International Women’s Day a Time for Evaluation

International Women’s Day a Time for Evaluation as Well as Celebration, Says Women’s Refuge

Women’s Refuge says International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the strength and advancement of women, but also an important opportunity to evaluate our progress.

Denise Reynolds, Kaiwhakahaere for the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges, says New Zealand was once a world leader in the advancement of women’s rights.

“Throughout its thirty-seven year history, Women’s Refuge has been influential in continuing that tradition. We have insisted on social change and advocated strongly for the right of every woman to enjoy safety and freedom within her own home.”

“Today women are finding their voices and demanding change. In 2010 we no longer accept that violence has any place in a woman’s life, or that we should be silent about the issues that allow abuse to continue.”

She says, however, that New Zealand still has a long way to go to realise women’s rights to live free from violence. “One in three New Zealand women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime and last year Women’s Refuge received 52, 739 crisis calls.”

In 2009, New York’s Leitner Centre for International Law and Justice released a report on New Zealand’s efforts to eliminate violence towards women, describing our levels of domestic violence as ‘surprisingly high’ while this year, survivors have begun to speak out strongly on the significant barriers that exist for women attempting to leave abusive relationships.

Ms Reynolds says, “Under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), New Zealand has an international obligation and, indeed, an obligation to its own people, to ensure that women’s freedoms are supported. This means that services must be appropriate, accessible and properly resourced.”

She says, “If we want domestic violence to be a thing of the past, we must face it collectively, in our communities and within our families and whānau. We are accountable for the safety of future generations as well as our own.”

“Women’s stories and perspectives must inform our responses to domestic violence. We can learn from these experiences and be inspired by those who have had the courage to seek a life free from violence and abuse.”

Ms Reynolds says she began today with a celebratory breakfast with colleagues. “We are all passionate about the work we do on behalf of women, so International Women’s Day is particularly significant for us, but we also wanted to acknowledge one another on this day and take the opportunity to celebrate together.”

ENDS