No to Violence submission to Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights focusses on the connection between human rights and ending men’s use of domestic and family violence.
No to Violence recently made a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights in relation to Australia’s Human Rights Framework.
As the peak body for organisations and individuals that work with men who use family violence, our position paper focusses on the connection between human rights and ending men’s use of domestic and family violence.
Domestic and family violence – which disproportionately affects women – are serious human rights violations.
The elimination of domestic and family violence is therefore critical to the full realisation of human rights.
The No to Violence submission highlights the need to recognise in any Human Rights Act the varied and complex experiences of some of our most vulnerable communities. Many people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, and those who are LGBTIQ+ or living with disability already face multiple forms of discrimination and inequality.
These varied experiences of discrimination must be acknowledged by the Australian Human Rights Commission in any Human Rights Act for it to be just, fair and effective.
Any proposed Human Rights Act must incorporate the rights contained in the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), including, for example, a guarantee of gender equality, a general prohibition of discrimination against women, and by extension to the prohibition of violence against women.
