using provocation as a defence, said the reforms did not go far enough.
"We need to let judges know that women's names cannot be blackened by defence counsels. Some sort of evidence needs to be deemed inadmissable,"
Mr Cleary said. "Judges need to be put on notice that they can't consider provocation, even at sentencing."
Mr Hulls said under other changes to the Crimes Act, a new offence of defensive homicide would be introduced.
The offence had been specifically designed to deal with women who killed their abusive husbands.
"We recognise a person acting genuinely in the belief his or her conduct was necessary, but who has no reasonable grounds for forming that belief, should not necessarily be charged with or found guilty of murder, but should still be charged with or found guilty of a serious crime," Mr Hulls said.
Other changes to the Crimes Act include increasing the age threshold for infanticide from one to two years, and defining for the first time the law of self-defence.
The changes follow legislative recommendations included in the Victorian Law Reform Commission's Defences to Homicide: Final Report, which was released in November last year.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au