Promoting and protecting women’s human rights in Australia

June 18, 2009

WEL is one of 39 organisations that has endorsed a submission newly put to the National Human Rights Consultation currently under way.

The Consultation offers an opportunity to consider not only how, as a society, we treat vulnerable people but also to what extent we are prepared to put in place institutional protections and to eliminate the systemic power imbalances that make people vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment in the first place.

In Australia, as elsewhere, one of the most pervasive power imbalances is between women and men. The struggle to secure for women in Australia a more equal basis of citizenship and opportunity has continued alongside other social justice movements for over a century, with many significant achievements. This submission argues that the proposed introduction of a national instrument to protect human rights has the potential to be another significant step in this process. The submission also draws attention to other ways in which the Federal Government could address human rights abuses and strengthen the position of women, in parallel with the process of developing a national instrument.

The full submission is available here.