Since writing the post on telling others in November I have been designing posters and putting them up in the city and at Uni. in order to make people more aware of the incidence and impact of sexual assault.
Sometimes when I've been putting the posters up passers-by come up to me and tell me of the abuse which they had endured or efforts they had made against sexual exploitation. Knowing of others experiences makes my efforts seem more worthwhile.
These are some of the posters.
Sexual assault has been recognised as a crime against humanity since The Hague International Tribunal prosecutions after the war in Yugoslavia. However in times when there is no conflict women still experience violence
Women are subject to violence in the family (battering, sexual abuse of female children, dowry related violence, incest
deprivation of food, marital rape, female genital mutilation), to violence in the community (rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, trafficking in women, forced prostitution) and violence by the State (women in detention and rape during times of armed conflict). Preliminary report by Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy The United Nations Commission on Human Rights
A colleague at University told me that she was aware of 13 women who had been raped in 2009 yet only 2 of these women had been able to prosecute the offenders through the court process, this is despite our detailed
laws against sexual crimes which stipulate different levels of sexual assault and their punitive consequences
Australia is a signatory to the
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and also to the
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women but in order to stop violence of all forms, basic Human Rights most be accepted and recognized as the same for everyone, so along with posters against sexual abuse I have also been putting up posters asking for Human Rights for myself and my son.
