Burnet Institute, 28 May, 2020 Burnet Institute is a member of a consortium of Australian-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academic institutes concerned about the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls globally. The International Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Consortium, which includes Save the...
Disability Support Toolkit for frontline workers – violence and abuse
1800RESPECT, March 2020 The Disability Support Toolkit has resources for front line workers supporting people with disability who have been impacted by violence and abuse. People with disability are 1.8 times more likely to experience violence and abuse, including more varied forms of abuse. (Source: AIHW Report 2019.) They are also less likely, and take longer to reach out for support. This...
COVID-19: A Gender Lens – sexual & reproductive health and gender inequality
UN Population Fund (UNFPA), March 2020 Disease outbreaks affect women and men differently, and pandemics make existing inequalities for women and girls and discrimination of other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities and those in extreme poverty, worse. This needs to be considered, given the different impacts surrounding detection and access to treatment for women and men. Women...
We won’t eradicate FGM if we keep misunderstanding its history (Opinion)
by Sada Mire, The Guardian, Mon 9 Mar 2020 19.00 AEDT Over the last century there have been numerous global resolutions, and FGM is now acknowledged internationally as a human rights violation. It has been criminalised in several western nations, including the UK, and in 19 African countries, FGM carries some sort of penalty. Media campaigns have helped. And grassroots organisations in the west...
FGM researcher says midwives are the frontline of Australia’s fight against the practice
ABC Radio Sydney, 6/2/2020 For Western Sydney University researcher Olayide Ogunsiji, female genital mutilation was so prevalent where she grew up in Nigeria, her own cutting was never questioned. When her daughter was born, there was every chance her child would have also undergone the traumatic practice if not for the education Dr Ogunsiji received in antenatal care. Key points: Female genital...
Female genital cutting (FGC) & cervical screening: A guide for practitioners
CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA & WOMEN’S HEALTH WEST FARREP PROGRAM, First published 2017 The World Health Organization defines female genital cutting (FGC) as ‘all procedures that include partial or total removal of female genital organs or other injury to female genital organs for non-medical reasons’. ‘Female genital mutilation’ is the term used in Australian and Victorian legislation, but the...