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Women's anti-discrimination committee takes up australia's report, experts praise wide-ranging gender equality programmes; Express Concern about Indigenous Women, Domestic Violence, Asylum-Seekers; Head Of Women's Office Says Country Committee to Building Women's Leadership Participation.

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M2 PRESSWIRE-31 January 2006-UN: Women's anti-discrimination committee takes up australia's report, experts praise wide-ranging gender equality programmes; Express Concern about Indigenous Women, Domestic Violence, Asylum-Seekers; Head Of Women's Office Says Country Committee to Building Women's Leadership Participation(C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:30012006

While praising Australia's wide-ranging gender equality programmes, members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today urged the Government to make sure its initiatives better addressed the unique situation of disabled, indigenous and aboriginal women, boosted its efforts to curb domestic violence and identify and prosecute perpetrators, and provided better protections for refugees and asylum-seekers.

Taking up the combined fourth and fifth reports dealing with Australia's implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Committee expressed concern about protection for trafficked women, rural women and women in same-sex relationships. It was also troubled by Australia's reservations to the Convention and refusal to sign the Optional Protocol under which the Committee could receive complaints from individuals or groups regarding violations of rights protected under the Convention, and initiate inquiries into situations of grave or systematic violations of women's rights.

Introducing the combined reports, Kerry Flanagan, Head of Australia's Office for Women, Department of Family and Community Services, told the Committee that her Office, the Government's focal point for advice on the impact of policies and programmes on women, now had a four-year budget of over $A 98 million -- more than it had ever had before -- and had some 50 staff members.

All Australian governments -- including at the federal level, across six States and two self-governing territories -- were strongly committed to building women's leadership and participation in all walks of life, she said. The number of women in parliaments was the highest it had ever been, ranging between 27 and 43 per cent, including six indigenous women.

Four of its state and territory governments had been led by women and three had had women opposition leaders.

Regarding the Committee's specific concerns about indigenous women, Ms. Flanagan said that there was a huge level of commitment on behalf of the national and local governments to tackle the situation of the country's indigenous people and assist marginalized groups of the population. Indeed, many relevant programmes included an indigenous component, including programmes dealing with domestic violence. She admitted that, while there were no indigenous people at her Office, she, nonetheless, worked closely with the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination.

Indigenous women wanted to have their own voice, but recognized the power of using the mainstream vehicles, such as the Women's Office, to represent them, she added. A high proportion of the indigenous population lived in highly remote, tough-to-reach areas, so the Government sought to implement its programmes in conjunction and consultation with the communities themselves. On the Committee's concern about overrepresentation of indigenous women in prisons, she agreed that the numbers were high. But, they correspond with a high recidivism rate among those women, she added, agreeing the issue needed to be tackled on several levels.

When the discussion turned to the anti-Muslim violence that swept Sydney last month, Matt Minogue, Assistant Secretary, Human Rights Branch Attorney-General's Department, said that while those events were distressing, the general citizenry had responded in a commendable manner. Vincent Biuca, of Australia's Embassy to the United States, said the leaders of the two communities involved had discussed how the situation had arisen and how to prevent similar occurrences in the future. He added that overall policies aimed at boosting community harmony and emphasized that minorities had the same rights as the rest of the population.

On sexual assault and domestic violence, Ms. Flanagan said follow up to a 1996 countrywide survey was now under way to evaluate the results of a decade's worth of programmes aimed at curbing such violence. She also recognized the problem of the low prosecution rate and said that evidence and research testified to the need to educate and train people working in the justice system. Also needed were programmes to raise awareness and work with family members. As for the experts' concerns that some women might lose their homes when they moved into shelters after being abused, she said the Government was actively looking at models under which women stayed at home and men were removed.

Ms. Flanagan said Australia retained its reservations to the Convention regarding paid maternity leave and women in direct combat roles. Still, it had a unique and comparatively generous system in place, under which employees with at least 12 months continuous service with an employer were entitled to a minimum of 52 weeks of shared unpaid leave following their birth of a child. On the Optional Protocol, Mr. Minogue said the Government was concerned over provisions it felt could constitute "a standing invitation" for treaty bodies to visit the country without the consent of national authorities. At the moment, there was no intention to ratify that instrument, he added.

On non-governmental organizations, Gabrielle Burrell, Section Manager, Office for Women, Department of Family and Community Services, informed the experts that when preparing its compliance documents, the Government had sought to assist civic actors in compiling their own "shadow" reports.

Although the Government had taken note of the organizations' comments, it did not include any of that information in its own report.

On refugees and asylum-seekers, Mr. Biuca said that temporary protection visa arrangements had been authorized in 1999 to discourage people who had effective protection elsewhere from making a dangerous voyage to Australia and applying for asylum in Australia. That did not diminish the country's obligations under the refugee Convention, which did not require States parties to provide permanent asylum to refugees -- it only required them to provide interim protection.

Under the temporary protection visa arrangements, unauthorized arrivals to Australia were given a temporary visa of up to three years. Afterwards, permanent or temporary visas could be sought. The country's Prime Minister had recently made a commitment to finalize all existing applications for such visas. Virtually all of some 3,500 applicants had been approved for permanent visas. Australia was not considering removing temporary protection visas at this time.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 31 January, to take of the combined second, third, fourth and fifth report of Mali.

Background

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had before it a combined fourth and fifth periodic reports of Australia (document CEDAW/C/AUL/4-5), which signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in July 1980 and ratified it in July 1983. The country has provided three periodic reports to the Committee, most recently in June 1997. The current combined report covers the period from June 1997 to June 2003 and presents plans for future activities.

Regarding reservations to the Convention, the report states that, at the time the instrument entered into force for Australia, the Commonwealth Government was not in a position to take the measures required by article 11(2)(b) to introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable social benefits throughout the country. It also did not accept the application of the Convention in so far as...

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